Katie Mei's first trip to the zoo

We visited the Chehaw Park Zoo last week and had one of the most lovely fall days ever. The day was sunny and the park was shady. The temperature was just right with the slight hint of fall smell in the air (well, in between the whiffs of Bison poo and reptile aroma).

We started our visit with a look at the black rhino and the flamingos. Katie Mei thought those pink birds were pretty interesting since they were standing there on one leg.


Then the path led into the main part of the park, with the cheetahs to the right and the meerkats to the left. We went right. It was not what I expected.


The cheetah area was a fairly good sized grassy space with a few rocks and trees, and I initially saw one cheetah pretty far off lying in the grass. Typical, I thought. The animals at the zoo are usually asleep and couldn't care less if we stared at them or not. Just about the time the thought was completely formed in my head, this larger, sinewy, "real-looking" cheetah came out of nowhere staring me right in the eye and heading right towards me. I have to admit, this is the first time I ever felt threatened in a zoo.



The place where I was standing was only about eight to ten feet off the ground and there was a fence around the cheetah's area about four feet out in front and below me. You can see from the photo that the fence really didn't even separate me from that cat. And though I don't have any photos of him heading straight for me (I was trying to get my camera out and hanging on to the stroller ready to run all at the same time), his look was sinister and I would swear he was eyeballin' Katie Mei like she was lunch. I could envision one swift leap and he'd be over that fence to grab his sweet snack.

Finally, as Katie Mei and I stayed in the background, the creepy cat walked away and jumped up on the rock to stare down the meerkats. I was left with that shivery feeling of what it must be like for people who live in areas of the world where wild cats are a real threat. Those animals are absolutely gorgeous, but they are still beasts of prey and are not to be taken lightly. I think the reason this one really bothered me is because it really did look right at me as if it was sizing me up. You don't usually have zoo animals look at you as if they care.



I was ready to high-tail it out of there. I've always wanted to go on a safari. Now I'm wondering if that's such a good idea....

So we moved on, passing some monkeys with whom Katie Mei seemed to find a common bond. She really enjoyed them. After we left the park we asked her if she remembered seeing the monkeys, to which she replied "Yes! Jacob mukmuk!" (her word for monkey). Hmmmm. I wonder if she thinks Jacob and monkeys are one in the same. Takes one to know one.

Then we got to the black bears. Miss KM knew exactly what the huge black animal was through the fence, which surprised me. She has seen lots of drawings of bears in books, but as in most kids' books they are the Teddy Bear-looking cartoon bears. I don't know where she might have seen a real bear photo. But in any case, she knew it was a bear. And a BIG bear it was. However, if cheetahs are the fastest land animals in the world, how come there was more fencing for the bear than the cheetah? This lead me to wonder how high a cheetah can actually jump, and this is what I found: http://hownow.brownpau.com/archives/2005/11/deer-and-cheetah/ . Makes me feel better about the cheetah not eating my baby.

We then took a meandering path to see an eagle and a couple bobcats. Neither was very interesting. I'll skip on those photos to save you the trouble of trying to find the animals among the trees.

The trail then brought us to the American Bison. This is a beautiful, powerful, amazing animal. I was really surprised by how large he was. I know I've seen bison in zoos before, but maybe it was our proximity to him that made me realize how truly awe-inspiring they are. I then started thinking about how scary and wonderful it must have been to witness a stampede of these things thundering across an open prarie early in American history. It is so sad that these beasts' numbers have dwindled. As powerful as they are, it's a wonder they aren't more of a national symbol like the bald eagle.

Katie Mei was very much taken with the bison and didn't want to leave. We had to stand there for at least 15 minutes while she watched him lick his own nostrils and tried to imitate him. Blech.

When we could finally convince her to leave the bison, we passed by a few more displays and made it to the zebras. Ahhhh, real zoo animals, right? Seems we always think the three main ingredients for a zoo are elephants, zebras, and giraffes. Why is that? This little zoo was beautiful and had not a single elephant of giraffe. Maybe it's just because they're so exotic that we always think of them as being in a zoo.

Anyway, the zebras were delightful, and like most of the animals in this zoo, they were active and close enough to see and enjoy. Katie Mei had no problem identifying the "zee-bahs".

We rounded out our trip with a kiddo photo on the cement turtle. I couldn't resist, since we also have a photo of M & J on a cement bear from our first visit to a zoo with the kids back in 2006.

(now)

(then)

And we eventually came full circle and found the meerkats. They had to be the cutest little boogers I ever saw! And I think they thought the same of my kids!

This little guy found Jacob rather interesting. Maybe he thought Jacob looked a little like a monkey in sunglasses.

Katie Mei found some fast friends in the meerkats.

Our visit to the zoo ended with a trip to the reptile house, which was essentially a bunch of snakes, toads, and lizards behind glass so that flash photography results in pictures of reflections of flashes of light. No lizard pics. Sorry folks.

We did get a photo of the gopher tortoises digging and flinging dirt, though. So here is the final photo of Katie Mei watching the "too-too" dig it's hole.

Hope you enjoyed our visit to the zoo as much as we did. And despite the fact that I was originally going to title this post as "The cheetah wanted to eat my baby", it was a wonderful visit and we're looking forward to doing it again soon.

Love,

Petrie