TIme to say goodbye

^ O'o and Coho all grown up


^Holding the young bald eagle for it's inspection


^Marion's turn to hold the eagle


^ Janel feeding the bunnies


^More bunnies!


^Mr. Whitenose...our protector!


^Shrike and Ocelot meeting each other for the first time!


^ Marion and Ocelot finishing up swim time


^Kat feeding Wolf


^ The raccoons resting atop their tree fort


^ Celeste and Hannah at the lavender farm


^ Pi in the sky!


^ Ben and Hannah checking out the tide pools at Lime Kiln


^In the garden at British Camp


^Shruti and Jonathan and the gang enjoying some deep-fried-goodness!

So this is my last post (sniff, sniff) and I'm sorry it's taken me so long to finally do it!
I finished my internship last Wed and flew into LA where I spent the weekend with Josh's family and went to his cousin's wedding. It was definitely a shock going from a place with no streetlights to a major metropolitan area!
I was so sad to leave Wolf Hollow, the island, all the animals and the wonderful people I met there! As you can see in the pictures the animals were all growing up, the raccoons have graduated to the big tree fort area, and even some of the harbor seals are about ready to be released! It was so cool to be there and see their progression but it went by so fast that I hardly had time to notice!
Two of the little harbor seals died while I was there and it was really challenging thing to go through. They are the animals that we have the most contact with and they even get names, so to see two of them die felt like even more of a loss than some of the other animals. One of the seals Concho, who was the illegal pickup, left us unexpectedly because we all thought she was going to make it. Little Ocelot though was having a very rough time, but came a long way and we really thought she was improving. All in all, I'm glad I was able to experience wildlife rehab at it best and worst moments because that's what it is like in reality.
One funny thing that I learned while being here is that most of us want to work with animals because we don't want to have to deal with people. This can make for some interesting situations, when you put a whole bunch of us together. We interns actually got along really well, but there were some issues between the staff members that made things a bit awkward at times and ended with one of them deciding to leave. Having people skills is just as important in this line of work, especially because we are constantly interacting with the public, and with out them we wouldn't be able to do our job.
Even through all the craziness, this was still one of the best summers ever, and reaffirms the fact that I want to work with animals for the rest of my life. It was so sad to have to leave but I was really missing all my family and friends so I am so glad to be back! I was so isolated out there! I can't wait to finally be able to call people and reconnect with them, so prepare yourselves...you might be hearing from me soon!
I'm off to San Diego Thursday for my cousin Zach's wedding...woohoo! Family Reunion! So that's it and thanks for reading!
Love, Jana