Falling into a routine

I have completed my first two weeks at the shelter and I'm starting to fall into a routine, which is nice. I'm also finally over the jet lag, so not falling asleep by four in the afternoon, which is extremely helpful when it comes to afternoon feeding. Due to there not being any bears right now, there isn't a whole lot going on at the shelter, so apart from feeding the animals that are currently here, a lot of the work has been clearing out overgrown areas of land for enclosures and hospital pens to be built in, ready for the autumn and winter where there is suspected to be an increase in admitted animals.

I was talking to Angelika earlier in the week about the lack of bears at the shelter. Just a few months ago there was 34 bears ready to be released here. The lack of bears is very bittersweet though. On one hand It is a good sign that there are no bears, as it means that the cubs that did survive the winter and the disease that is circulating B.C right now are currently healthy and with their mothers and aren't in need of the shelter's help. However having no bears around means the shelter is abnormally quiet right now, which seems strange to the people who work here full time as according to them this place is usually extremely busy, and more than a little bit chaotic at times.

There is still plenty to be done though and one of my favourite tasks of the past two weeks has been feeding the baby moose. They are still quite  young so are being bottle fed milk alongside their fruit and vegetables. Although they are only two months old they are already quite big and extremely strong, and can be very pushy if you don't give them their bottles straight away. I had to learn this the hard way when I hesitated and ended up on the receiving end of a very slobbery moose kiss to the cheek!

I have also been learning how to drive the four wheeler, which is like a large quad bike. It isn't difficult, however I have never driven anything before so it was challenging at first and I was a bit terrified of driving into a ditch or crashing into a building. Luckily that hasn't happened yet, and hopefully it never will, although Kim (another volunteer) and I had a close call yesterday when we went on a nature walk. A bear had been spotted up in the hay field so we took the four wheeler up there to have a look. However because the grass was so long it was hard to see where the path was and Kim drove us straight into a ditch and almost turned the quad over, but we managed to save it before that happened. We walked around the forest for around an hour and spotted many field signs of recent bear activity, such as fur tufts on the fences and claw marks on the trees, but no visual on the bear yet.

This weekend has been the annual fall fair in Smithers. It is comparable to the county fairs we have in the UK, however the focus is more on horses. They have many competitions and judges drive in to present ribbons in a whole variety of riding and horsemanship competitions. I got to watch the owners of the shelter and many of the kids here on summer camp show and the shelter won a whole bunch of ribbons, including one champion and one reserve champion, that gives them an extremely good reputation for their horse breeding. I also learnt that once fall fair is over  we will be driving to Prince George to release the black fox that arrived here a little while before I arrived. Prince George is "only four hours away" as Angelika put it. To me four hours is a long drive, it only takes me three to drive to university. However the Province is so large that when they released the bears earlier in the year sometimes they were driving ten to fourteen hours each way to ensure they were released where they were found. So relatively speaking a town four hours away here is local, which I find very weird.