Hamsters in Pants are DISTURBINGLY Sparse on Google Images

Last night I got an email saying that today admission to the zoo was FREE as a "Wild Wednesday." Now, I know a free $8 ticket isn't normally enough to prompt a random all-day trip downtown. But I have been feeling restless and needing to take some photos and I haven't been to the zoo in FOREVER! So, I just took off... by myself... to Hogle Zoo. Yep. Random. And COLD. But fun!



I may blog more about the zoo itself and it's changes recently in my animal-focused blog, Tails from the Ark, later. The zoo has both nostalgic AND conservationist value to me, personally. It is important to me, our dorky Utah zoo. The animals there, I *know* them. I have seen some of them grow up. I met them when I first visited family in Utah, around 25 years ago. We go back, these animals and I! Anyway, yeah, I think I'll talk more about their specific care (OH! And the fact that I just found out The Ark has a NEW baby... The Roomie adopted a new Parrot today! She called it her birthday present to herself.) and all of that later, in my animal blog. Spare you guys details of enrichment ideas I got for my gliders from fruit bats and marmosets (oh, and in this case, "enrichment" is critter talk... not Mormon talk). Unless you WANT details. Then, umm, HERE?

Anyway, my favorite part of the zoo was the Tiger because, well, first of all they are one of my favorite animals, but mostly even though the pics suck, he really WAS playing in the snow! IT WAS ADORABLE! I wanted to take wire cutters to that flimsy chain link and climb in and hug him if it was the last thing I did... and it could have been. Hee hee! Really cute though.


Also, I love all the little things. Critters that get skipped over. They are ALL fascinating. I LOVE ZOOS!


Oh and how can you not like monkeys? (Almost every picture I took is terrible. Dimly lit rooms, but glass cages and reflections of flashes, so had to turn them off, but the animals move quickly, etc. SIGH.) Fresno is afraid of monkeys. Really! It's like a phobia. I think he plays it up to be funny but really is creeped out. He actually was very scared of my gliders, too, the first trip here, even though he was nice about it. But this last trip I think Heber finally won him over and he REALLY likes them. But still not monkeys or apes of any kind. (except King Kong, which he thought was funny.) But look at those FACES! HOW can you not LOVE them? I want to cuddle every single one!
Actually, not true. I want to hold and cuddle BABY primates, and cute small adults. Nothing with large bare testes. Because I think, like, Baboons are FASCINATING from the neck up. But SO NOT CUTE. And ANY animal with an unfurry butt is GROSS and should, like, wear pants.

Seriously. I do NOT want to see that. Male Hamsters? DISGUSTING. They should be made to wear pants. Male Rats? PANTS. Baboons? PANTS. I do not know if any female animals have similarly disgusting butts, but same goes for them (and they are free to wear pants, rather than skirts, let's just have things equal. )

Luckily, at the zoo none of the animals with ugly butts mooned me, not even the Baboon. That is better than at the pet store where the male rats, hamsters, etc. are literally DRAGGING their junk around and I have to look at something adorable (like my sugar gliders... or even gerbil... all of which are very cute and modestly furred fron top to bottom and therefore don't have to wear clothes of any kind to be precious) to keep from shuddering.

Speaking of my suggies, they don't HAVE any at the zoo! They have flying squirrels. They have bats.


But the only glider RELATIVE they had was a very cute Bennett's Wallaby, I think it was?
I think they should have a whole sugar glider COLONY there, like they'd have in Australia! With a huge arboreal enclosure with trees and... yeah... actually EDUCATE people about these fuzzbutts before they BUY them so I don't see so many in need of NEW homes because their owner didn't know what the heck they were getting INTO! They are one of the coolest little critters you could ever know, but are NOT for everyone!!! I realize, since they are, well, my LIFE, I am a little biased. But STILL I think the zoo DOES need a colony. Hee hee hee!

Anyway, after the zoo I got sort of lost in Salt Lake, but it was fine as I found a DI and ended up buying some AWESOME toys for my OWN "zoo" babies and a couple of HILARIOUS records for Rinny. Like ones we had when we were little! I am rather jealous of her record player. Hmmm... that MIGHT be something I buy when I 1. get my life in order and my house out of CHAOS (Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrome) 2. have a job and 3. am financially independent.

On the job front, I called the HR lady at TGP to "see if [she'd] recieved my resume" in other words to remind her to look at it and be impressed... hopefully. She DID sound impressed/positive but said she was still trying to figure out the "proper channels" of an interview while avoiding nepotism. SIGH. Anyway, still praying for that to work out. AND, that would be a LITTLE like working at a zoo. There ARE animals there, after all.

Aaaaand I was going to write about FRESNO, but as it is late AGAIN and I am behind, I won't. Well, I WILL, but another day. Besides the many that THIS post has taken.