Adventures at the Zoo

This post could have had so many titles...

Adventures at the Zoo
Adventures in Mis-Speaking
How to make your friends tease you for life
How not to identify animals
How to jump to conclusions
The time DJ spoke too soon

I could go on.
But I won't. You'd much rather read the adventure story.

So there we were... We'd been at the zoo most of the day and we were all very tired. DJ was headed towards a trail and spotted what looked like an empty cage. However people were gathered at the fence so I asked what was going on. He glanced over, saw the hip/hind end of an animal, and spoke a sentence that will live on in family stories for the rest of his days. "Oh look! It's more elephants! But like, a different kind of elephant." He then started to walk away. Since elephants are my favorite animal at the zoo I was very excited to see this "different kind of elephant" so I headed towards the cage. As I rounded to the corner I was shocked to see that this elephant was a very different elephant indeed!



Meet Moro. The rhino.

I laughed so hard I nearly fell down. I know I was doubled over for several minutes. I threatened to get out my pre-k flash cards and laughed some more. The rest of the zoo trip everyone teased DJ about it. "Look DJ - a different kind of bird!" "Hey DJ! There's a picture of your elephant!"

Sweet DJ continues to say he only saw the color of the skin and the hind end or hip of the animal in question. He spoke without seeing the animal. But that doesn't change the fact that he called a rhino an elephant.

We teased him (and continue to tease him) mercilessly. And that's how we narrowly escaped death...

My sister would like me to mention penguins. We saw penguins at the zoo. African penguins. We even got to see one up close in a little pet taxi. The zookeeper said she wasn't a happy camper because she'd just gotten a procedure. We let her move on her way. But she was cute. I'd love to own a penguin. But I don't think the dogs would like that very much...