September 15, 2012- Turtleback Zoo- Part 1

I survived the Garden State Parkway. This is the first time that I have been on it in 7 years. Getting to the zoo wasn’t as bad as coming home; it was pretty confusing and scary then.

   We had such a good time there. My brother seemed happy esp. when we were at the otter and penguin exhibits which were our favorite. We liked the sheep a lot too; we got to pet them.

   The groundhog never came out though which was disappointing. My brother was telling a lady how he had saved a baby one that was in the middle of the street. We kept it overnight and bought it to the vets the next morning.

   Hopefully we will get to see the groundhog and a couple of the other animals that weren’t out when we go there in the spring. They are putting a new exhibit there, Sea Lions.

   The river otter wasn’t out at first so we went back there later. It was so much fun watching it swim. It was doing flips in the water and coming up to the glass. I tried getting good pictures of it in and out of the water but this was hard. I think that some came out nice.

   We both bought stuffed otters at the gift shop. I still have the 2 otters from my childhood- Seamore and Mrs. Otter. I loved playing with stuffed animals when I was a kid and totally regret getting rid of many of them in the late 1980s. They were like friends to me.

   I was feeling more joy watching that otter today than I’ve ever felt at any concert – how silly is that? They really should have a friend there for that otter; it must be pretty lonely. Other zoos have exhibits with two or more. I felt like talking to an employee there about this but was too afraid to do so.

   Part of me hates that these zoo animals can’t roam around freely in the wild, which causes me inner conflict about how I feel regarding zoos. I do enjoy seeing the animals there. I heard a young boy saying that the cougar was looking kind of sad. I was agreeing with him, thinking that maybe it is.

    Wasn’t there a” Twilight Zone” episode in which aliens held some humans in captivity like animals in a zoo on their planet?  I wonder how the animals in such places really feel.

   They had white and black wolves in addition to the gray ones. This was interesting and nice to see. I liked the big cat and farm animal exhibits also.

   Mike said that there were 8 penguins the last time that he was there. We only saw four of them. The one was swimming a lot so it was hard getting good pictures of it. I think that I got a few.

 He’s been to this zoo 4 times over the past few years. This was only my 2^nd time; the first was like 40 years ago- either 1974 or 1975. I have a few pictures of me from then. I’m on a pony in one and in another I’m petting a deer. Next year is the zoo’s 50^th anniversary.

   We only saw 4 prairie dogs. Mike saw 12 of them once. I’m just glad that they finally came out of their burrows- is that the right word? I was going to say holes.

 

Otter

Penguin

Prairie Dogs

Mrs. Otter and Seamore

Otter and Prairie Dog Souvenirs