Today marked the last day of my internship here at the Caldwell Zoo and it was bittersweet. Yesterday I had the insane opportunity to paint with our three female African elephants, Rolinda, Tanya, and Binti, and today I spent the day running through my usual routine and saying my good-byes.

The cheetahs were strangely adorable (trust me, usually they hiss and spit and carry on like they want to gut you), rolling around on the ground and cleaning each others' faces. I spent some quality time with the rhinos, petting and scratching them and nearly making Kizuri fall asleep standing up (she closed her eyes and was in rhino heaven while being rubbed). I threw produce to Binti during the elephant presentation and OF COURSE I spent a majority of my day kissing Possum and baby-talking all of the giraffes.

It has been one crazy, hot, dirty, and fantastic experience; I've learned so much (i.e. perfected the art of poop-scooping and trained giraffes) and will miss the animals and people so much!