Airport runs

Sometimes in my job it is requested that I take animals to the airport to be shipped to other zoos. I actually like doing this. It's a nice change from the day to day stuff. As with anything I do, sometimes it doesn't always go smoothly. I took a king vulture to the airport once. They had put her in the crate the night before on account that I needed to take her to be dropped off at the butt crack of dark. Vultures have this annoying habit of regurgitating whatever they ate last as kind of a defence. I think they do it to be mean. I think this because we had a turkey vulture that would do it every time I came around and his aim was pretty good. No matter what you do you can't get that smell out. Ever! This king vulture did her little regurge sometime between the time she was crated and when I came to get her. The whole hospital smelled like vulture vomit! I loaded her into the van and took her on the long drive to the airport. It was cold outside I had forgot my sweatshirt and the van heater didn't work. Thinking about it, the heater not working may have been a blessing. If I had turned it on it might have made the smell much worse. I spent hours driving to our destination gagging from the smell. When I got to the airport the recieveing staff looked at me like I was giving them a 3-headed monster. I apologized for the smell and tried to explain what happened to cause it. As I was driving back, still hot boxed in regurge smell (still to cold to roll down the windows) I thought, at least they have a huge open air loading dock! They could be stuck in here! As far as I know the van still smells. HAHA!


Another memorable trip to the airport was my first. I was dropping of a lemur kid going to another zoo. He was very good the whole trip. Traffic was bad but not horrific. I got to the airport loading dock and went in to give them the necassery paperwork. The lady said "what kind of animal is it?" I said "a lemur." She said "what is that?" I didn't really know what to say. As far as I was concerned a lemur is a lemur. "Well...it's a prosimian." "A what?" "Like a small lesser primate." She looked confused. She said "a monkey?" I knew monkey was a bad word to use if I wanted to get this poor little guy on his flight. So I, in a round about way, lied. "No. He looks more like a fox." "Ok. Open the kennel and let me see." "Um...I can't do that. He will run out and get away. That would be bad." "Well I need to see him." "Can you not see him thru the shade cloth?" "No. And besides I need to check the crate to see what kind of bedding you used." "They used shavings." "What kind?" "I don't know. The kind they always use. Not cedar." "Well, all you are allowed to use to ship is news paper on the bottom." "What would you like me to do? It's a little late for me to be knowing this. Am I going to need to take him all the way back and repackage him?" Long pause. "Well. I'll let it pass this time but let your people know next time I will not be able to let him be shipped." I thanked her like a million times because I had no idea how I would explain if I had to come back with the lemur. We take him out to the loading dock and hand him off to a cranky looking woman. I did not get a good feeling from her. The first lady that was helping was now being super nice. She tells the second lady "Look! It's a lemur!" :) The second lady says "A what?" "A lemur. It looks like a fox." "I need to see inside." I inform her that is not possible. "The lemur will get out." She says to me "Well how do I know you haven't strapped a bomb to the top of the inside of the kennel and are just SAYING you are sending a fox animal to get it on the plane?" Now I'm thinking to myself "I wouldn't sacrifice an animal to blow up a plane! I'm a zoo keeper. I'd smuggle it on in like a babies diaper." (Laugh to myself). Instead I tell her "I wouldn't do that cause it would be wrong." The first lady assures the second that we are known shippers and have done this before. The second lady turns her back to me and whispers something to the first lady that I can't hear and turns back to me. "Wait here." They both leave. They are gone for quite awhile then the second crab apple comes back. "What is it you do for the zoo?" (I am wearing a shirt that says ZOO KEEPER on it) "I'm a zoo keeper." "Write down your name here." I do that and she takes that and the lemur paperwork and leaves again. She comes back several minuets later and tells me she will go ahead and let it go thru. I thank here and get the hell out of there before she changes her mind. Good luck little lemur fox animal. I get back to the zoo to be informed that lady number two had called the zoo to make sure I was who I said I was and that I was really supposed to be delivering an animal. Someone should have clued Lisa in because everyone else was in a meeting and unreachable. Poor Lisa had no idea where I was and that's why lady number two was looking at me like I was all kinds of shady. The lemur got to where he was going and it all worked out. Still, I kinda felt like I was on Punked or something.