"A Love Like No Otter" from Aquarium Love Stories

[Music] hello cruzi hey what do I enjoy about coming to work I think it's pretty obvious I get to interact with some amazing animals every day and what I enjoy most is that I really do love them each and every single one of them and every single time I get to meet a new animal that I work with and like yet that's it that's the one I love the most I'm like no I love them all the most it too much there is no honor love and this this my friend is why I love working with sea otters because you got you got to be in it to win it yeah we are I have been working with otters for 18 years my favorite part when I work with otters is that I just find them so fascinating and fun they have a lot of energy and I feel that I can match that very well so when we're training and we're working together bill that they are very alert and ready to go and absolutely they're ready to learn I first met Geno when I was working at the Mystic Aquarium in Connecticut and I was always blown away by by jeana's passion and love for the animals and it really really shows when you see her engaged with a sea otter it's amazing to watch just watch her eyes and and watch how the otter is watching her very very closely she knows those daughters inside meld hello how are you I missed you too I met Cruz when he was two weeks old I was out at Monterey we were taking bits feet and Brighton back home and I happened to be there when the phone call came in for Cruz and his mother unfortunately was killed by a great white shark and so he was a little pup out in the middle of the ocean and he was rescued and I was invested from the first second of hearing that this little pup is coming in and I remember holding him at a two-week-old pup and being asked well do you want him and I was like yeah I'm gonna yeah we're gonna go ahead and take them and then I thought well wait I don't make those decisions we should probably actually ask the aquarium when we got the call we we knew that given the situation there wasn't good options for a home for the sea otter and because of that he was most likely going to be euthanized and we knew that him coming here could present some challenges but at the same time we didn't want to see that happen so we dug deep and we we evaluated our Animal Management Plan and figured it out in the end there was a great decision when I found out that Cruise was coming to Georgia Aquarium I felt I won the lottery period hands down he was coming home I thought I am never leaving this animal this is where I belong is to take care of him for the rest of his life correct come on in here we go hello cruzi it's time time for your session [Music] all right it makes fun hey I really did find that this is my lifelong love even when I was 3 years old I knew I'm gonna work with animals and I'm gonna dedicate my entire life to them and that is where we come in we work with these animals we share the experiences with them and with our guests and other people who want to conserve the species and one of my favorite parts when I work with them and I actually really enjoy watching people watch me working with them thinking I want to be you I want to work with that animal and build that relationship so yeah I'm pretty pretty happy here this is this is a special moment I get to share and with that is where you get that energy from people like I want to do this how can I help [Music] if I could tell you anything what would I tell you [Music] he is by far the most important part of my journey in this career because I got a chance to come along with him from the beginning I met him when he wasn't in a I would say a good place and if I were him I think I would probably have been scared so I want to tell him like I was there the day you came in and I will be with you every day every day because if you need me I'll be there so he needs to know that like I'm never leaving a kid you would never give up I'm sure [Music] you

Channel: Georgia Aquarium

Views: 5,163,906

Rating: 4.9427519 out of 5

Keywords: sea otter, animal care, animal trainer, otter, love story, love, aquarium, loves animals, cute animals, atlanta, georgia, georgia aquarium, marine mammal, husbandry

Id: 4KE_qHZF7pI

Length: 5min 55sec (355 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 15 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/Squrlz4Ever]

I found this short video profile very moving. Hope you guys enjoy it as much as I did.

[u/LordJim11]

I really like otters. Don't see them that often but it's a treat when it happens. But, damn, they are smelly.