Zoo Story

Yesterday we went to the zoo. We had special passes to go behind the scenes. First we looked at baby terrapin turtles who had hatched at the zoo after their mother's eggs were taken out posthumously by a wildlife expert of some sort. She had been run over by a car somewhere in New Jersey.

We also got to look at some zebras up close, but zebras get frightened by looking at "two-headed" people (John carrying Will) so John had to whiz past the zebras hoping they wouldn't see him/Will. The one "dominant female" zebra always has to nurture all the other zebras, making sure everything is safe for them, no predators around, and so forth. Why don't dominant males do that? Another thing, if the typical zebra herd has one male and six females, what are all the other males doing?

It was frightfully cold, and Will, who weights 38 lbs., insisted on being carried the whole time, so things were not always as enjoyable as one might have wished. But Will did greatly enjoy seeing the huge silverback gorilla pee in the cage and then step in it. The gorilla didn't actually didn't step in his pee, but he walked so nonchalantly close to it that Will thought he did. And what with Will being in the mood he was in, we were not about to correct him.

Last time we went to the zoo, the hippo pooped, and we were appropriately placed to have an excellent view. This time the hippo plunged into his pool, causing huge waves, I was going to say a tsunami, but I think not.

Jack didn't want to leave and pouted quite dramatically. His pace going back to the car was erratic, because he couldn't decide whether to run ahead and annoy us or lag behind and annoy us, so he did some of both. The combination was not in the end as annoying as either one would have been if practiced consistently, which annoyed him.

Sometimes I really don't feel like going to the zoo, but I'm always amazed every time I go. This time I noticed that anteaters just have necks and snouts, with no perceivable heads. Most animals are highly improbable, including us. We set up zoos! How weird is that? Nature is so amazing. Oh, we also got to see a small cart filled with zebra poop.