This post is a guest blog by Curiodyssey’s 2014 Keeper Apprentice, Angela Krall

Three years ago, I was finishing up my Bachelor’s Degree at a small school in Wisconsin, expecting to be accepted into veterinary school and move into the next stage in my life. Then I was hit with the hard truth: veterinary school is crazy competitive! I completed my first round of interviews, but I did not have enough experience to be admitted into a program.

My solution to this was to get an internship in order to gain more animal care experience. I spent the summer after college graduation in North Carolina at a small zoo. I loved it! I got to work with amazing animals every day, build relationships with people from around the world, and create bonds with tigers, lions and bears. Sure it was really hard, dirty and sweaty, but I was hooked. Two years later I was working at an exotic wildlife sanctuary in Nevada when a new intern showed up. She told me about her hometown of San Jose, California and a small facility about an hour away called CuriOdyssey.  She had grown up going there on school trips, and she told me there was an apprentice position open there. So I applied.
Four months later, I received the email accepting me into the program at CuriOdyssey. I looked forward to a whole year working with species I’d never even heard of (what the heck is a ring-tailed cacomistle?), expanding my skills as an actual animal keeper and living in sunny California.

My first day at CuriOdyssey I met Animal Keeper Megan. I left that night with new names and facts swirling in my head and spent time at home studying so I wouldn’t look like a fool the next day. Soon after that I met the rest of the team of animal keepers, Jen, Rachael, Kelli, Uni, Nikii and Mel.  The first few weeks flew by with the help of this amazing team of women. They taught me the finer points of working with small creatures compared to the large carnivores I had worked with before. There did, however, seem to be a universal rule that most animals – big or small, cuddly or scaly – like to sit in boxes.
At CuriOdyssey I learned that education is very important to me, and the team of animal keepers educated me about how to educate others. Giving tours like I had in my past positions was one thing, but learning and presenting five different theater shows, as well as knowing enough interesting information about every animal on-site to give presentations and demonstrations was an entirely different story.  For example – did you know that otters, badgers and ferrets are all related? Or that snakes have a specially shaped quadrate bone in their jaw that allows them to eat something twice the size of their head? Passing on knowledge like that to the people around me made me really happy; I felt like I’d done something to help the world.

It’s now been a year since I started, and I can’t imagine being anywhere else. CuriOdyssey is where I have grown into who I am not only as a zookeeper but as a person. Here I learned to maintain a positive attitude and to be patient. I learned not to sweat the small stuff. I learned when to speak up and be the voice for an animal that doesn’t have one. I learned to be creative, and that zip ties and duct tape can fix almost anything. I learned figure things out on my own. Most of all I learned that I’m doing all right. No matter how dirty I got, or that I didn’t have time to train a rat, I learned that there’s always tomorrow. I gave it my all, did my best and got something done. And if all else fails, there’s always an adorable animal to hang out with. And I’ve learned that those animals and these relationships are what make everything I do worth it.

-post and photos by Angela Krall