Day 273

Today my family took Anna to the DeYoung Family Zoo! We have been planning this day for so long, and since Anna is leaving soon we had to get up there!

We were the first to arrive at the zoo about 30 minutes after they opened. As we began our trek around the zoo it was nice and sunny, but a couple hours in it was windy and cloudy. It was sooooo cold! We were all numb by the time we left at 2pm.

Buddy found us back by the hippo house, and since we were the only guests he took us into the hippo house. Wallace the hippo came out of his pond and up to the gate. I told Buddy that Anna was from Moldova and he was fascinated! He was asking her all sorts of questions about culture differences, wildlife in Moldova, etc. Then he handed her a carrot. Wallace has a command to open his mouth and you toss the carrot in. We all had a chance to feed him. And when I asked if he was slimy Buddy told me I could pet him and find out! I will probably never get to pet a hippo again, it was so cool!

Then Buddy told us that he was going to feed the bears. Translation: Anna is going to feed the bears. Since Moldova is by Russia, he thought it would be appropriate for Anna to feed the Russian brown bears! In all the times I have been there, I have NEVER, NEVER EVER seen him bring a guest inside the first gate. He had Anna come inside the gate and feed licorice to the bears. She is so lucky. Then he had her unload celery and melons and toss them over the gate to the bears. At one point he had both gates wide open so we could stand in the doorway and take pictures of the bears without bars in the way. (There was an electric wire between us and the bears, so we had some sort of protection. And they were distracted by food.)

Then it was tiger time... as in baby tiger time. :) They had 3 cubs born on March 21st during the big snow storm. One cub went to another zoo, and then they kept a male and female. They are hand-raising the cubs because they started to lose weight with the horrible shifts in the weather. Carrie brought out the little 6 week old male cub named Khan. He was adorable! And he was very adventurous and enjoyed climbing on everyone. It was far too cold out to bring out any primates or other animals.

Carrie told us that they had 2 wolf pups and 1 fox kit. She said the wolves rarely come out of their den with the weather being so nasty. But she said the little fox was flashing his new teeth over his food this morning and he was acting tough. We went to go find the foxes. We saw three adult foxes and were looking for the little 7 week old one. And then we saw him. He was laying upside-down by the fence, he was dirty and not breathing. :( My mom ran and told Carrie who grabbed keys and came running out. She went right in with the foxes and picked him up. He was dead. She looked him over and searched in the enclosure, but couldn't find out why he had died. She carried him out in her jacket right as a family with small kids came by. I'm glad we found him before the little kids did. Carrie was tearing up. My mom was crying. In general it was just a super sad moment.

Then came time to feed the big cats. We got lots of neat pictures, also in thanks to some of the workers there. The workers will take your cameras and take pictures for you on the inside of the gates so you don't have the bars in your pictures. They are pros! After the cats were done eating, it was time for us to warm up and eat! We said goodbye to Buddy and he told Anna that if she is ever back in the States she should come back and visit.

Now Anna can say she pet a hippo, fed bears, and held a baby tiger! Those will be great memories and pictures she can bring back to Moldova with her. Definitely one of my favorite trips to the zoo! We didn't get to hold as many animals, but it was a very nice and intimate visit to the zoo.