youcare. wecare. akaricare.
Thursday, 1 June 2017
Residents and staff were delighted when Susan, the Education Officer at The Welsh Mountain Zoo, came to Cartrefle to share some of her lovely little friends and tell us some interesting facts about them. She also played a game of “can you guess the artefact?”, which was great fun!
Residents loved seeing Albus the lop-eared black rabbit again. He even seemed to remember us, and was more than happy to give everyone a cuddle, despite the hot weather! Staff also enjoyed giving him cuddles and we had to check that he had been returned at the end of the visit! One of our residents loved the feel of Albus’s coat and commented on how soft it was. She even asked if we could keep him.
We met Spike the Tortoise, who was about five years old. He was very well behaved and we found his shell fascinating. It had raised spiky bits and the feel was so smooth and cool that everyone enjoyed saying hello to him when he popped out. Spike liked to hold on to people’s fingers with his front feet. Susan explained how, when they are young like Spike, this is ok, but as they get older and bigger it’s a bit more painful.
The collective of princess Fancy Mice was next out to say hello and one resident was quite shocked by the appearance of this lovely little mouse. Named after Disney characters, Princess Merida and Jasmine are actually fancy rats – yes, there is such a thing! They come in assorted colours and are tame. These two were so friendly that they just sat in our hands, loving all the attention.
What made all this even better was that we had relatives visiting at the same time. One lady commented on how great it was to see her Mum so animated around the animals. Everyone was eager to see more and have a cuddle. We did have one resident who was not so pleased to see the mice up close, but was happy to look from a safe distance!
We had great fun guessing what the artefacts were that Susan brought with her: ‘Can you guess what this is?’ was the cry!
I was convinced it was a very old kidney, and residents thought it was a seashell. It was hard and we were quite convinced it was from the sea. It turned out to be the ear bone from a whale! So we were on the right track.
Ok round 2 – what is this? We thought it might be a rack of ribs, or a fossil, or a spine, but it turned out to be an elephant tooth! They have either four or six, and as they grow they gradually wear away. More are ready, but once the plate is finished, that’s it. Fascinating!
Everyone expressed a huge thank you to Susan and her wealth of information and patience. It was a really great visit, enjoyed by all.
