Remember in the movie The Omen, when Lee Remick who played Katherine Thorn, took her adorable son Damien to the Wildlife Preserve and all the animals either ran away or attacked their car?
Well JR and I went to the
Catoctin Wildlife Preserve yesterday. After waiting for what seemed like an eternity behind a couple hundred battle ready dwarfs in yellow t-shirts... they might have been school children.... who can tell the difference... we FINALLY got through the door.
The horrendous delay at the door should have been a sign for me to go home... or maybe the rumbling black sky or maybe when JR mentioned the crows filling the trees across the street from us. Oblivious to the signs.... we entered the park.
Inside the doors, flowers were blooming everywhere and children skipped and chattered like happy chipmunks all around. So as not to get tromped by those groups of backpack wielding nut-crushers, JR and I headed to the back of the Zoo to work our way out rather than in.
On our way to the back we first encountered the deer. Like in any Preserve there are food dispensers, where you can for $0.50 purchase 10 or so smelly green little pebbles.
JR: Gramps, Look.... their poop is green..... ewwww!
That comment confirms my belief that they eat a lot of those smelly green pebbles.
JR was quick to discover that since we were there early, the deer were naturally hungry.....
especially when one of the deer tried to take his hand with the food. I just continued snapping pics and dropping the quarters until I realized he had ahold of one of the deers tongues.
A quick lesson in Zoo etiquette and the law concerning animal cruelty and we continued our journey. Now I'm getting flash images of some sort of Dennis the Menace Zoo experience. I'm little aware that this Zoo visit is different than the last time when he hadn't grasped his full power.
We stopped along the way so he could join a few children on a small playground. I reminded him once again of playground rules... no pushing, no hitting, no cutting in front of. All went well until I started noticing all the clumsy children there. First, some little girl came down the slide (in front of JR) and wiped out on the rocks at the bottom, scraping her knees and hands pretty bad..... then a little boy climbing the jungle rope (in front of JR) got stung by a bee...... then another little girl wiped out running across the playground (with JR). Now I was watching the whole time and JR had nothing to do with any of these accidents.... he just happened to be there. HMMM!!
What am I thinking? It must be the heat getting to me or maybe I forgot my high blood pressure pill. JR didn't have anything to do with any of these kids getting hurt.
We had spent enough time at the Jerry's Kids playground, so we got some $2.00 water and moved on.
This preserve has few paved paths. Most of the walkways are gravel with wooden bridges. Although I still feel some of the cages were WAY too small for the animals inside, overall the park was nice with lots of trees.
I'm not sure if it was an added bonus or not, since they completely dotted the paths with poop, but there were ducks and geese everywhere throughout the park. Most of the geese were friendly. We only ran into one group that chased us for some unknown reason. We had no food and were only walking past them.
The tortoise was a big hit with JR, but that's because he wanted to ride one. This one came all the way across the yard just to stop at the fence and show us the
SKULL he has for a nose.
no more cute little turtle here..... we moved on.... followed by those crows.
The Lemurs were fun to watch... most of which were asleep and that's probably a good thing, because the two that were awake were freaks.
One was laid out on its back and played dead while I was trying to photograph it. I completely heard, but didn't pay attention to, this low growl.... and suddenly..... THIS was in my face.
Notice the sideways stare..... he was looking at JR.
His growl sounded like a really big bullfrog... but very guttural.
Everywhere we went.... no matter what we were looking at.... JR was the focus.
We even got chased by two innocent looking ducks on a bridge.
There were several park employees eating their lunch at a picnic table near the Parrots. As we approached, the parrots started screaming.... and I mean screaming. It was almost deafening. I overheard one of the employees say "what the hell"... as if they'd never heard them that loud. They all started flapping their wings and fluffing themselves up. I managed to take a few pics before we left for fear of being attacked. These beautiful birds must have been clipped because they weren't caged. This meant they could, if they wanted to, get to us.
The Baboons..... love 'em! The Mandrill stood in the back corner of his cage and wouldn't even look at us. As we were leaving his area, he slowly started moving to the front, so we turned around. He made this weird noise and charged the fence. We left.
This little fella or girl... not sure.... took time out from eating lunch to sit and stare at us. Thank You for not screaming, charging, growling, shrieking, or throwing poop at us. I appreciate it.
The Arctic Wolf.... what a beautiful animal. The more I studied his agile movement, the more I was reminded of Buddy, the Alaskan Malamute we had here recently. This fella was curled up peacefully in the corner of his area while a group of whistling and hooting idiots trying to get him to move. As soon as we got there, he got up walked directly over in front of us and just stood there staring. The most soulful pleading eyes almost willing me to set him free.
Set him free so he could open the throats of those morons who kept yelling for him to perform for them.
School kids need shock collars!
Why should the little brats be allowed to run free all over the zoo when the animals can't? They should be tied together and forced to admire in silence the behaviorally disturbed animals that have been caged against their will. I guess I'll require therapy for that comment too... oh well.
The reptile house was the most disappointing. These poor critters didn't move. I wasn't positive they were real until I saw an eyelid close or a tongue stick out. JR's favorite in here was the Rattler. He was HUGE!!!
We finished our visit, walked quickly through the gift shop and headed for the truck.
