There was never a dull moment at the zoo...
One day when a couple of the deer charged their fence once too many times, Richard, Dave's friend from the next farm (and an excellent marksman) was brought in to stock up the freezers with fresh meat for the lions... A couple of gunshots later I was being called up to the pit to give him a hand skinning the deer!
Whether it was down to old caveman instincts or not, I was strangely excited about giving this a try and there was a lot more skill, and a lot less blood, involved as it turned out. Lise even gave it a try but the feel of the still warm flesh through her plastic gloves put her off after a minute or two.
After a few minutes it was done and after a short anatomy lesson from Richard to point out which cut of steak was where, a couple of careful incisions later we had a beautiful piece of eye fillet for that night's dinner! Although Annalisa wasn't as pleased as I thought she'd be when I held it out to her, that night we all agreed venison was delicious.
The zoo was also popular with group visits and over the next couple of weeks we welcomed several school trips and OAP days out. After preparing food boxes for the 160 8 year olds, parents and teachers to feed to the animals on their way round, my next job was to get Angel the dingo out of her enclosure and walk her around the zoo with the kids. I was nervous at first, as she was a pure breed dingo - pretty dangerous in my mind - but she was the most dosile, beautiful creature, more like a friendly dog than a wild animal. The kids loved stroking her and were fighting over who could walk with her - despite two incredible white lions, Angel was undoubtedly the star attraction whenever lots of visitors came. She was always well behaved and I enjoyed walking her so I always took her out at weekends to show the crowds at the lion feeding, whilst Lise was the beautiful face behind the reception to greet all the visitors.
We also had a group of teenagers come to the zoo, who were part of a council initiative to help problem children who'd been kicked out of school. They were all so well behaved the whole time and really enjoyed themselves, but we'll always remember their trip for one incident with Basil the camel...
The camels were a nightmare to feed so we always gave people plastic spades to put food on for them and discouraged them from handfeeding. They were so eager to get the food that it wasn't uncommon for Basil and Cybil to snatch the spade off people from time to time. I was literally in the middle of explaining this to one of the kids when we heard a scream and turned around to see one of the smaller boys with his arm, as far as his elbow, in Basil's mouth!!! He struggled to pull it out and it was like something out of a cartoon sketch when finally Basil's lips let go and the boy held his arm out with slobber running from his hand to his elbow, and driall the way down to the floor!!! His mates all thought it was hilarious, as did we, and after the shock had passed the kid saw the funny side too. Camels only have teeth on one side of their mouth so he didn't bite him, just gave his arm and big, sloppy kiss really. That'll teach him for not listening to us anyway!