At Last We Find Some Animals

With Scott and Olivia headed to an organ concert, the little girls and Mom decided to visit the Children's Zoo at Battersea Park. It advertises itself as a "place where your children will see animals they wouldn't otherwise ever see!" Well, it certainly wasn't new to us to see ducks, sheep, rabbits, goats and pigs, but Meredith and Cecily didn't care; they were excited to see any animals. Cecily in particular has been missing the animal kingdom in this urban environment, havingt asked spontaneously a few days ago, "Where are all the animals?" But it wasn't just pedestrian animals we saw by any means. We especially enjoyed the mynah bird named Morris who replied to each child's farewell with a very clear "bye bye." Cecily was fascinated by Meerkats; Meredith liked the Egyptian Spiny Mice; I am a new fan of the adorable Patagonian Mara (if you saw it, you wouldn't believe it was a rodent, either); we all liked the lemur; and both girls really loved the trash can shaped like a bear! They also enjoyed the opportunity to throw oranges to the hungry Kune Kune Pigs. Meredith was worried because we didn't peel them first, but the zoo employee explained that the pigs actually like the rinds. Both girls had a nervous moment when the keeper opened a gate to feed some rather large sheep, and sheep immediately escaped and headed our direction. The keeper told us not to worry because the animals would very quickly realize that SHE was the one with the food. She was right, and it only took about 2 minutes to pry little girls off my back and arm from where they had climbed. The girls were excited and relieved to finally see something that wasn't dead and behind glass.