Zoobilation

Before I get started on my post about Zoobilation, I wanted to share a couple of cute pictures of Haylie with her hair done. My poll has a couple days left to vote - but it's looking like the majority vote is to give her a haircut. We shall see....

Ok, so we went to Zoobilation on Saturday - an event only for people who have zoo memberships. We got to do 3 different "Behind the Scenes" tours. When I graduated high school, it was my dream to be a zoologist. I love animals. I love the zoo. I always wanted to work at the zoo. Unfortunately, science is not my best subject. Not to mention that when I started college I was WAY too excited to be out on my own and not nearly as studious as I should have been. Anyway, the point is, I love the zoo and I was thrilled to be able to go behind the scenes. DISCLAIMER: I started this blog not only to share our lives with our loved ones, but also to keep a sort of journal for myself. So, my apologies for the ramblings that you are about to read...

First we got to go behind the scenes in the reptile house.

I got a kick out of the little handwritten sign that says "Caution: I bite". And I learned that the "BLUE" sign means that the snake is shedding and they get very irritable when they shed, so they leave them alone until they're done. Talk about a risky job...

We also got to go behind the scenes in the animal hospital. There was one little animal in there that looked like a hedgehog that didn't have any eyes. I think it was a permanent resident. We also saw x-rays of all kinds of different animals, even an x-ray of an elephant's foot! They have a portable x-ray machine that they can take to the exhibits.

Lastly, we went behind the scenes into the elephant barn. It was a HUGE concrete building where the elephants sleep and get their morning inspections. The keepers have to stay behind this huge steel cage - and there are little doors in the cage that they can open to inspect different parts of the elephant...and the elephant is trained to stick his foot through or his trunk or whatever.

The thing that struck me about this room was how HUGE it was, and how THICK the metal bars and concrete walls were. Did you ever see that episode of "When Animals Attack" where the elephant kicks the zookeeper around like a ragdoll? Well, that is why they have the bars now!

Anna and me in the elephant barn

Haylie and her friend Jordyn outside the reptile house.

Our little family

Jordyn and Haylie - ALMOST as big as the gorilla...haha...

Anna had fun too...this is a short video of Anna talking while Haylie was feeding the giraffe (which, by the way, she still would not do...that big long tongue comes out and she freezes!!)