HappenEnz
Wednesday, August 18th, 2010
Trimble Gilbert is a chief of the Caribou People. Learning @ the zoo.
Yesterday, I had a fantastic adventure at the zoo. Usually, I go at least a couple times a year– some feel this is sadomasochistic, and I usually end up sad for animals locked up in their artificial habitat– but it’s there, and I love to look at animals.
In some cases, like snakes, I rather enjoy the privilege of a glass pane between our interaction, but of course if we were inter-special friends I would probably sympathize a lot more.
But I digress; the zoo was fantastic. Little child-monsters running everywhere. One called me a pretty lady, and I was much more flattered, because he was not a gross slimy grown-up male in a bar or the side of the street looking to get some desperate female attention (…yet?). Seeing matching field-trip shirts (brite neon green), the buddy system in action (holding tiny hands), and eavesdropping on the random-est of conversations (“Mommy, when do you pay rent?)”, it was as much as a people-watching day as it was for observing wild creatures dumbed down with heat and the lack of wilderness survival skills. So! great aspects of the zoo-venture witnessed:
A silver-back gorilla transferring fecal matter from the butt to the mouth;
A pooping brown bear;
A peregrine falcon ripping apart pieces of quail;
A braying donkey;
The reticulated python cage was cleaned, and the caretaker crooning to this giant anaconda of a snake while she scrubbed his pool;
And the best: A child who got her head stuck posing in those painted boards with face-holes. She was a snow leopard. Her parents were pissed, and yelling at her to stop screaming as they tried stuffing her head and ears to the other side. It was perfect.
We also chatted with some zoo employees about giving us free taste tests of the most expensive of frozen treats: DIP ‘N DOTS, but it Was Not Happening.
Too bad.
I also went canoeing recently, and spotted several duck lounges where group preening took place, and a big crane lurking a few feet away from our canoe watched us come and go. Seattle is so sweet. I might be celebrating Portland this weekend, too.
GO PACIFIC NORTH WEST
Graceee
