Zoo Day

Tim, Dave and I spent a day at the Minnesota Zoo last month. Here are some highlights.



We saw wolverines humping- how cool is that?!





Otters are always adorable!



While we were looking at the gibbons they started singing. After their song I overheard a mother say to her son, "Can you believe something that little could be so loud?"

I can. I heard her kids screaming just a few minutes before...and after.




From children to something a little more pleasant- the zoo's Komodo dragon!

This little guy was only born yesterday, but was already cruising around at top speed.



The lynx was relaxing in the shade, undoubtedly dreaming of snacking on one of those screaming kids.

Giraffe are unbelievably beautiful. This guy was begging for food.

I wanted to ride the takin, but Tim said no. Then for undisclosed reasons having nothing to do with me jumping in the tiger enclosure and rounding them up to make an unholy army of the night we had to leave.

So that was our day at the zoo!

Oscar DeLaMew

Oscar was born just down the road. His mother and another female gave birth within a few weeks of each other. He grew up in a garage with nine other kittens to play with and both females looking after him.

Once they were old enough the kittens were offered for free to anyone coming by. Gradually all were gone but him and another tiny orange kitten who was still too little to be away from mom. On Wednesday June 3 we stopped by looking for a black and white spotted kitten Katie had seen the week before. The spotted kitten was gone, but Oscar was there hiding under a car.

I remember how shy he was, running back under the car the second anyone moved. But after we were there for a few minutes he relaxed and started playing around. He moved with such a swagger for a little kitten and I remember him walking in front of Tim and flopping on his side. I knew then that he was going to be a fun little kitten.

The problem was Tim was so disappointed about the spotted kitten that he didn't want Oscar, so we left. I went to do some errends all the while texting Tim and trying to convince him that Oscar needed us. Finally I wore him down so he said yes. I picked him up on the way home. He rode home on my shoulders, which is still his favorite place when he's scared.

Oscar is a spunky fun little guy with boundless energy and curiosity. He is all over everything and is into whatever is happening. But come bedtime he's all snuggles and wants nothing more than to curl up by your head and only stops purring when he falls asleep.

He's already completely charmed everyone in the family.



Who knows what mysteries he ponders while he sleeps?


How could you not love that face?

Stampede!!

I woke up this morning to my uncle yelling, "You have three horses loose!" And I was thinking, why did he say three? Do I have more than three?


When I woke up sufficiently to decide, yes I do want to put my jeans on and contacts in. I went out to the barn grabbed some grain, halters, and lead ropes, and mom and I started walking around the property looking for them.

At this point I'm not worried at all. The horses have escaped before but never went further than the front yard. They usually find a good patch of grass and just start grazing. That's all they want anyway. So it was very weird to walk around the whole farm and not see them anywhere.


Now I'm a little worried thinking where on earth did they go?? They don't know where any other horses live which is where they would naturally go.

So we hop in the car and head down the road. After talking to Pat the neighbor we went down to Horseplay Ranch to see if they found their way down there. We talked to a girl there who said she'd call the owner and go out to check the back pastures.


We headed home to pick up the other car so we could cover more ground. We split up, I went south and mom went east. Now I'm wondering how far will they go. If they followed Willow Dr. they could end up at Hwy. 55. I tried not to think about it.

Five minutes later mom called me and said she found them at the end of a dead end grazing in someones front yard. WHEW!


By the time I pulled up, mom had halters on Ben and Skylar but Candy was giving me that look like she was going to be a problem. She has issues with getting her halter on. She's a baby doll once you get it on her but she just has a block about getting it on, it's a holdover from her breeder days.

As I'm walking toward her a van pulls up and a woman and 2 girls hop out. They're from Horseplay Ranch come out to help us find the horses. The girls are really excited about helping out so one of them takes Ben and Skylar the other tries to grab Candy. Candy was super twitchy but finally I got a lead rope around her neck and she calmed right down.


After getting halters and leads on them we take a minute to let them settle down and graze some. Chatting with the lady we find out that Mary is the owner of Horseplay. A really nice lady, we swap stories of escaped horses and talk about all sorts of horsey things. She said if I ever needed anything she can hook me up. Very cool.

So the whole time we're chatting with Mary all I can think is oh my gosh the horses are dirty (it rained last night so they rolled in the mud) they still have some of their scruffy winter coats-especially Ben- and they need their hooves trimmed! I know she understands, it's not like they're in bad shape, it's just like going out without your makeup and running into someone you like.

They're home and safe now, locked in the corral until we can fix the electric fence. I still don't know what happend to make them flip out and run away.



The culprits.