2004-09-07
What I Did For Labor Day
Most of the weekend I had to myself because Partner went camping with his buddies. This was fine with me. I played EQ, slept, was a general bum, and brushed about 4 pounds of fur out of Floofy.She is still floofy.
It's as if she just up and decided "today ... I think I'll shed". SPANG! Fur everywhere. And I do mean everywhere. She likes to sleep in front of the fan. You can imagine.
The highlight of the weekend, however, was Friday (I took a vacation day).
On Friday, a friend I�ll call J because that�s her initial, and I went to the ZOO. We�re both animal lovers and both photography nuts, and I�d just acquired a new tele-converter lens for my digital camera. It already had a decent zoom, and this multiplied it by 1.6 � so I had the equivalent of a 600mm lens. It�s large but not heavy and not really all that large, especially next to her super duper 600x zoom lens that takes a tow motor to lug around.
Anyway.
We got a special tour behind the scenes with the penguins, and that was fun. They make all kinds of odd donkey-braying sounds I would never have associated with penguins. They were funny, curious, smelled of fish, and they pooped on my purse.
The keeper was aghast.
I thought it was hilarious.
The bag was a canvas one and I left it in the basement to be washed but Partner found it and threw it out. I noticed this when I opened the trash can outside to put something in it � and there was my bag. Penguin poop and all. So much for his obsessive need to recycle absolutely everything, including old rags that he insists will be disinfected in the microwave �just fine� even though they stink to high heaven. I guess that doesn�t extend to things pooped on by penguins.
I got some awesome pictures of the spotted hyenas, which I would love to post but they are huge and DLand will only take 1mb pictures so I�ll have to work on that.
Then the lorikeets pooped on me while we were feeding them nectar. Big, warm, splashy and not at all odiferous. Amazing.
The day reminded me of the time, years ago, when the flying fox aka fruit bat peed all over me from inside his cage. Now he�s in a glass enclosure and can�t do anything fun like urinating on the visitors anymore, but at the time, it was quite amusing. Then, too, the keeper was aghast.
I�m rather annoyed at this new AZA stuff that requires no contact between the animal and the keepers, let alone the public, except in special situations. Everything I grew up being able to touch is now encased in glass. I guess it�s good though, because now today�s disturbed and violent kids can�t poke sticks into the cages but for responsible animal lovers like me and J it was just annoying. If it were just supervised tactile interaction, like with the guinea pigs, it�d be fine, but no � I guess they don�t� have enough people for that.
Personally, I think any kid (or adult) they see abusing an animal in any way, whether by feeding it something harmful or just being stupid, should be taken to watch the hyenas eat. Then told that what they just saw was the last kid they caught tossing jelly beans to the polar bears. Let their parents scream all they want. Don�t like it? Keep the kid at home until he can learn to behave in a civilized manner.
Anyway, we had a wonderful time at the zoo, fecal matter notwithstanding.
We�ve decided to make it a more regular thing, so I may end up having to buy a new computer to hold all the pictures. Either that or start weeding out the not so good ones. For me, that�s not an option. I don�t �weed� well. I�m a packrat. (we saw those too). I might WANT to see a fuzzy picture of what looks like a mutant badger behind a steel screen someday, and if I delete it, then what?
Mitakuye Oyasin
Walk in Balance (and keep an eye on the penguins)
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