Sneaky Zhoosh

As you may have guessed, cleaning up after animals is a lot of stinky work. But I love my job.

One of the main reasons I love coming to work at 7am is to see sleepy little otter faces.

Every morning, the first animals I feed are always the otters. I head up to Otter Cove at 7:30, turn their lights on, and talk quietly to them. (No one likes to wake up to loud noises and bright lights, right?) It is so fun to see Anang all curled up in her blankets, and Zhoosh sprawled out somewhere in his holding area. Zhoosh is always the first one to get up. He is ready and waiting for his breakfast, while Anang likes to sleep in (who doesn’t?).

Well, this morning was one of those mornings. Anang stayed in bed until 9am!!! And, by 8am, I had fed Zhoosh his entire meal, plus an extra 2/3 can of wet cat food. We have recently switched brands, and Zhoosh LOVES this kind. But, he is a little skinny, so I thought a bit extra would be good for him. He thought the same, and kept wanting more. Well, I didn’t want to over feed him, so I saved the remaining 1/3 of a can for Anang, who was still in bed. I put her fish, carrots, and cat food in her area, next to her bed. She noticed and was up right away; she LOVES eating in bed. She ate all of her fish, (obviously her favorite), but decided to save the cat food and carrots for later.

Then, it was time for them to go on the exhibit. Zhoosh was more than ready. Anang was still in bed. But I let Zhoosh out, and just propped the door open for Anang in case she decided it was time to go out for a swim. Then I went about my business cleaning.

A few minutes later, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a flash of brown. Literally. I thought Anang had gotten up and ran out to exhibit. Oh no, it wasn’t her. When I peeked at her, she was still sound asleep. Then, in the door way I see a little otter face peeking in. Zhoosh very quietly checked Anang to see if she was still sleeping, and then tip toed over to her little pile of cat food, grabbed a bite, and ran out. He came in a total of three times to get it all.

Anang didn’t even notice. Ever.

Here are the three photos I got. (but he was so fast!!!)