Christmas at the Zoo (Part Trois)

Last episode we were about to encounter slitherdarts at Christmas at the Indianapolis Zoo.  Watch out, Lady With the Red Hair!  These dudes mean business.

What Kind of Slitherdude is This Slitherdart? 

Oh.

 Don't Let This Hoosier Put the Bite on You

 Not My Type of "Cat" (Catenatus)

Yep.  Venomous.  Guess E.M. Rules.  Pretty Much.

 Open Wide, Slitherdart!  Let's See Some Cotton

Funny Story About This Slitherdude

I've got a funny story about one of those cottonmouth slitherdudes. When Scowl-Face was just a young whippersnapper, he and his family took an extended vacation (i.e., they "dropped out" of the "rat race").  It's a complicated story that would probably bore you to tears.  Anyway, while they were stumbling around the Okefenokee Swamp in Southern Georgia, Scowlly stopped on a dirt road he was walking along to catch his breath. He turned to his left, looked over his shoulder, and hanging from a tree branch less than five feet from his head was one of these cottonmouths, with jaws widely parted (and white mouth lining glistening in the sun) as he (or she) prepared to put the bite on.  You know how those characters in Warner Brothers or Hanna-Barbera cartoons jump into the air, hang there with legs flailing, and then, without touching the ground, they fly in any direction opposite a cartoon danger?  That's what Scowl-Face did, pretty much.  (Well, it seemed funnier in retrospect.  At the time, it was fairly frightening.  But nobody got hurt, so it's okay to laugh about it.)

We left the Indianapolis Zoo's desert exhibit and continued to look at the holiday lighting and outdoor critters who were still awake and active.  We saw my favorite felines--the big tigers--but they were cat-napping, mostly.  The bats were awake but not in the mood to pose for photographs.  I hung out with them last summer, as you may recall.

"Flat" Cauli III became rather pesky about wanting her picture taken, so we obliged a few shutter snaps.

"Flat" Cauli III Takes a Breather on a Zoo Park Bench 

Notice the Similar Snouts -- Must Be Relatives of Some Sort

Since it was about a half-hour till closing time, and the dolphin show had been sold-out all day, we decided to wrap this party and head for the hills. It was a beautiful evening, full of colorful lights, exciting critters, and squeals of delighted youngsters.  A nice night out on the town, I'd wager.

Love My Pals at the Indianapolis Zoo,

Cauli Le Chat

MPL Roving Reporter

Zoo Holiday News Beat

P.S.  "Bungle in the Jungle," from the album War Child (1974), by Jethro Tull, seemed appropriate as a musical closer about our zoo visit.

Christmas at the Zoo (Part Deux)

I promised more photos of my recent trip (last Friday) to the Indianapolis Zoo for its special Christmas evening celebration.  Apologies if the quality is not up to snuff, but Scowl-Face and night digital photography are two ships passing in the night.  More like sinking, actually.

Always Drawing an Audience

One of our first stops at the zoo was the waddleskiffer exhibit.  These marvelous winged wonders are terrific swimmers.  They asked me to speak to their group as guest of honor.  I told them to keep chasing those elusive swimming dinners and to get their fancy tuxedos cleaned and pressed at least monthly.

Moulting Season Already?

The waddleskiffer habitat was some rocks (or reasonable facsimiles thereof) and really cold water.  (Salt water?  I didn't test it myself, and my minions declined rather pointedly.  Good help is hard to find these days.) Not a television in sight, much to the disappointment of all Monty Python fans everywhere.  (Of course, we wouldn't want proper waddleskiffers to explode; just television comedy prop waddleskiffers.)

We saw lots of swimming dinners, including a moray eel, which definitely was not on my dinner list, although I would probably have been on his!  Or hers.  I didn't stick around to ask any personal questions.

Do NOT Bigify; This Moray is Big Enough Already

The moray eel would lunge out from inside a crevice, which apparently startled some of the onlookers.  We heard this high-pitched squealing and wondered what young child had been startled out of his or her wits. Turning around, we discovered Scowl-Face huddled behind a waste receptacle.  (Okay, he dove into the receptacle.)  That could explain the utterly out-of-focus picture.

"Come Closer to My Crevice, My Little Pretties . . ."

Two words, Scowl-Face:  Auto-Flash.  Just saying.  (Okay, that's one word, but hyphenated, so it's nearly two.)

Next we visited the petting shark tank.  Yes, humans were reaching into the water and petting the sharks. Not moi, I can assure you.  Mama Cat raised no imbeciles in my feline family.

That's Yours Truly on the Rock, Safe and Sound

(Tough Break, Little Sharky)

At the Shark Petting Exhibit,

Count Your Fingers Afterwards

I'm joking about the sharks biting folks.  They're quite docile if you don't touch their heads, fins, or tails, and you use only two fingers to pet them. The large ones are at least twice my size or more, so I'll just keep my paws to moiself.

"Flat" Cauli III with the Lady With the Red Hair

(a "Desert Rose," For Sure)

After all these aquatic critters, I decided that we should get someplace warm and dry.  The desert exhibition seemed like a safe option.  I hadn't bargained on slitherdarts.

Watch for the exciting conclusion in my next blog posting!

How's That For a Cliffhanger?

Cauli Le Chat

MPL Roving Reporter

Zoo Holiday News Beat

P.S.  If you haven't read Mr. Popper's Penguins, by Richard and Florence Atwater, then you should treat yourselves to a wonderful children's story. It is available in our Evergreen Indiana online catalog.

Christmas at the Zoo (Part Une)

Last night "Flat" Cauli III, my minions, and I visited "Christmas at the Zoo," a special holiday evening program at the Indianapolis Zoo.  Be forewarned:  night digital photography is not Scowl-Face's long suit.

Elkenfroster at the Zoo Entrance

Outside the front entrance of the zoo was an elkenfroster.  This one was much larger than the youngster that visited my Library during Mooresville's Victorian Christmas celebration.  We weren't able to get a photo with "Flat" Cauli III posing with the elkenfroster, because the audience was too large.  So we paid our wooden nickels (that's an old family joke) and entered the zoo grounds.

Holiday Lights Were Everywhere!

First thing we noticed when we were inside the zoo was the glorious spectacle of holiday lights that shone everywhere we looked.  It was a beautiful sight to behold, to which Scowl-Face's shaky photo does little justice.  "Flat" Cauli III then began clamoring for a photo op, so we took her picture to quiet her down.

"Flat" Cauli III poses beneath a light-strung bush

Some discourteous dude made a crack about how he couldn't believe Scowl-Face was taking photos of a "cardboard chunk" out in the cold.  The dude's leg made an ideal scratching post for moi.

There were several wild critters in lights all around the zoo.  The photos are blurry when bigified, but they don't look too bad in the smaller scale (below).

Love My Big Cousins in Lights! 

It's Morgan the Library Bunny in Lights! 

Glow Bear on the Prowl 

"I am the Walrus, goo goo g'joob"

In Part Deux of our holiday zoo visit, we'll see some real wild critters with moi and more silly poses by "Flat" Cauli III.  Stay tuned.

"I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together,"

Cauli Le Chat

MPL Roving Reporter

Holiday Zoo News Beat

P.S.  Now I've got "I Am the Walrus," by the Beatles, running through my head.  Somewhere on the Internet there's this song from a clip from the group's television movie, Magical Mystery Tour, first broadcast (in black-and-white) on December 26, 1967, on BBC1.