It wasn't until after we were outside and standing alone that I started to notice the noise from all the zoo animals. It sounded jungle like.... WILD... .PRIMAL..... You could hear almost every animal we had seen. Those damn school kids had done something to upset them....
It just couldn't be MY Grandson.... silly me for thinking such thoughts.
JR: Listen Gramps..... they sound mean
ME: Why do you think that?
JR: I just do.
JR: I'm ready to go home now.
ME: Then let's go home.
That comment confirms my belief that they eat a lot of those smelly green pebbles.
JR was quick to discover that since we were there early, the deer were naturally hungry.....
especially when one of the deer tried to take his hand with the food. I just continued snapping pics and dropping the quarters until I realized he had ahold of one of the deers tongues.
A quick lesson in Zoo etiquette and the law concerning animal cruelty and we continued our journey. Now I'm getting flash images of some sort of Dennis the Menace Zoo experience. I'm little aware that this Zoo visit is different than the last time when he hadn't grasped his full power.
We stopped along the way so he could join a few children on a small playground. I reminded him once again of playground rules... no pushing, no hitting, no cutting in front of. All went well until I started noticing all the clumsy children there. First, some little girl came down the slide (in front of JR) and wiped out on the rocks at the bottom, scraping her knees and hands pretty bad..... then a little boy climbing the jungle rope (in front of JR) got stung by a bee...... then another little girl wiped out running across the playground (with JR). Now I was watching the whole time and JR had nothing to do with any of these accidents.... he just happened to be there. HMMM!!
What am I thinking? It must be the heat getting to me or maybe I forgot my high blood pressure pill. JR didn't have anything to do with any of these kids getting hurt.
We had spent enough time at the Jerry's Kids playground, so we got some $2.00 water and moved on.
This preserve has few paved paths. Most of the walkways are gravel with wooden bridges. Although I still feel some of the cages were WAY too small for the animals inside, overall the park was nice with lots of trees.
I'm not sure if it was an added bonus or not, since they completely dotted the paths with poop, but there were ducks and geese everywhere throughout the park. Most of the geese were friendly. We only ran into one group that chased us for some unknown reason. We had no food and were only walking past them.
The tortoise was a big hit with JR, but that's because he wanted to ride one. This one came all the way across the yard just to stop at the fence and show us the SKULL he has for a nose.
no more cute little turtle here..... we moved on.... followed by those crows.
The Lemurs were fun to watch... most of which were asleep and that's probably a good thing, because the two that were awake were freaks.
One was laid out on its back and played dead while I was trying to photograph it. I completely heard, but didn't pay attention to, this low growl.... and suddenly..... THIS was in my face.
Notice the sideways stare..... he was looking at JR.
His growl sounded like a really big bullfrog... but very guttural.
Everywhere we went.... no matter what we were looking at.... JR was the focus.
We even got chased by two innocent looking ducks on a bridge.
There were several park employees eating their lunch at a picnic table near the Parrots. As we approached, the parrots started screaming.... and I mean screaming. It was almost deafening. I overheard one of the employees say "what the hell"... as if they'd never heard them that loud. They all started flapping their wings and fluffing themselves up. I managed to take a few pics before we left for fear of being attacked. These beautiful birds must have been clipped because they weren't caged. This meant they could, if they wanted to, get to us.
The Baboons..... love 'em! The Mandrill stood in the back corner of his cage and wouldn't even look at us. As we were leaving his area, he slowly started moving to the front, so we turned around. He made this weird noise and charged the fence. We left.
This little fella or girl... not sure.... took time out from eating lunch to sit and stare at us. Thank You for not screaming, charging, growling, shrieking, or throwing poop at us. I appreciate it.
The Arctic Wolf.... what a beautiful animal. The more I studied his agile movement, the more I was reminded of Buddy, the Alaskan Malamute we had here recently. This fella was curled up peacefully in the corner of his area while a group of whistling and hooting idiots trying to get him to move. As soon as we got there, he got up walked directly over in front of us and just stood there staring. The most soulful pleading eyes almost willing me to set him free.
Set him free so he could open the throats of those morons who kept yelling for him to perform for them.
School kids need shock collars!
Why should the little brats be allowed to run free all over the zoo when the animals can't? They should be tied together and forced to admire in silence the behaviorally disturbed animals that have been caged against their will. I guess I'll require therapy for that comment too... oh well.
The reptile house was the most disappointing. These poor critters didn't move. I wasn't positive they were real until I saw an eyelid close or a tongue stick out. JR's favorite in here was the Rattler. He was HUGE!!!
We finished our visit, walked quickly through the gift shop and headed for the truck.
It wasn't until after we were outside and standing alone that I started to notice the noise from all the zoo animals. It sounded jungle like.... WILD... .PRIMAL..... You could hear almost every animal we had seen. Those damn school kids had done something to upset them....
It just couldn't be MY Grandson.... silly me for thinking such thoughts.
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2 comments:
The only reason I like to take kids to the zoo is to help them appreciate the wildlife from around the world, and to help them develop a level of respect. Of course, the flip side of that is how their captivity is so harsh and not natural enough, not ever big enough. But, that was WEIRD how you experienced all the strangeness of the zoo animals. Maybe they were reminded by the WV dog whisperer about their wildness, and it just looked like it was JR's presence. Btw, he's really a cutie!
oh bugger me!!! Did you check his hair for the signs!!! hahaha!!
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