A Tip, Parents Do Not Loose Your Children at the Zoo

About two years ago we took our 5 year old nephew and 3 year old niece to the zoo. It was hot sunny day so we really needed to have some mouth watering ice cream. We split, I took my niece and sat under the tree full of peacocks. Yes, the peacocks were hiding in the tree. We decided to be brave, and lucky no flying patties or rain from the sky. My husband took our nephew to get the ice cream. I think the ice cream man was making that ice cream from scratch since there were only few people in line and took them forever to deliver that mouth watering ice cream to us. The funny thing was that there were few young Amish girls same age or a bit older as my nephew and they couldn't take their eyes off him. I watched from far away as he would at times put his head up and pretend not to see them. It was kind of cute.

The ice cream was really being made from scratch. We gave up waiting, just sat under the tree and observed by passers and by standers. As the time lapsed, by standers would come and go. Then one cool looking guy, not good looking guy, but cool looking guy made a quick stop to have a cigarette. He played cool, blowing smoke to the sky. Good thing it was to the sky and wind was blowing away from us, because I am allergic to the second hand smoke and I can smell it miles away. This cool looking guy was not approachable, he just looked like one of those if you are lost somewhere, you rather be lost and not ask questions.

We continued to wait. Many people passed by us, especially lot of parents with children - walking, being pushed in strollers or pulled in wagons. As we watched all these people passing by, suddenly a child fell out the wagon. The parents continued to walk not seeing what happened. The victim of the situation was 1.5 or 2 years old girl. The second older child in the wagon, the brother, was reaching out with his hand saying something, but because it was loud no body could hear him. The little girl was stunned for a moment, so she just sat there for few seconds trying to recover. There were lot of people, so no body really noticed anything, just us and the cool guy.

I really underestimated the cool guy, he was actually first to notice and first to yelled out loud - 'excuse me, excuse me' - he at first said in deep cool voice. No response from parents. 'Excuse me, you lost your child' - he finally yelled really loud, and started to move towards the little girl. It all happened in matter of seconds, and since I knew that the cool guy was taking care of the business I just got myself ready just in case. The parents finally turned back, the girl started to cry. The parents picked up this little girl and just walked away - looking kind of embarrassed. Well may be this is why the cool guy is cool guy - he got no thank you, or even a nod of acknowledgment. And I was ready to give him a medal.

The moral to the story - don't underestimate others by their behaviour or look or cool look, they may be first to give you a helping hand after all, and probably the last to be thanked. And the main moral to the story is - strap your children to the wagon, especially when at the zoo, because it isn't just the zoo of animals, but zoo full of people and you can easily loose your child as these parents did.

My Animal Stories - Lesson Learned About Cats & Dogs

I don't know if I can describe myself an animal lover. Something happened when I was very young that made me fear all animals in general. I know that I had once an episode with small black dog barking at me. It was a surprise from nowhere, and I was only four or five years old. Until today I still remember those sharp white teeth going after me and those white eyes saying 'I am going to get you'.

In the old days, when I was ten years old, we lived on this semi-farm, where my parents and grandparents had one cow, one pig, few chickens, ducks, horses and may be rabbits. All for food. It was just like living on the organic farm. Most of our food was almost home made. 'Good old days' - I say. But not so good if I had to deal with the farm animals. I still remember those geese or roosters going after me, never mind dogs. I guess animals can sense if you fear them.

At times I was asked to take a cow to the fields. Until today, I remember how I did it. I simply took the cow, I was trembling then, and position this one big black cow so she walked on the other side of the street and me on the other. I for some reason kept looking at her, straight into her eyes, all the way to the field. Boy, the five minutes felt like hours. I pinned the cow, and ran home. Never again. Next day I asked my parents not to do it again. To my surprise, they agreed. So my five year old sister then took the cow to the fields. All I have to say she was a brave child.

Years passed with very little interest in any domestic animals. They were just cute to me, but nothing more or less. Let say that later when I was in my late twenties, I found out two things about cats and dogs.

Few years ago I was visiting my sister in her apartment. By the end of the night her cat and me finally warmed up to each other, thus the cat ended up sitting on my laps. Suddenly, the cat's body started to make funny sound and emitting funny vibration. 'Oh my', I told my sister, 'I think there is something wrong with your cat, do you think we need to take him to the washroom?' She laughed, and replied, 'the cat likes you'. Lesson learned - the cat was purring.

Some moons ago, my husband and me were attending a birthday party. When food got ready, a group of us got up and started to walk towards the buffet area. As we were walking my brother-in-law took his arm and put on my shoulder. Suddenly, a dog that belonged to my then future sister-in-law, jumped on my one leg and made a happy face. Since I had my brother-in-law close by, I accepted, and out loud with big smile on my face I said, 'look, look, this dog likes me ...'. 'Anna I think its more than that ...', my sister-in-law replied. Lesson learned - the dog was humping me. Yeah this dog was a real leg hugger especially when others hugged too, lol.

