Lights at the Zoo

 The zoo near here is the one I grew up in.  Mr. Les and his family have been there forever and have really turned it into an amazing zoo.  He passed away a few years ago (He lived for years with a heart transplant.)  His family still runs the zoo. They do an amazing job at Christmas putting out millions of lights. It’s been years since I’ve been, but I really wanted to go this year.  We had a 4H work day at the zoo a month or so back and the group I was with worked on lights.  We plugged in huge strands, marked burned out bulbs, and replaced them.  Tomorrow is their last night, and I knew it would be crazy busy, so Cbaby and I went tonight.  I forgot my camera at home, but got a few shots with my cell phone.  Ignore the fuzzies and darkness.

Cbaby with the new statue they built for Mr. Les.  Cbaby was fine leaning on it until I mentioned that the show Ghost Hunters came to the zoo because supposedly Mr. Les’ ghost is hanging around. I couldn’t get her back close for a good shot.  He’s squatting down playing with a tiger cub (something he often did.)

While we were touring one of the ….something screamer birds had a nest with two eggs.  We thought that was cool.

Their newest exhibit:

Their main stage.  Mr. Les and his band would play jazz there, and now they use it for special occaisions.

Most of the animals were not out, but this fellow was.  He’s so much cuter than the one that hangs around my house.

We had another animal experience with the Clouded Leapard (not my picture, just to show you what they look like – a large Bobcat size.)

He was in his tree when we walked up.  I was talking to him and before I knew it I had called out "Here Kitty kitty" to him.  He jumped down and I thought we had scared him.  I stopped for a second watching him and Cbaby had walked away a few steps.  Sunddenly he bounded up to the corner, skidded up and then took off.  It really did startle me.  I laughed nervously at Cbaby and made a comment about ticking him off.  Then I saw him peaking over the log on the ground in his enclosure.  I swear I saw a butt wiggle and then he did it again.  By then Cbaby had came back.  We stood there while he did it two or 3 more times.  He didn’t seem stressed at all.  I swear he was playing with us.  Lizzie does the same type of thing.  It was really cool.  Then an annoyingly loud family came up and he vanished.  It made me feel special that he saved it for us. 🙂

The zoo there has always been important to me.  My family has visited it as ong as we’ve lived here.  This year I am getting involved.  I’m going to train to be a docent, or a volunteer educator, at the zoo.  I’ll help at special events and then work the summer camp program.  I’m so excited!! We don’t get to work really closely with a lot of the animals, but we do get to learn to work with some of them, the ones shared for educational purposes (some of the snakes, lizards, etc.)  A friend is doing it already.  I missed the deadline last year, but I’m doing it this year!