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Post by Katelynn Meyer on Jun 2, 2008 13:08:34 GMT -5
Katelynn was quickly walking to 'Orca Bay' to start out her day. The sun was barely up, and it was already warm out.
Now running, Katelynn was trying to put up her thick blonde hair. Her rubberband in her mouth, and her two long thin arms working on her hair. "I can't afford being late!" Katelynn mumbled to herself. She was known to arriving late to just about everything, and her job was number one on the list.
Katelynn finally arrived to the back pool, A. Maliki was found at the surface, obviously resting. "Maliki," Katelynn said softly, but loud enough she could hear her from the other side of the pool. Maliki wasn't moving a muscle. "Okay..." Katelynn quietly said, "I guess I'll go get the breakfast and get my wetsuit on, she will for sure be awake by then."
The first stop, the locker room. Katelynn reached into her sweat-shirt pocket and pulled out a piece of paper that included what locker number she was.
She quickly opened up the locker, and inside found her black and white wetsuit on a hanger, a lock with a note taped to the back, a pair of booties, and her new whistle. Katelynn smiled excitedly and grabbed the wetsuit along with the booties. They were a perfect fit. She grabbed her whistle and slammed the locker shut with all her belongings inside.
The kitchen wasn't too far, just about a minute walk away from the locker room. The large kitchen was really cold as well, but felt much better compared to outside. A few large stainless steel buckets were neatley stacked up on the counter top. Katelynn grabbed four buckets and set them on the ground near the huge regrigerator. A white board was next to the refrigerator, with Maliki's name on it. It included how much food she would need to eat for the day. After about twenty minutes of preparing the food, it was time for breakfast.
Maliki was spyhoping at the side of the tank by the time Katelynn finally got outside.
Katelynn smiled, "Good morning!" Maliki clicked loudly, obviously she was hungry. Katelynn stepped into the tank and grabbed one of the twoo buckets she brought out with her. Maliki opened her mouth widely, still making loud clicks. Katelynn smilled and grabbed a handfull of fish and gently tossed them into her mouth.
How much better could this job be? Katelynn thought to herself. I have a best friend who is a killer whale!
After the two buckets were finally gone, Katelynn dived into the deep pool of blue water. Maliki dashed over to her feet and pushed her around the tank. "This has to be the best job ever!" Katelynn said to herself.
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Post by Khris Carrie on Jun 5, 2008 19:20:44 GMT -5
Khris jogged into Orca Bay, panting slightly. Still in a soaking wet suit, she had just pulled herself out of the pool with Echo. It was only the morning, but she had rounds to make.
This morning, she would be observing one of their new trainers, Katelynn Meyer. According to the record that her Uncle had given her, Katelynn was a twenty-five year-old woman from a town Khris had never heard of. She trained Maliki, a fifteen year-old orca female.
Khris was on her way to evaluate Katelynn, explaining the reason she carried a clipboard and pen in her hand. She would observe Katelynn's performance while she interacted with Maliki and how she performed behaviors with her, writing down comments and such. And then she would give her an overall grade on a scale of one to ten. After that, she would give the report to her uncle, who would revise it and observe Katelynn on his own time.
Khris got to Back Pool A and climbed up the stairs to the dock, though she remained hidden on them, only barely showing her eyes. She watched carefully as Katelynn greeted Maliki and gave her breakfast. When she dove into the water, Khris made herself appear.
"Hey there!" she said brightly to Katelynn. "I'm Khris Carrie, the owner's niece. You wouldn't mind if I stayed here and watched your session, would you?"
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Post by Katelynn Meyer on Jun 6, 2008 14:13:03 GMT -5
"Oh! Hello!" Katelynn called back with a warm smile, "No, I don't mind at all!"
After working with Maliki for about a year at a different park, she felt she had full trust of being in the water with her. She had trained her many behaviors, but was going to just begin on a few that took place with herself in the water with Maliki.
Katelynn tapped her left foot once on Maliki's rostrum gentely to tell her to make a left. Maliki followed orders and pushed Katelynn to the side of the tank where she was fed a little bit earlier. A target was placed on the other side of the pool wall. She gently lifted herself out of the water so she could grab it, and dive back in the pool.
Maliki had her mouth open, hoping for a fish or two. "You got lucky! Theres a few left." Katelynn said to Maliki, tossing a few fish into her mouth. Katelynn dived back into the pool with the target in her hand. She surface and slightly slapped the water for Maliki to come. Maliki hesitated a while, but finally came and tapped her rostrum on the target. Katelynn blew her whistle and did a few target practices to get Maliki warmed-up, and used to working with the target again. She wouldn't be starting the new behavior with her today, she didn't want to rush Maliki.
