| | It's been a very interesting weekend.
Thursday, in my crazed attempt to go to the bathroom after school hours, I tripped over a step on the gym stairwell and fell forward, landing on my palms and knees, and bruising my right knee. Megan had to help me up since I was in a fit of hysterical laughter.
Friday, I went out to Stonestown with Thurston after school (Megan ditched us to get Korean food with her family!), and nearly tripped over a wayward sidewalk crack, but I thankfully caught myself (no thanks to Thurston, of course). I watched Red Eye with him back at my house since I love that movie so much. (:
Saturday, I attended my usual martial arts class and then went to the library with my family. I checked out about fifteen novels that I know I don't have time to read in the near future. The five us of ended up going to USF for a basketball game. USF won against LMS, 88-76, or something along those lines. Eh, basketball games aren't too much of a big deal to me...we went because my dad has connections and it was free (for us). I THINK I'm getting over my cheese issue? Dunno, it's an on-and-off thing...because I was able to painlessly eat some nachos, and I also discovered that I must've burned off my taste buds or something because the jalapeno peppers tasted like nothing. Bleh.
I came home ... and exploded at "Subject P," engaging in a heated, one-hour-and-fifteen-minute discussion with him. He says I should have just been direct to his face instead of bottling all these feelings up...but, how the heck was I supposed to know that he is completely stupid to the bazillion hints that have been dropped like seagull crap all around him?! On that note, he seemed a little more tolerable today...neither of us are acknowledging the existence of the talk, but he appears to be more cautious around me. No big deal; gives me less to get angry over.
Oh, Sunday. I went to the zoo for the first time in a month, and oh, what a welcome back!
I and two others were assigned to big pens...it started off normally; all the animals were still in their enclosures, so the locks on some of the cages were still shut (some animals, like Sassafrass the prehensile-tailed porcupine, are really nice and won't do anything to you while you clean their cage). Mind, the locks are supposed to be open by the adult staff only for a pretty good reason.
Emily, one of my partners, went ahead and fetched the keys, unlocking ALL the cages. While she did this, I was sweeping out Sassafrass's enclosure in between trips to the kitchen to take her food dish and water bowl in. I saw Emily open the cages out of the corner of my eye...but I thought nothing of it. After I swept Sassafrass's floor clean, I moved onto Harley the kinkajou's cage, since it was the next one over.
... Admittedly, I should have considered the fact that it was Emily who unlocked the cage, not any member of the staff. I scanned Harley's enclosure; he was not in plain view, though there were a lot of scattered blankets and three carriers within, and I assumed the cage to be empty. Harrison walked by and we gave each other nods of acknowledgment, and I opened the cage. I stepped inside the cage, shut the door behind me, and... oh, god.
All of a sudden, Harley, who I only recognized as a brown, furry thing, jumped out of nowhere and latched himself onto my left hip/leg area. He was shrieking while biting and clawing at me in a rage; I vainly attempted to get him off me with a push of my left hand, but I didn't want to hurt him even though he was eating away at my leg, because I was both in shock and...hey, it's Harley. Everyone loves Harley (except for me, because even after this attack I can't say I've gotten a really good look at him...so I can't tell what he looks like, and this attack was the closest thing to petting him that I've ever gotten). Plus, it wasn't like he was doing anything wrong, since it was all out of instinct...
Somewhere in the middle of this I let out a peep, and Harrison came back, quickly opened the gate, and ripped Harley off my leg. THANK GOD FOR HIM, I DON'T KNOW WHAT I WOULD HAVE DONE. He put Harley in a separate carrier and told me to sit down...man, I felt so stupid, having stepped into the cage with Harley still in it. I apologized, but Harrison said it wasn't my fault, and Elaine took a look at my wound. She said that Harley's done worse to others...but mine wasn't anything to laugh at.
They said I could rest a bit, but the wound wasn't TOO serious, so I just got back to work and I cleaned Harley's cage. I was a little weary of venturing inside the enclosure a second time...but I remembered that the kinkajou was safely locked in his carrying case. Ugh. I don't think Emily was even aware of her mistake and what had happened--she was dealing with Inti the bobcat's cage about four enclosures over--and when she came to me to tell me that she had to leave early...she made no indication of holding any knowledge of the event.
I hope something like this doesn't happen to anyone else. The wound isn't pretty--I can see exactly where Harley's two front paws clung to my leg as indicated by two medium-sized bruises; there are four marks where he bit me twice (one mark for the upper teeth and one mark for the lower teeth...times two) over two large bruises; the open wounds are red like the color of blood, but none has flowed thus far. My leg hurt the rest of the day yesterday and all day today, so I spent my time hobbling this where and that (it hurts if I bend my knee or bring it up...)...it's constantly hurting, which makes me wonder if the swelling is responsible, but the pain is bearable. I just don't want to amplify it any more. o_o
So, yeah. I got mauled by a kinkajou. Very interesting experience. I don't think there are many people in the world that can say that they've been attacked by one... Hell, there aren't a lot of people who know what a kinkajou is.
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| | Posted 3/3/2008 7:30 PM - 8 Views - 0 eProps - 0 comments
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