THE ZOO of DOO(M)
I always enjoy going to the zoo to look at what would otherwise be "wild" animals. Although going in February isn't nearly as exciting (or warm), the animals are still there and they still seem to put on a good show. On this particular un-seasonally warm day, I was accompanied by Julie and Deven at the Saint Louis Zoo. This zoo is a favorite of mine because it is FREE. That's right, free parking, free looks at animals, free free free. Actually some things cost money and they suck (btw, avoid the 3D movie at all costs)!
Going to the zoo with Julie and Deven has become a fun thing for us and somewhat routine. It goes like this. Deven always wants to see the prarie dogs. I always want to see the reptile house. Julie just wants to have a fun afternoon without anyone crying because we didn't get to see prarie dogs or sulking because we didn't get to go to the reptile house. And we all like to look at the monkeys. Well this particular visit was great; we got to see all three. The real action, however, took place at the reptile house.
We entered the pit and found the stagnant 90 degree temp to be a bit overwhelming. We turned to the right to look at the first lizards enclosed in glass (see pic). Iguanas, I believe. So ensues a conversation that went something like this...(which I almost missed b/c I was trying to snap pictures).
"oh look Deven! look at the little baby lizards..."
"babies?"
"yeah look at 'em. There little babies. Uh, they look so weird... *out of the corner of her mouth* Ty, look at these things."
"Mommy, those are babies?"
"Yeah they put them out there for us to see"
At this point, Julie's face is showing her increasing feelings of discomfort with the odd look of these babies. I of course know exactly why those babies look so weird.
"C'mon Dev, lets go look over here." *semi forces Deven to move onto the next exibit*
Not a moment did Deven get her back to the glass did one of the adult iguanas snatch up one of the babies. The tail was even hanging out of its mouth. These were not baby lizards, but new born baby mice. I said to Julie "wow that was a close one!" To which she replied, "are you serious, they just ate one!?"
"yeah they are baby mice and this must be feeding time."
"that's horrible....." and so she went on in telling me how morbid that is...Feeding these perfectly capable lizards baby mice whose eyes were still closed and couldn't even defend themselves. Honestly, I thought it was rad. Luckily Deven didn't see it and never caught onto what we were discussing for the rest of the visit at the wild wild zoo.
On a lighter note, the prarie dogs were quite active that day and put on a good show for us. :)
Disclaimer - although the above conversation is not the exact words of any party mentioned, it is a true representation of the words and feelings expressed in said conversation.