About ten minutes with working with the target, it would be best to get out of the pool, and signal her to do a few bows, just to get some more excersise. Katelynn raised her right hand and pointed two fingers out. Maliki looked at her quickly, took a breath, and dived beneath the surface. On the other side of the pool, Maliki performed a perfect bow, then came right in fron of Katelynn and performed another perfect bow. Katelynn blew her whistle and grabbed the last two fish that remained in the bucket. Maliki surfaced with her mouth open almost as if she was smiling. "Good girl!" she said excitedly as she tossed the fish into her mouth. She signaled her once more to do a corkscrew in the middle of the pool. Maliki was just learning this behavior, so she isn't able to complete the behavior perfectly. She dived once again and shot out of the water like a rocket spinning. Not the behavior she was asked to do. Katelynn didn't blow her whistle as in a good job for this one, instead she would signal her again so she could do the right behavior. Maliki almost got it, but basically did a porpise behavior and trying to spin. It was a start, but Katelynn had a lot of training to do with her.
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Post by Khris Carrie on Jun 6, 2008 23:15:49 GMT -5
"Okay, pretend like I'm not here," Khris returned with a bright smile. She moved to the far side of the dock where she would get a perfect angle of the pair. Whipping out her pen, she was ready to take notes. She inspected Maliki (or what she could see from her angle) with her eyes, looking for any specific markings or scars that she could mark down. When she had them marked, she rested the ball point tip on the paper and watched the water.
She watched as the two performed in the water. Katelynn worked very well with Maliki, and Maliki responded beautifully. The two trusted each other, that was the most obvious to Khris. Though somewhat hesitant in some of her responses, Maliki always came through with flying colors. And Khris observed that even when Maliki was a bit stubborn, Katelynn remained patient and worked with her, she didn't try and take over her.
When the corkscrew behavior was asked for, Khris paid close attention. She knew that this was a hard behavior to grasp, but when done right, it was done beautifully. She cringed slightly when Maliki wound up performing the wrong behavior, but smiled at how Katelynn handled the situation; pretending the wrong behavior had never happened. In the end, Khris observed Maliki half-doing the behavior. But Katelynn was doing splendidly, she wasn't pushing her partner one bit. Khris' Uncle would be very pleased.
Khris walked out back onto the dock, grinning. "That was really good, Katelynn," she said. "And I really liked how you stayed with her, even when she performed the wrong behavior. My Uncle will be very pleased; you have no idea what kind of other people we had applying for training. Some of them were just plain ridiculous." She paused and smiled from Katelynn to Maliki. "But you two, you two are really good together."
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Post by Katelynn Meyer on Jun 8, 2008 0:50:33 GMT -5
"Thank you very much! I was really hoping I was doing okay," Katelynn said and smiled. "Really?! Wow, some people just don't understand that this job is really serious, and not just fun and games." she continued.
Maliki was clicking loudly with her mouth open. She was curling her tongue trying to get some attention, but it wasn't really working. Katelynn pointed to Maliki and slowly moved her finger up. Maliki exhaled and dissapeared underwater.
"Thanks again. It took a lot of patience to train her, she really gets wild at times!" Katelynn chuckled a little. "It would be great to get some more orcas here soon, she would have a lot of fun with them." she said, looking back out at Maliki who was eyeing the two from the other side of the pool. Katelynn smiled and turned back to Khris, "So your the owner's niece right?"
((sorry its so short!))
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Post by Khris Carrie on Jun 8, 2008 11:03:47 GMT -5
"There's no need to thank me," Khris said with a smile. Thank whoever introduced you to Orcas. You're really good." She watched Maliki out of the corner of her eye, and a small smile set across her lips. The large female was adorable, there was no "if, ands, or buts" about it. "You'd never guess how many people apply for the jobs and it just doesn't work. They either can't work with the animal, they want to over power the animal, or they're just not right for the job, y'know?"
When Maliki started to curl her tongue, Khris supressed a laugh and watched Katelynn tell her calmly to stop and back off. When Katelynn started talking, Khris' focus was back to her immediately.
"Like I said, you're good," she replied. "A lot of people can't handle these animals and they think they can. They attempt it and they get hurt, but I doubt you'll have any trouble. You two trust each other, it's obvious." Khris followed Katelynn's gaze and saw Maliki peaking out at the water.
"Yeah, I'm Steve Salks neice," she replied with a smile. "He's a really nice guy, and the only reason I'm allowed to work and train here. He used to own a small little facility that was more focused towards research, and I'd help out there. Then, over the past year or so he's built this place. He passed his old place onto his daughter, Megan, she runs it now." She paused and smiled. "Sorry for that bit of drabble, sometimes I just keep talking, it happens when I meet new people."
