So last week, I decided to take my family for a fun outing to our local zoo, the Zoo of Acadian or as their marketing department calls it, Zoosiana. It was a beautiful sunny afternoon, with temperatures in the low 80s. Hurricane Irma was still off shore with her eyes fixed squarely on Florida. As millions of other families were bracing for possible calamity, I remember having mixed feeling about whether we should be out enjoy this unusually nice weather here in Louisiana. I guess I subconsciously came to the conclusion that staying indoors wouldn’t stop the storm from making landfall, so we made the twenty minute drive to the the north side of town.
As we pulled into the parking lot, the place was packed, and the ticket booth was backed up way too far for my comfort. I do not enjoy standing around if I don’t have too, but my lovely wife encouraged my to suck it up and just deal with it. Several families with kids much younger than ours, allowed them to run around unbridled… playing tag, digging in the dirt, laughing, screaming, and begging constantly for hydration. I had several quick flashbacks to when our kids were young and fancy free. Good times indeed.
After about twenty more minutes, a kid up towards the front of the line, starts yelling at the top of his lungs to his dad who was almost at the very end of the line. Like me, this kid had also grown tired of waiting. He had gone to the front of the line and discover that there was a second ticket booth that no one was using. He was thoroughly convinced that everyone was standing around for nothing, and he wasn’t going to take it any longer. The tone of his voice was shrill and whiny and extremely annoying, but he sounded so sure of himself that I decided to go check things out for myself. To my surprise, when I got to the front of the line, there actually were two windows, but I was uncertain whether they were both open or not because there weren’t any signs. As I headed back to where my family was standing, the guy in front of me asked if the screaming kid was right or not. I told him that I didn’t know, but it seemed like he could be right. So that guy decided to go talk to someone… and sure enough, the kid was right! My family and I went to the second window and within just a couple minutes, we were walking through the gates of the park. Who knows how long we would have been waiting if it wasn’t for that obnoxious kid.
Thanks kid!
One of my favorite things about this zoo is how close you can get to all the animals. Some of the most exotic and potentially dangerous creatures are just out of arms length. When you enter the park, the first enclosure you come to is filled with a flock of flamingos. The second has two large male lions. A waist high wooden fence and approximately five feet of grass are the only things keeping you from reaching your hand through a chainlink fence and petting the king of the jungle. All throughout the park there are opportunities to have close encounters with animals from all over the globe.
We meandered past monkeys, reptiles, goats, bears, lemurs, llamas, tigers, black panthers, birds of all shapes colors and sizes. We learned facts about what they like to eat, when they sleep, and what corner of the world they are native to. We got to hand-feed a donkey, a pony, and an entire room full of parakeets. My oldest son got to pet the face of a friendly giraffe for a couple seconds, until he touched a knot towards the top of its head. It didn’t like that at all and promptly tried to headbutt my son. Although we did have a good laugh over that one, it would only be the first near death experience of the day.
At the leopard exhibit, a dad with a little girl on his shoulder was pacing back and forth in front of the fence as the big cat paced back and forth on the other side. The dad was taunting the cat, as it appeared to be intently staring at the tasty morsel draped around the man’s neck. Why do people do the things they do?
It only took us about an hour and a half to see the majority of the animals and to feel satisfied with our visit. So we headed back to the front of the park where the exits are and also to where some restrooms are conveniently located. The boys and I didn’t need to go, so we took advantage of some benches near the lion enclosure. Both of the large animals were just lazily lying on the dusty ground looking miserably hot and uncomfortable. I noticed a lady with a couple young kids leaning up against the wooden fence that was supposed to keep people from getting too close to the lions. One of the kids had climbed on top of the fence and the other was trying to climb underneath. Fortunately, the mom stopped the little girl from going all the way under. But then, the adult women decided that it would be funny to throw water on the lion nearest the fence. With the first splash, the lion did flench when the water hit him, but it didn’t seem to bother it that much. So the women, threw some more water on it. The second splash made the lion sit up. With the third smash, the lion growled and jump to its feet. The women flung even more water at the cat, this time hitting it right in the face. The lion absolutely lost its mind! It was like seeing something straight out of National Geographic. He let out an even deeper and more terrifying roar… just before he charged and nailed the thin chainlink fence with the most incredible force. The mom and kids just laughed and continued goofing around like it was no big deal. And then the kid on the fence started screaming at the lion. Screaming the most annoying / angry roar. At that point, I did not know which was more scary – the kid or the lion.
I guess the point of this story is if you are going to the zoo with your family, I would recommend first that you make sure you are standing in the right line. If there is an annoying kid yelling about another ticket booth being open, it might be worthy investigating yourself. Otherwise, you could spend most of your family time standing outside of the zoo rather than inside of it. I would also suggest not trusting the cute animals just because they are cute. A giraffe almost took off my son’s head for simply rubbing it the wrong way. I can’t image what might have happened if my other kids angered the room full of parakeets. And the most important piece of advice I can give you is when you are near a lion enclosure –
Do Not Water The Lions – or you will piss them off!
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