The Day Before Christmas at the Zoo

"Twas the day before Christmas, and all through the zoo,

The keepers were bustling, with too much to do.

There were diets to prep, and nest boxes to hay,

All to finish early, and head home Christmas Day."

Santa and his reindeer aren't the only ones in a hurry Christmas Eve.  Every zoo and aquarium that I have ever worked at has been closed on Christmas Day.  Of course, the animals don't particularly care and want to get fed anyway, the ungrateful bums, which puts us in line with police, firefighters, and a host of other folks who have to work on the morning of December 25th.  Unlike a lot of those other guys, we have the option of wrapping up early.

December 24th is the day for getting ready, for making sure that the next day is a short day.  I've got my diets for all of my animals tomorrow already prepared and in the fridge - with the exception of a few which I have learned from experience don't keep super well overnight.  I gave most of my enclosures a second cleaning right before I left.  Some of them can go a day without cleaning tomorrow.  Others will be that much simpler to finish in a hurry.  Enrichment for tomorrow is going to be brief, all stuff that requires very little assembly time.  As kids get a day off from school, so will the animals get a day off from training.

Supplies are stocked up, feeders are topped off, basically anything that can get done in advance, I've done.

Which is kind of silly, upon retrospect.  I actually don't have anything else to do tomorrow.  I'll be celebrating Christmas a few days later. 

So after all this rushing and prepping, I think I might end up... loitering at the zoo.  Once all of my coworkers have zipped out the door, I'll probably stroll around.  It's not often that I have the zoo to myself (in daylight, anyway) and it's a fairly mild winter.  Just a quiet walk around with the animals, just me and them... that might be one of the best Christmas presents to myself that I could ask for.

Merry Christmas (Eve)