Day 3: Opossums Opossums Opossums

May 10th, 6:30 PM CDT

Try saying that fast 3 times! :) Hieu gave up.

Today was the first day I worked for 8 hours straight. Although it sounds like a long day, the number of tasks we had to do to care for our ~200 animals kept us busy, and time went by quickly. Instead of focusing on birds like usual, I spent most of today in the opossum room with our technicians. So far, I have learned to make opossum food for juveniles and sub-adults. During that process, I bonded with a new volunteer while we filled up their water bowls and prepped their food. It was incredibly tedious and it took so long because we had over 100 opossums and countless cages! I also helped one of our coordinators weigh the opossums, and some became sub-adults after gaining enough weight (more than 300 grams)! Then, I also spent some time with smaller opossums, helping technicians feed them through tubes and getting some of them to start lapping (which simply means to start eating by themselves instead of us having to tube them to get the formula in).

I'm very proud of myself for keeping the same energy for eight hours straight. I honestly thought I was going to get lazy by the fourth hour. However, since I was never free, there was no time to BE lazy! Plus, the animals were entertaining, even if I had nothing to do. I'm really glad that I'm fortunate enough to gain this experience. It really sets in stone the fact that I am genuinely passionate about this and want to turn my interest in wildlife into a more professional path. Seeing the technicians work and help rehabilitate injured animals to return them to the wild is such a rewarding experience knowing I assisted them in that process as well.

Hours today: 8

Total hours: 22