In a nut shell, it is absolutely amazing. Every day when I'm at work, I'm in disbelief that this is actually happening. I love every single moment! Ok, maybe not the hours on end I spend bucketing fish and cleaning and picking off fish scales off of the counter tops..but the few moments I get to spend with the animals every day makes it all worth it.
Basically right now I'm learning the ins and outs of animal training at Discovery Cove. I've been set up with an awesome mentor (whose name is also Kelly, spelled differently, obviously..but it's still a little confusing..haha). She's in charge of getting me checked off on all my responsibilities. In a few weeks I'll get checked off on being the time keeper during interactions. For this I have to know all 18 of my pool's dolphins' names and how to tell all of them apart...which surprisingly, I already know all of them but 3 or 4. We've got some little one and two year olds who look exactly alike :P
The cool thing though is that my mentor already has me shadowing dolphin interactions. I've found myself thriving as I get to interact with guests and watch exactly what I'll be doing in a couple of months. I feel like I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be :) I'm so thankful that God has allowed me to have a career that gives me so much joy.
This week and next I get to work in a lovely place called the fish house :) Everyone always has this perception that animal training is a glorious profession, that we just get to play and swim with dolphins all day long. Well who do you think prepares their food and cleans everything people? That's right, that's us too. This job is the hardest I've ever worked in my life. And it involves more manual labor than you'd ever know from the outside. First of all, fish house shifts start at 4am..yep. Hours before the sun has even risen. Basically, all the fish comes to us frozen and we have to break it out, thaw it, and separate it into buckets for the day. And fish can be gross and can carry all kinds of bacteria so it has to be fresh and kept iced to ensure the health of our animals...that's also where the cleaning comes in hand. Non stop cleaning alllll day! My hands are swollen and sore from all the bucket carrying and scrubbing. I'm not trying to complain, I'm just trying to show that this job isn't as glorious as it seems. So if you love dolphins, but hate manual labor...then just come see us as a guest..you probably don't want to be a trainer :)
Long story short ( guess I didn't really make it short did I? hehe) The past couple weeks have been incredibly challenging, but I love it so much. Hopefully more updates will be coming soon.
And I forgot to mention that Hutch is in my pool :) He obviously doesn't remember me because he's a busy famous dolphin and meets thousands of people each year, but still, I think we've made a connection. Hehe.
Thanks for reading friends. Until next time.
Kelli