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Post by Katelynn Meyer on Jun 8, 2008 22:50:39 GMT -5
"Wow! Your very lucky to have a uncle like that!" Katelynn replied and smiled. "No, don't worry about it! It happens to me some times too! At times once you get me talking, I could never stop!" she laughed a little and took a deep breath. "And you train dolphins, right? I used to train them a few years ago, they are always so spunky and fun to be around." She paused and heard Maliki vocalizing loudly, Katelynn rolled her eyes knowing she was looking for attention and ignored her. Maliki always needed attention. Katelynn turned her attention quickly back to Khris while Maliki continued making clicks.
"Excuse me, just really quickly!" Katelynn said to Khris. She quickly went to the side of the pool where a large ball was floating. She grabbed it and tossed it, hoping it would stop Maliki from interupting. Luckily she stoped, but she didn't seem intrested in the ball.
"Okay! Sorry about that!" Katelynn said, not trying to be rude.
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Post by Khris Carrie on Jun 10, 2008 14:11:34 GMT -5
Khris laughed, completely understanding. "Yup," she replied. "I just get so nervous and all I know to do is just keep talking and it becomes a little bit of a problem." She paused to catch her breath. "There I go," she said with a slight wave of her hand.
"Yes, I do work with the dolphins," she said with a bright smile. "Currently with a two month-old named Echo. I love working with the dolphins, they're always so up and excited. I always wanted to work with Orcas, but I'd be more than a little intimidated by the size difference."
She watched as Katelynn excused herself and then went to a large floating ball on the side. She watched as Maliki silenced herself and when Katelynn returned said, "No problem! I understand the I-must-have-attention bit, a lot of dolphins have that too..."
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Post by Katelynn Meyer on Jun 11, 2008 23:38:40 GMT -5
"Aww! How sweet! I think I heard a little about Echo when I applied here. Yeah, the size difference is major, it was a little hard for me to get used to working with Maliki at first." she rambled on.
"So, I'm just curious are there anymore trainers here, and what other animals do you have here to offer?" Katelynn asked. She smilled and moved her eyes to the corner and noticed Maliki sticking her tongue out at her. Katelynn rolled her eyes and quickly looked back at Khris. She wasn't trying to be rude, it was Maliki who was behaving badly right now, probably just excited to see someone.
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Post by Khris Carrie on Jun 12, 2008 14:49:25 GMT -5
"There's one other trainer," Khris replied, not minding that Katelynn had moved her eyes to Maliki. She understood, the mammals had a mind of there own, and it was best to be kept in check. "Her name's Gretchen and she trains Lucky, a thirty-four year-old male bottlenose dolphin." She paused, thinking of her experience observing Gretchen. "She's nice, and a pretty good trainer. Lucky and her seem to share a good bond."
Khris paused as her wristwatch beeped. It was telling her that it was time to get back to Echo, that she had to hurry up. "Sorry about that," she said quickly, shutting it off. "But we offer posisitions to train seals, sea lions and Belugas, and we might be putting in an Otter section," she replied. "Now, I'm sorry I have to cut-and-run, but that was my time limit, I gotta go feed Echo." She went to step away before she stopped herself in her tracks.
"If you want to come and meet him, you can," she offered. "He's still a little wary with meeting new people, but I've got to get him used to it. I want to start using him in ACL to educate visitors about calves, but he wouldn't go near the edge of the tank when I had a 'mock-crowd' come up to the edge."
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Post by Katelynn Meyer on Jun 13, 2008 13:35:56 GMT -5
"Oh, no! Its deffinetly okay!" Katelynn replied with a smile. "Aww, that would be great to see him! Is it okay if I come by later? I have a little bit of training I have to do with Maliki." She looked over at Maliki who was stickin her tongue out again. "Yeah, he does need to get used to visitors, so I will deffinetly be there!" she continued.
Katelynn smilled and signaled Maliki to go retrieve any random toy in the pool, still paying full attention to what Khris was going to say next.
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Post by Khris Carrie on Jun 15, 2008 19:48:08 GMT -5
"Well, stop by anytime you want!" Khris said with a smile, starting to walk backwards. "Believe me, I'll be there. And if not, then I'll be there in any bit of a five minute time range. I can hardly leave the little guy." She shrugged and smiled, showing that she didn't mind constantly being with Echo.
"See ya' soon, Katelynn," she added before just about leaving. She then looked to Maliki and waved. "G'bye Maliki!" She tossed Katelynn one last smile before turning and jogging away.
OoC: Sorry it was short, and a late reply. This weekend's been hectic!
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