so it should have come as no surprise to me that when ander saw a camel at the zoo, he assumed it was samson. turns out he was correct, and so of course he could go for a ride, said i.
there were other animals at the zoo that we watched, admired, and enjoyed, but none so much as the memorable samson, who still eats his carrots whole with nary a bit of spit on his fuzzy lips.
the patagonian cavy captured ander's interest. we thought it looked like a small deer, but when i looked it up, it turns out that the mara is much more like a rabbit. maybe it recognized a bunny-lover in ander. cosette stands up to sniff at ander at home like this.
it had been a few years, i think, since we went to the zoo and it has changed management and organization and the population of animals, too. we saw cheetahs and capybaras, macaws and monkeys, llamas and lemurs, zebu and a red kangaroo, and wallabies (but we missed the watusi). i think there was a pair of fennec foxes in with the two-toed sloth, and five tortoises with the loud lorikeets. ander even braved the budgie experience with me, attempting to feed one of the feathery beauties, but the chaos and sheer volume of the many birds' chirping and especially the screaming camper children was too much for him. the wagon ride safari through the emus and the bison has changed to a bus, which we opted not to ride in the 96 degree heat, instead amusing ourselves watching the goats and the giraffe reach for offered carrot sticks.
and then we went to lunch in air conditioned convenience, savoring the comfort of spaghetti and masterful meatballs.