Claire just called to say she arrived safely in Dallas for her next animal adventure. This time it will be three weeks of training and preparation for the bird show at the Texas State Fair, followed by working at the fair itself for another three weeks. In bird training circles, this is the creme de la creme in North America. She will be an intern, but is housed in a shared hotel suite (with someone she knows from school), complete with kitchen facilities. Not much slack time already -- she starts work at 7:15 tomorrow morning.
Her final week at Toronto Zoo was several days in the Americas section, where she got to pat a jaguar and clean the alligator cage -- while the alligator was in it!