Today our final service project was at the Hope Zoo in Kingston. We were divided into three groups: there were people who painted the curbs yellow, and people who watered plants and trees, and the most exciting part in my opinion, people who worked along side the zookeepers to feed and clean animal habitats! I have wanted to be a zookeeper for most of my life, so I was ecstatic to be able to work with the animals.
There were six of us in the animal group. We worked with owls, ostriches, snakes, and my favorite, parrots. They divided us into groups of two and I went to the bird enclosure and the zookeeper who was with us, Shawn, told Jadian and I to wash out all of the birds’ food, water, and bath bowls. While we were doing that, he cleaned the bird areas. After all of the bowls were washed, Shawn said that we were free to look around and go into any of the bird habits and visit the birds. I hung out with fancy pigeons that ranged in color and pattern immensely, vibrant dinosaur-looking birds, and lovebirds.
And the best thing was I got to work with my favorite animal, blue and gold macaws! Those were some cool birds, as soon as I entered the space, a macaw perched on the branch croaked out a friendly “hello” and I said “hello parrot” and we became friends. There were three other macaws in there too, but they ignored us. I talked with the keeper for a little while because he was in the room with me mopping out the bottom of the enclosure. He was cool and we talked about the birds mostly. Later, I went into a room and there were no birds, but there was this adorable little pig resting. I left and asked the keeper if I could go inside. He said yes, but mentioned that the pig was aggressive and warned me to stay in the door. When I walked in, the pig looked at me. He did not charge or anything, but eventually, he started grunting and looking agitated so I left before he could attack. Afterwards, I walked around the zoo and just looked at the other animals. That was cool; I really liked the squirrel monkeys. They were so friendly! They just came right up to me!
After we left the zoo we went to Devon house for a quick visit. The highlight of Devon house was the ice cream. It was the best ice cream that I have ever had in my life! I got a cone with a double scoop, rum raisin and pineapple. Working at the zoo for a day was an amazing experience; it was actually pretty close to how I thought it would be. In the morning keepers chopped up pounds and pounds of fruits and vegetables and took them in buckets to go for feeding time and they cleaned out the animal habitats like I knew that they would have to. But I am glad that it was like I imagined, I am grateful that I was able to fulfill a childhood dream of working at the zoo, even if it was just for today.
Abigail, 17, Parkdale High School