I saw a dissection today! The first in my life (if you don’t count eatables like fish, maybe crab and chicken). But the ones I’ve cooked have been neatly cleaned inside out (except for crabs, I cannot understand, how all aunts and grannies in my Mom’s native village handle live crabs with perfect ease), the first time I went to buy chicken by myself when I was in middle school, and saw it cut, I couldn’t eat chicken comfortably for a couple of weeks. But today it was a mouse, farm raised. I’ve been handling a lot of animals - wild mammals (Grey squirrels, flying squirrels), raptors (birds of prey - Hawks, Owls, Ospreys),then the curtest (and only) beaver I have ever seen in my life which cuddles up in your arms like a human baby, and then all those bugs - crickets, beetles, beetles still in larvae stage and whoosh…I hope I’m not spoiling your appetite.
But there was this adult red-tailed hawk that ran into a glass window and broke its wing, its feeding instructions included a rat, Farrah was the animal care tech training me today, and she showed me the whole dissection process, intestines, stomach, liver, lungs, brain, teeth that start from the farthest end of the throat and finally inside the brain. I’m not much of a biology person, and by far the internal organs I’ve seen are a human appendix in my biology lab in primary school. Five seconds into the process, I failed to notice the disgusting/nasty part of the whole process. Five min later when I checked the red tail hawk with its majestic talons that can pierce your skin like knife through butter (of course I was wearing gloves, similar to Dhoni’s gloves -somewhat thick), the hawk had eaten every inch of the rat, I didn’t find anything remaining of my first dissection sample. I then told my mentor, I need some more time to do a dissection myself 
But count on me when I tell you, flying squirrels are the cutest mammals you can feed (you use a syringe and feed them dog formula milk with some other compounds added). It’s a pity I can’t get the pictures, but I’ve a mental image of every animal I’ve handled, from birds like cardinal, to a quail, to a barn owl, a red hailed hawk, animals like a beaver, grey squirrel, flying squirrel then, not to disgust you with crickets and beetles, yeah not very pleasant to deal with insects, but ducks and squirrels LOVE crickets.
Err, did I mention the nightly ceremonial walk by the ducks - made from an open enclosure to an inner cage room- they know the route! Trust me, and my job? usku usku , I mean I’m not speaking Hindi, I get behind their asses and wave my arms to get them out of their enclosure and bingo - left right left towards their safe room for the night.
I think I love animals. More, I love helping those that are injured and need help. Of course, DO NOT try this at home, I was under the supervision of expert volunteers who have been doing this from 14 years. Of course, I have an experience of 40 hours , in the past 5-6 weeks.
Located inside Oak mountain State Park.
Birmingham. Alabama.
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