Miracle Cure

My nature deficit disorder has been treated sufficiently today - we went to the zoo.

The kids and I were sitting at the breakfast table talking about how wonderful it was to have a blank calendar square today (it's been a busy week) and I glanced at the thermometer on the patio that said 40 degrees. I said, "is it Thursday?" and Colin said, "Yes." So I said, "Lets go to the zoo." (Thursday is half price day. Wahoo!) I called Randy so he could talk me out of it and he checked the weather and said it was going to rain. So I said, "You're right we should stay home and fold laundry." Then I got off the phone and all the kids put their boots on and said, "Let's go to the zoo."

We knew that the weather man had said 60% chance of rain, but, because we watched Bill Nye on Tuesday on the way to fiddle lessons and learned about probability, we knew that meant we had a 40% chance that it wouldn't rain. We decided to take our chances. We stuffed my coat pockets with string cheese and granola bars and left. We called Randy on the cell in the car to tell him we were going to the zoo. He said, "I thought you would."

We took a chance and we won - NO RAIN! It was absolutely beautiful! Of course, I forgot the camera so I can't share with everyone. You are all invited up to go to the zoo with us anytime that you get tired of your snow. We do have about 6 inches of snow but at 42 degrees it is melting fast.

The best part of the zoo today was the babies. There was a 6 month old snow leopard that wanted to play with Colin. He was so funny. We called him Leroy. :) He would hid behind his rocks and the come charging out and crash into the glass where Colin was standing. Then he would lick the glass and rub his head against it like he wanted us to pet him. Then Colin would run to the other end of the glass and the leopard would chase him. They ran back and forth, back and forth.. Finally the little (I use that term very loosely) leopard got worn out and he flopped on to his back for a rest. After a little rest, he was back at it. It was so fun. The guy that takes care of the cats for the zoo came over the first time (we went back to visit the leopard five times) we were looking at him. He played with the little leopard through the glass a minute and then watched him play with Colin while he talked to me. The cat guy told me that he was just a baby only six months old and seemed to really like our zoo. Then he taught me about the cats. It was very interesting. He said that snow leopards have really long tails so they could balance as they are leaping through the air. The Amur leopard's tail is much shorter and skinnier. And Snow Leopard have bigger paws and they walk on more of their paws so they don't sink into the snow. Our zoo got the baby because our male got old and died. Our zoo is part of the species survival plan and takes endangered animals and tries to create more babies to help the species survive. We have a 15 year old female snow leopard but she probably won't last more than another 3 years (average life span of a snow leopard in captivity is 16- 18 years) and when she dies we will get another young female to perpetuate the species with little Leroy.

The other baby is a 9 month old gibbon. Oh my goodness, she was SO cute! She played and played swinging from branch to branch and then dropping into the net. If it hadn't been so hot in the gibbon house we would have stayed for hours.

We got to watch the zoo keeper feed the penguins too. That was cool. But not as cool as the babies.

Anyway, we had a lovely time. We stayed for three and a half hours. By the time we left, we were soaked through from tromping in the snow and we have pink cheeks from the sunshine. A little vitamin D was just what the doctor ordered!