A San Francisco Zoo Crime PLUS

The link to the right will take you to a one stop synopsis for all my SFZoo related sites, including A San Francisco Zoo Crime, which details the saga about the Zoo revoking the Memberships of myself and my friend Lee.

the end

i am sad to report that the bear birthday party was the last time lee and i will be making enrichment toys for our zoo friends.

the current carnivore (cats and bears) curator (not keepers) has recently created unnecessary obstacles that have made it impossible to continue. one of the things she recently said was, "i have no interest in celebrating birthdays." for me, this is a completely disrespectful statement regarding acknowledging and celebrating not only the lives of these wonderful animals, but for those without which none of the zoo staff would have a job. who doesn't like birthdays? miserable people, that's who.

each time we had enrichment "toy" day, visitors were drawn to it. people love seeing the animals have fun. unfortunately the zoo management see's no value in such activity. the animals are given daily enrichment in a variety of different forms, but seemed to look forward to saturdays when we would arrive with toys! saturday toy days became known to regular visitors who like us and the keepers, got great joy out of seeing the animals have fun with this type of enrichment, which the lion house keeper calls "high yield" enrichment. enrichment we create brought excitement with different shapes and color stimulation and creates an energy level much like in the wild. who would want to take that away from these animals? miserable people, that's who.

it saddens both of us, as this was something we found great joy in doing for our zoo friends. for me, it was incredible to see a big cat or bear playing with something i made. seeing little annie bear carry one of my toys to her bed and add it to her nest is beyond words. the joy that it brought to their day is priceless. to see animals smile like they all have done while playing with enrichment toys we've made makes me cry.

thank you to everyone who enjoyed this blog and to those who came out to join the fun in person.

bear birthday party!

a five bear birthday party! circumstances out of our control caused us to sadly miss getting to make special enrichment toys for all the bears on their actual birthdays ;( wishbone turned 24 on october 25th, pike 28 on november 25th, ulu reached a milestone 30! (read her story listed in the related sites post) on december 19th and the grizzly sisters turned 8 on january 1st! ... I'm happy to report that was have finally commenced having a grotto-wide bear party! these wonderful friends didn't care that the celebration of their life was belated, they had a great time playing with all their birthday toys! ... ... all the bears partied with three tier bday cakes with their ages at the top, made of boxes assembled and reinforced with paper mache, mache balls and party bags! ... pictured: cakes by kim. (more toy pix coming soon) 

see photos of all the fun here:
grizzly girls, kiona and kachina!

http://gooberssfzoofriends.shutterfly.com/5627
polar bear, pike!
http://gooberssfzoofriends.shutterfly.com/5538
andean bear, wishbone!
http://gooberssfzoofriends.shutterfly.com/5413
polar bear, ulu!
http://gooberssfzoofriends.shutterfly.com/5378

you can also read about ulu's milestone here:
bearbirthdays.blogspot.com

a winters ball!

winter themed enrichment toys by lee! the big cats got these on christmas! ... pictured: mache balls by lee! 

 see all the fun in photos here:  http://gooberssfzoofriends.shutterfly.com/4879

grapevines and owls

lee created some fun fall themed enrichment toys for the cats. she called them grapevines and owls ! ... pictured: toys by lee, padang, tunya, sukari, leanne, amanzi, amanzi, jahari.

padang's party!

padang celebrated a milestone birthday on november 29th, when she turned 21 yrs old! she is believed to be the oldest living tiger of any species in a north american zoo! padang and her cat house-mates all partied with toys in the pink and purple princess theme in her honor! padang got an opened ended three tier birthday cake, two mache bowls, one inscribed "princess" and the other "birthday girl", and two shortie party bags, one tiger striped and the other with a tiara. all her friends got tiger striped party bags, polka dot towers, and mache balls. ... pictured: padang, padang, padang, padang, amanzi, jahari, leanne, tunya, sukari.

read more about padang here:

http://tigerbirthday.blogspot.com

see more photos of the fun here:

http://padangsparty.shutterfly.com

heads in the grass!

halloween month fun continued with head week. our idea was to have just heads in the grass looking like they were emerging from the ground! we made enough so all the lions and leanne would have two. padang had her bowls painted with bats to keep in theme. there were also bat themed mini tri-boxes with bats for the snow leopards, fishing cats or as they liked. was great fun for all the cats! they even got bonus jackos that were still left!

pictured: mummy heads and bat tri-boxes by kim, jahari, jahari, amanzi, tunya, sukari, leanne, leanne, leanne, leanne, padang, padang, ming wah

bears love dots!

i made some polka dot towers for the bears. luckily i ran into a keeper as i was heading to bears and he put a few of them out that day! ... pike got two! both lined with honey, one with added acacia branch, and the other with added fish, was set up on a branch. she went right for the lower one and the worked on it for a bit before going to investigate the higher one. after three looks, she decided to just wait for the treats to slip out. when i left the fish were peeking out, but she had licked all the honey off the ground! ... wishbone had his set in a dangling acacia branch, which he promptly grabbed down and carried off to bed! annie did this once before with something i made (video of it on my youtube channel). they like having their snacks in bed and adding the wrapper to their bedding! soooo cute! ... pictured: wishbone, wishbone, wishbone, pike, pike, pike.

see more photos from the fun here:

http://gooberssfzoofriends.shutterfly.com/3736

jacko extravaganzo continues!

jackos made their way to the yards mid week and lucky me, i got to see! i love the pic of amanzi laughing! notice that lee painted eyes like jahari's on the pumpkin he went to? miss leanne always seems to get her head stuck lol! ... pictured: jahari, jahari, amanzi, amanzi, amanzi, leanne, leanne.

jack o' lantern bonanza!

our idea for the first saturday in october was to have a bunch of jackos in the yards. there were other things going on that day, so ming wah was the only one to take part in the bonanza! she loved her jack o' lantern! ... pictured: toys by kim, toys by lee, ming wah.