Zoomafoobar!
The past few days have found the world in which I inhabit rather busy, and the remainder of the week looks to be no different. Between work shifts, Mel & I have been entertaining visiting members of her family. In the last few days, her Dad has been given a grand tour of all to see & do in Kitchener...which admittedly wasn't much.
But the grand spectacle was on Monday, when we visited the Toronto Zoo. This was ideally going to be followed up by an evening dinner with my grandfather and sister in Oshawa, but alas it didn't work out. Even still, the zoo excursion was memorable for a number of reasons.
Namely the fact that if it had wings, I (pardon the punnage) managed to run afoul of it. Every single Canada Goose we can across hissed at me. And I think that given half the chance that bloody ostrich would have tried to eat me. I may be no National Geographic journalist, but if an ostrich charges at you, plummage flared up, and makes hissing and honking noises of a very threatening nature, I don't think it likes you very much. For that matter if persisted to antagonize me for a few minutes before deciding I was too gamy, and it left me alone.
Mel, on the other hand, had a rather adorable fanclub. Inside the Indo-Malayan pavillion, one of the cages housed a large troupe of marmoset monkeys. They're palm-sized, with grey fur, and they look...for lack of a better word, cute. (However, the sign next to their cage warns that they do NOT make good housepets, given their penchance to throw and trash things after reaching maturity)
Mel leaned up towards the wire mesh of the cage and exclaimed, "Cuuuute!" The nearest five or six marmosets immediately turned their heads towards her, and seconds later Mel had them clamouring around the branch nearest to her. In fact, wherever she walked in front of the cage to get better views of the other animals inside, her marmoset fanclub followed after her.
Sure, she gets the cute little monkeys as fans. What do I get? The gargantuan, ugly tropical fish following me around and making kissy-faces! The indignancy of it all! I forget what it was, but it's length was easily that of my entire upper torso. And it needed a good makeover too.
Speaking of aesthetically-disabled, Mel managed to arouse the ire of a lone hyena too. There the hyena was, sleeping sounding in the middle of his outdoor pen. Mel takes one look at him and states, "Boy, he's ugly!" The hyena must have been listening: his head shoots up, and stares right at Mel for the longest time. I'm not one to anthropomorphize, but I think the hyena took great offense to her remark.
It's just as well, then, that the zebras weren't out. Otherwise I'd be explaining to the officials about the ensuing stampede across the zoo. There are times when you think you know a great deal about someone, and then despite that, they turn around and completely floor you with the casualest of remarks. This was one of those times.
Mel: "Where are the zebras? I wanted to see the zebras. Why aren't they in their pen?"
Me: "Well, they are African-based. Maybe it's too cold for them to be outside today."
Mel: [frown!] "Pussies."
That marks one of the few occasions I could not think of anything else to say in response. I just stared at her, blinking. To which Mel stated, "Well, they are! It's cool outside, but I'm still here! And I hate the cold."
And so ends the zoo trip. Next up: Mel's spending the next 2 days in Niagra Falls with her mother and youngest sister (God help us all). And then Mel & I get to show them around the area on Saturday. Joy....
Today's Lesson: the komodo dragon has a good one to two-foot range when it comes to projectile vomit, a lesson learned not from those information boards posted next to the komodo pen, but from watching the komodo colourfully "decorate" one of the logs in his pen.
posted by Phillip at 8:57 AM