I still laugh at myself. But hey some of us learn things later in life.

The Bear Fight

This is the beginning of my satirical modern novel, or not. However, when I will finish this write up who knows what kind of write up this will be - may be a new form called just blobbing. It was early Friday morning and I went biking again, this time alone. Just to let you know, this summer started nicely for us. We started with walking, and slowly added bikes to our local adventures. We are on the shopping spree for hiking trails, and seems like where we live there are no shortage of walking and biking trails. Where was I? Oh yes, its Friday morning and I am biking. However, the real adventure starts with local bear fight. So here I am in the middle of nowhere, well, somewhere, looks like grassland to me. Sun is up above me. Must be noon time. I don't have a watch - I don't know how this relates to this story. Can you see, I am trying to set the mood. Anyway, the BEAR. Bear can be defined as a furry animal with big head and big claws. What kind of bear, no idea. I am hoping for a grizzly bear. The wilder the better, this could be a real fight. Oh yes, yes, lets go back how it all started. I followed sleep on the couch front of the TV watching some National Geographic documentary, I think it was called the Dog Whisperer. Suddenly I am in the middle of this grassland. I am debating if I should leave this to your imagination, you probably know what happened. Yes she followed sleep and she is dreaming. You are exactly correct. But this story gets better, please don't stop reading. I am standing in the middle of the grassland, how do I know it is middle - I don't, but the middle is better to describe as opposed to North of this White Oak tree and to the left of this burning bush, and on the end who cares. Did I say a burning bush? Yes, a burning bush. So what is the real story about this burning bush, does it really burn? If yes, please someone show me the picture or show me some kind of evidence. Why would you even want to call this bush, a burning bush. I think this bush is not appreciating that we are calling it a burning bush. So I see this bear hovering around the bush, and it must be a burning bush because hell this bush is red. Something wrong, the bush cannot be red yet, its summer. Got yhaaaaa. Let start this again, it all started with the Dog Whisperer show. I recall also that there used to be a horse whisperer and parrot whisperer. Personally, I like the parrot whisperer because she could actually whisper in English. Okay it was few words but they were meaningful, like 'Hello'. And we all know how much it means to us when someone says hello to us. It means a lot, like a lot. Not sure how much a lot is but it means a lot. So this bear finally attacks me and whispers to my ear - 'I am going to get you'. And I am thinking you already have me, and what is this - a bear whisperer, oh no not another show - we do not need another whisperer show, or another reality show. Lets describe this fight now. The bear grabs me from the back and lifts me up, and that really lifted my spirits up. Then he started to spin around. Is he having a good time, do I look like a toy. This reminded me a bear fight on one of the Lucy shows. Just to point out, that bear on the Lucy show was not a real bear. If you saw this show or the bear, I think you will agree, the bear was fake as it can be. Well, I don't care if this was real bear or not, I Love Lucy show a lot. Remember no definition for my 'a lot', but I tell you one thing, I watched this show for two years straight since the discovery of her existence. I think it all started with 50th anniversary of the I Love Lucy show. Sometimes, I think I am like her, but then there are ten other shows and they resembled my life in detail as accurately as the bear fight. Since we are on the bear fight topic or more accurately, I am on the bear fight topic and trying to introduce this Canadian Open 2007 bear fight. May be with this statement in addition to the bear fight I will now have to worry about pack of gophers attacking me. Or they will see the bear and run away, but this is just my imagination in my dream, just another crazy dimension that Albert Einstein would want to get the Nobel Prize for. This man was a genius, a real genius. I like him. I sometimes wonder about his hair due, is it like that because he was fighting a bear? So now I am in the field being spanned by the bear, and Albert Einstein is standing in front of me trying to help, but he is scared as hell. I wonder if he was the one to discover the pepper spray. And I also see this pack of gophers once in the while sticking their heads from the ground, up and down, and up and down - the rolling golf hills can really do that to you. Did you ever see a gopher? If not, go and see it - they are real fun to watch. I think you can find them in Jasper National Park, Alberta, Canada. So the story is getting better now. I am in Jasper National Park with Albert Einstein trying to invent pepper spray really hard on the fly and pack of gophers cheering the whole situation. And I am here thinking - why? Why what? All this is not making any sense. Albert Einstein is long time goner, pepper spray been in circulation for ages, and what are these gophers cheering for, I don't even like golfing. But then this pack of dogs shows up barking at the bear and the bear releases me, and runs away. I think that was a grizzly bear. I got few pillow marks from having my arm under pillow, but all is good now. I am back on my feet turning the TV off and heading for the bedroom. I guess the Dog Whisperer show is now over.

[FICTION]