Our tour started out slow, but picked up quickly. We started off watching a raccoon, but quickly got into some neat critters. We got to see a huge African Porcupine. Kelly even was able to get one of his quills that had fallen out. One of my favorites was from Africa. I can't remember what he was called, but he was the largest rodent. He had fur like a rabbit, teeth like a gopher and kind of funny looking legs. We worked our way through the animals. We got to see Gators, Baboons, Monkeys, Lemurs, even a Ferret. Two of the coolest guys were the Kangaroo and the Hyena.
After a couple of hours we finally got to play, one on one with both a lynx and a little monkey. Kelly purposely did not wear any jewelry to distract the animals. She did wear kind of a black and white animal print shirt. Even though it was black and white, the Lynx took exception to her shirt and kind of gnawed at her. Even the trainer was surprised. The monkey went a little smoother. They put a diaper on the little guy and let him climb around on us. He was a little snuggle bug. He climbed up and just cuddled with me. Kind of like I would expect a grand kid to do, if I had one. Hint, Hint.
Next we had lunch with a couple of trainers then headed off to meet the elephants.
Wild Things has merged with the Elephants of Africa Rescue Society (EARS). They currently have 5 African elephants at the facility, one male named Butch, and four females named Paula, Kristi, Buffy and Manilika.
After we got to meet the elephants, the Trainer asked if we were ready to give Butch his afternoon bath. We jumped at the chance. We walked Butch over to one of the special elephant barns. An elephant barn is huge, but what is really big is the coral fencing they have to use with the elephants. Posts and rails are not wood. They are huge pieces of pipe set very deep in concrete.
Kelly and I got to scrub him up, and hose him down.
I'm going to post a couple of pictures and save the rest of the adventure for the next post. Stay Tuned!
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