it felt like she needed a name for us to just kind of encourage her like come on
Fiona like you got this rather than baby hippo or whatever so each of the name
keepers that are able to suggest the name Wendi suggested Fiona like one of
her most striking features of course are her ears which are adorable in kind of
that fluted shape and it instantly reminded us of Shrek and Princess Fiona
if you check out hippos ears they really do look like Shrek ears are ogre ears it
just worked perfectly so Fiona is sort of named after an ogre so Fiona was very
fitting and then especially when you look up the meaning of the word feeling
which is fair and I believe baby's name means lady her fair lady so it all just
it felt it was perfect for her like it just clicked and once we started calling
her it I mean she embodied it almost immediately she didn't have to grow into
that name it fit her very very well like most preemies Fiona's immune system was
not fully developed and was not ready to tackle a big germy nasty world so one of
the biggest focuses that we had was kind of trying to keep her spaces clean and
sterile as possible so that was a constant constant effort on our part in
terms of changing out your shoes changing out your clothing everything
that Fiona came in contact with was disinfected sometimes multiple times a
day so we went through towels and paper towels and Lysol disinfectant wipes and
we disinfected the floors every day and we wipe down oh I found everything as we
didn't want to spread anything to her taking Fiona off of the oxygen was a big
day that was a big moment and really encouraging and part of it just meant
like she could have a little bit more freedom and flexibility she wasn't
tethered to an oxygen tank all the time anymore independent and walking more she
couldn't keep the candle in her nose at this point it was nice to get her off it
I'm not gonna lie because chasing her around with that thing at her face
trying to hold it in and then you know she's fighting you because she doesn't
want to hang because it's annoying and I don't blame her but when I was done we
all breathed this I really quickly even a little a little milestone like being
able to take her off of that was a big victory in a lot of way
because it was one less thing to worry about gave her a little bit more freedom
and it was again a step in the right direction towards being a happy healthy
normal baby is a huge effort it's 24 hour care and 24 hour care for months
and months and months so everyone essentially puts their lives
on hold which is what animal care is all about we didn't want her spending any
time alone and obviously early on she was in such critical condition that we
could not leave her alone so one of our care team staff moved to overnights it
was crazy and awesome who gets to do that
so yeah I didn't I never complained it was a lot it was a lot lack of sleep but
it was a lot of fun it was who gets anything out with the baby it though at
night
so weighing her everyday was pretty pretty critical it's one of the most
valuable pieces of information we had every day anytime you have an animal
even if their mother reared if you have an opportunity to weigh them you can
monitor them as they grow in the beginning it was just picking her up and
putting her on it so it was pretty easy if she was so light at the time I just
put her on the scale and then it got to where it was easy when she would just
walk onto the scale I think the biggest gains that were legitimate gains that we
ever saw were as many as five pounds in a single day and to see her gaining
weight on that kind of a scale was really encouraging and always made us
happy and she had 50 this is really good then she hits a hundred that's really
good you know once she hits 500 you know we're all gonna be excited and we feel
like she's doing better and better every day she was mostly staying healthy she
was doing well with the bottles and they're like cool now we can kind of
focus on growing up a little and becoming a hippo and mostly that meant
focusing on water skills I was really interesting trying to put like pool
noodles underneath her to help her have her legs under her and try and exercise
those muscles I mean standing up as something that hippos should be able to
do within hours and it took her weeks so it was really important as far as
playing with her in the pool to gain her muscle strength because she wasn't able
to walk for so long and was very weakened at the beginning so the pool
definitely is the best way for her to get exercise when she was still using
the noodles we still use the noodles under and I think the first time she put
her face under water we were all just like first-time parents or just like oh
god you're gonna drown no wait he was hit though he's designed to do this I
like knew she was totally fine to go in the water but I was also really nervous
so like let go of her head and let her her nostrils go underwater and then once
she did it she just seemed to have fun and kind of perk up and do really well
we knew at that point that she was strong enough to at least be in there
with support and the fact that we were able to have people there holding her
all the time and we didn't just throw her into a pool and let her go that were
going to be very nervous but the fact that it was managed the way it was
didn't have to be nerves about that she sort of began to thrive a little bit
more once we could get her into water because that's her natural habitat and
so she day one and we got her in the water she was playful she wanted to move
she were out really quickly so she couldn't be in the water for very long
but she wanted to be in the water and she actually would feed better when she
was in the water certainly much more active and just overall her values
starting to look better once we got her in in April and like many children get
on the playground she was just so thrilled and excited to be in the water
it's such a natural thing for hippos and what she was starting to feel better and
getting stronger it was just like I want to play all day every day
so her pools got bigger and bigger as she got bigger and we knew she could
navigate deeper waters blue pool everyone sees in our videos I think if
she could still get in that blue pool she would get in that blue pool she
loved that thing once she was strong enough to be in any pool you know unable
to stand and and handle those depths of you know two feet or so and go up and
down it kind of felt like of course she can do the next thing and she'll need a
bigger pool so that she can practice you know porpoising in and have the space
she needs for her to have the freedom to get in that pool and move around and
just or even just sweep like hit those do they sleep in the water so we would
just sit in there and let her play for as long as she wanted to and then she
would just take a nap on us that's what she would do with mom so she needed to
be a normal hippo and get off of that bed and out of that room and
being up so in the wild you know baby hippo would always be with mom and would
likely be in a bloat with several other hippos they're not solitary animals she
wouldn't be by herself so there was a big emphasis and a focus on having
companionship and always having a buddy they're kind of supervising making sure
she's doing okay and also just keeping her company which
none of us minded it was amazing to see once she kind of started to get the
momentum just how headstrong and how its indestructible she really was as far as
like her personality and stuff I think when she hit about 60 pounds 50 or 60
pounds it was like okay this is getting a little sketchy now we can't keep
picking her up anymore she's got to do this on her own
I know going up the ramp going up and down the ramp was awesome because
eventually she was really hard to pick up after she reached about 80 pounds is
you know unsafe for her and for us to be lifting her into the pool all the time
at night before before we used the ramp in the pool at night I just introduced
her to the ramp just plain flat on the floor just like she'd see it or feel
because they were the bottom of it was kind of sandy or sandpapery
so to get her used to the feel of it underfoot she I would try to walk her
across the ramp just flat on the ground but then that's where that relationship
building comes in because she trusted the people that were around her him
because they were hurt they're encouraging her and telling her it's
okay got this and kind of showing her and guiding her she's smart she figured
it out right away and we were relieved too because then it
meant you know nobody was gonna be blowing their back out trying to lift
down anymore that was one of those moments that was
like such a little mini triumph and it was such a small thing but for her it
was a big deal the first time she walked up a ramp and went into her pool and did
a little mini roll we were ecstatic because she's a hippo and acting just
like a hippo I think a lot of people said that a lot she's gonna be a real
every time she's had a milestone No and we were lucky she innately you
know even though being raised by humans is not ideal she she still had that
hippo which I was pleasantly surprised by six weeks premature like just really
not ready for the world to whatever the world has I can handle it is incredible
because she was six weeks premature I mean he would expect there'd be a lot
more setbacks for her she'd be slower to develop or she did her milestone slower
but she has hit every weight goal and developmental milestone that a normal
hippo calf would have hit from if we estimate what her real birthday should
have been