ANFSTD

A penguin walks into a bar.  "What will you have?", asks the bartender.  "Well," says the penguin, "I have to go through leopard seal territory several times a day, so I'll have a Canadian Club."

That Old Rivalry Between Cats And Dogs

Me and my boyfriend took a trip to the zoo this morning.  This zoo is fairly small, so you can do everything in one day.  Both the Lion and Tiger enclosures are huge because these big cats need a lot of room to run around.  The lion enclosure has two viewing spots: one is what one might call the main pavilion, which is large and has a lot of room to move.  The other is just a little ways down the hill and is a smaller pavilion with an enormous thick window.  
     The big male was not out today (he must have been resting inside; it was a tad chilly outside), but the lioness was more than active.  She was pacing up down in her enclosure when a woman with a service dog entered the pavilion.  The lioness took one look at that dog and charged, stopping right at the window.  Now if there had not been any sort of barrier, that service dog would have been lunch for the lioness.  As my mother put it when I told her later, the lioness may have thought the dog was a jackal.  In the wild, lions and jackals compete with each other for food.  So then it would make sense for the lioness to see the service dog as a rival.  She doesn't mind the scores of people that pass through and make noise at her.  That's something she sees every day.  But not only are dogs not something the lioness sees everyday, in the wild they are among her natural rivals.  So if she sees a dog enter on her turf, she will let him have it (she also would've killed several people if she nabbed the dog). 

It's never been a secret that dogs and cats are not famous for getting along.  But this afternoon's event seems to have taken that old rivalry and cranked it up to eleven.  Sometimes we can easily forget that where we see a loyal and helpful companion, another creature sees a rival and will treat it as such.  

Darwin Award Narrowly Avoided

Several days ago, a woman visiting Henry Vilas Zoo in Madison climbed over the barrier into the giraffe pen where she got kicked in the face by the young giraffe.  Police said she's lucky she didn't suffer worse injuries.  She has also been charged with harassing zoo animals.  

What kind of nimrod thinks it's a good idea to try to enter animal pens without authorization? See my other post on this topic. 

Governor Dodge Adventure

Last Saturday was a perfect ending to a horrendously rough and confusing week.  My mother had organized a trip up Governor Dodge State Park for the Chinese kids.  I volunteered to drive because my mom can't right now (well, only for short distances, and even then, not so much).  We also listened to Juan Diego Florez on the way up. 

There were twelve Chinese who showed up.  We drove from Madison to Governor Dodge in two cars due to the relatively large number of people.  


When we got there, we had to get a park sticker (we hadn't been to the park in several years).  We got to the Cox Hollow Lake picnic area, set up our stuff, and then Mom and the others went down to the beach to look for rocks and smalls water creatures.  I stayed at the picnic table because I needed to rest, so I spent much of my time reading Walking With Prehistoric Beasts which is the companion book to the docu-drama Walking With Beasts (it's about the rise of mammals after the dinosaurs died out).  Meanwhile, the Chinese kids found and observed tadpoles.  


We had lunch around 12:30 and the Chinese kids spent another half hour at the beach before we packed up and went to Stevens Falls.  I spent most of the time at the falls wading.  I must say that due to the hot dry weather, the pool was half the size it was the last time I had been there, and a great deal muddier.  I kept struggling to keep my balance while I was wading, but it was still fun after all these years.  The Chinese kids kept on running up and down this fallen log and collecting tent caterpillars (we had to tell them to stop doing that after a while).  


After we were done at the falls, we all got back in the cars  and headed back to Madison (while listening to Piotr Beczala).  


A good time was had by all, and I hope sometime we'll get to do it again.