Kisumu!

     Jambo! I just returned from a 5 day trip to Kisumu (the city where Obama's family actually comes from!) to help with a vasectomy on a lion!  The lion was in a sanctuary there, and they had wanted to put him in a cage with 2 female lions for company, but didn't want any little baby lions resulting from this... haha It was crazy to see surgery on such a large, wild animal!  First the vet had to dart the lion and once he was fully asleep, more anesthesia was administered.  I didn't get to dart the lion myself, but here is a picture of me with the dart gun just for fun :) haha 

     Then the lion was placed on a stretcher and lifted onto a wooden table (it took about 9 men to lift him up!). The lion was placed on his back, the area cleaned, shaved, and sterlized, and then snip snip! 

    
     The whole surgery took about 2 hours and they constantly monitored the lion to make sure he didn't wake up (that would have been quite eventful! haha).  Here I was just lifting up the blanket that was over his head to make sure he was still asleep...

     In the end everything was quite successful and in about 7 weeks, after he has fully healed, the lion will join his 2 new female friends :)  So all in all this has definitely been the highlight of my trip so far!  I feel so lucky to have had the opportunity to see surgery on a lion!  What an experience.

    In other news, the day before I left for Kisumu I had two very neat experiences at the animal orphanage where I am based back in Nairobi.  First, I had the opportunity to go in to the cage with the adult cheetahs and "cuddle" as they call it.  These cheetahs are extremely well socialized since they were brought in as tiny little cubs, and act just like giant house cats!  They were purring and licking me!  I have also bonded more with my little baby baboon pal and he has begun to affectionately "groom" me whenever I come by.  He keeps trying to pick off my freckles thinking they are bugs or something haha... kind of offensive, but hey, it's a baby baboon!  I feel pretty honored to have been selected as his "grooming" partner!