Roommates one-shots

Zoo...alysha

Okay so today Emily had a day off so she asked if she could come to work with me, I work at a zoo. I obviously said yes and my boss was fine with it too. I handed her one of my spare blue work hoodies and she put it on over some jeans.

We made our way to my car at 6:30am and began driving down the motor way. "I cant actually believe you wake up this early everyday" she laughed.

"Why?" I asked smirking.
"Because In high school you were always waking up late!" She said smiling.
"What can I say...I'm a changed woman" I Said flipping my sunglasses down for dramatic affect even though there was no sun.

We live in England so even though it's the middle of June the sun only shows up for an hour a day the rest all you can see is the faint shimmer of it behind clouds...sorry bit of a side rant.

Anyway after an hour of driving we made it to work at exactly 7:30am. My boss greeted us at the gates and lead us into the feeding hut.
"Right we have to feed the lions, giraffes, monkeys and finally the tigers" I said holding a clipboard.

Emilys eyes widened.
"We've only just got here!" She said scoffing.
"Well yeah these animals need feeding you know" I giggled leaving.

She followed me to the lion pen where I released the lions.
"Now Emily these lions aren't really aggressive just don't touch them behind the head" I said crouching to one of the younger ones.
"I didn't plan on it" she said fear growing in her voice.

Immediately the leader of the pack made its way to Emily to check out the new intruder. Emily screamed loudly making the lion jump and scaring the cubs. I quickly covered her mouth.
"Emily don't scream!" I scolded.
"I'm sorry but there's a lion two feet away from Me" she said huffing.
"You will scare them and then you will actually get eaten" I said hitting her arm then throwing three chunks of meat around the pen.
Emily turned to run out of the pen quickly before I grabbed her arm and stopped her.

"Don't run." I Said
"Omg just get me out of here!" She yelled
"If you run they'll act as if your prey" I said folding my arms and walking out of the pen.
Emily childishly stuck her tongue out at me.

"Right next the giraffes" I Said sighing.

"This cant be that bad surely" she said.

"Not really all I have to do is let them out, they eat the leaves off the trees" I smiled. She followed me into the dark pen as I opened each cage letting them roam free into their grassy enclosure.

"Isn't keeping them in captivity bad?" Emily blurted.

"Nope this is a rescue zoo where we rescue endangered animals and hurt ones and keep them safe" I said.

"I mean look at the size of this thing" i said pointing at the oversized giraffe pen.

Emily nodded and followed me to feed the monkeys.

The monkeys were already out and all we really had to do was throw a bucket of fruit out to them which was easy enough. We did that then went to Emilys favourite part...the tigers.

"Now Emily stay out of this pen because there's a pregnant tiger and all the others are pretty protective so I don't know how they'll react to a newbie" I Said stepping into the cage.

I hoisted up the chunk of meat for the tigers to climb and get whilst throwing one on the ground for the pregnant first time mum, Diwali.

Then I made my way out of the cage.

"What now?" Emily Asked.

"Actually there's a vet coming in to look at a baby elephant who's not been eating well for days." I Said sighing.

"It's not looking good" I continued looking down.

"Oh" Emily Said sadly.

We made our way into the elephant pen before leading the baby into a smaller pen to making it temporarily unconscious so the vet could treat it.

We lay her on the table as the vet used a scanner to see if they're was something wrong. Sure enough there was. Because this baby elephant was born at another zoo we didn't know how this happened but the poor baby had large amounts of plastic in her stomach. The only explanation from the vet was that she had been being fed fake leaves instead of fresh ones. After being separated from her mother this must've been hard for her.

The vet explained that it was too late as the plastic had already caused major problems and they couldn't do anything about it. They could either let her suffer or put her down. Obviously we had to put her down it wasn't fair to let her keep living like that.

Tears left my eyes as I watched he baby elephant take her last breath as other colleagues wheeled her away.

Emily turned to me looking sad herself. "Does this happen a lot" she said.
"Too much" I answered sighing.
"How can people be so selfish as to hurt animals as if they don't have feelings too?" I Said angrily.
"I know" Emily said.
"Animals should have just as much rights as us" I huffed leaving.

Later that night when we arrived home Emily was pretty shaken up.
"You alright?" I asked taking a seat next to her on the couch.
"Well today I almost got eaten by a lion and witnessed a baby elephant loose it's life, I think it's safe to say I'll stick to my job" she said shaking her head.

"It's for the best" I laughed.