My most hated chore at Daktari is dealing with the mice and rats. It smells, and for an hour, you are fist deep in mouse poo-poos, not the chocolate kind.
So, it’s fitting that for our very last chore on our very last Daktari day, Hillary, Danielle, and I face the music and tackle our Mount Olympus of rodents. At the very least, they’re cute critters and don’t so much mind being handled and picked up by their torsos and tails as we sex ’em, water ’em, feed ’em, newspaper ’em, and VIM the crap out, literally, of their boxes.
The three is us set up a rotation, moving through a roomful of stacked enclosures, double checking that every home have water and food, something other staff members neglect, horrifyingly enough, for, even though they are all technically destined to be chump food, they still deserve respect and a proper meal.
Three-quarters of the way through, Andreas comes to investigate a problematic mouse, sizing it up, and to collect croc food. He reaches in to the kill box, pulls out a plump juvenile, walks over to a concrete block, and flips it around from its tail, sending it smashing down to the concrete for sudden death.
Brutal.
But, ’tis the circle of life, and even though Andreas is vegetarian, his lifestyle choice simply won’t do for the crocs. Or, the mongoose. Or, the owls. Or, any carnivore / omnivore / flexitarian.
All in a day’s work.
Where In The World Is Gwendo? 