Sunsets and Otters

Mrs. L. needed the house empty so she could bake pies for our pie night festivities, so I went to the zoo Saturday afternoon with the four youngest bairns. Grandma and Grandpa came too, along with three-year old cousin Marc.

The Baltimore Zoo has been much in the news lately because of budget shortfalls. There were plans discussed to send their elephants away, and some of their rare species for breeding elsewhere. A groundswell of community and business support has brought sufficient moneys that such measures *probably* will be unnecessary.

It was a beautiful day, clear skies, slight breeze, temperatures close to 70 degrees fahrenheit. We left the coats in the car, though I wished later that I had brought them when the sun went behind the hill.

The zoo starts out as a straight line. You go by some birds in cages, some land mammals in cages, a predatory bird exhibit, and prairie dog village. Highlights here were watching a large black goose duel with a zoo caretaker wielding a leafblower. The goose would spread his wings and puff up his feathers, while sneaking up behind the leafblowing zoo lady. Every once in a while, the zoo lady would turn around and shake a finger at the goose. There were some beautiful arctic foxes, both sound asleep. The gibbon cage was funny, because four gibbons were racing around the top, swinging from handhold to handhold, in some kind of a chase-game. One of the swingers (heh) had a baby gibbon hanging on for dear life.

The next stop was the new $3 million polar bear facility. The money came to the zoo as a grant specific for the bears, so they couldn’t *not* build this facility and spend the money on the short-fall, in case you were wondering. The bears were a total let down, completely lounging lazily about the place. Kids had fun bouncing around the pseudo-tundra buggy (those things you can take out and watch the polar bears in Canada).

We spent about 30 minutes after that in the kid’s zoo. The cows mooed, the chickens crowed, and everyone got to help brush out the goats. The littlest one was brave and went down the curvy slide all by herself, and I was pleased with her confidence.

Next, we split up, with cousin and one son going with Grandpa to the reptile exhibit, and Grandma going through the swamp and river habitat with me. This is where it got a little chilly, because this habitat is in the woods, in the lee of a big hill. Kids were all terribly amused, crawling through the groundhog habitat and poking their heads up to wave at Daddy. Youngest laid down on a rope bridge and giggled madly while the other two kids jumped up and down, making it swing back and forth.

The absolute highlight of the day came next. They have an otter installation that mocks a real river and dam, with plexiglass viewports into the “river” where the otters live. At first, I didn’t see anything. But then one poked its head up, spied me looking at it, and *jumped* into the river, swimming right over to the viewport. The other otter joined in, and they danced for me, swimming figure-eights in front of the window, looking right at me when they’d surface for air. The unbridled glee of their play was sanctifying, peaceful, and beautiful. I hollered for the kids to come and watch, we sat mesmerized at the show for ten minutes. Just us and the otters, in the growing shadow of dusk, alive and glorious.