Saturday, November 15, 2008

Tortoises

The girls, our 7 year old foster friend, and I went to the Austin Zoo last weekend. Everyone loved it. We saw a lion roaring maybe eight feet from our faces. We saw llamas, cougars, pot-bellied pigs, and big, huge tortoises.....

One tortoise had two front feet (paws?) on top of the back of the other. He was grunting. He was groaning. And suddenly: Tammy, what is he DOING to that other turtle?

Yikes. Do I really want to explain this one? "um, I am not sure." I responded as a woman next to me chuckled. "Why is he making noises like a cow?" asked Little Bit. "um, I am not sure." I responded again, as the woman next to me chuckled. "Why does it look like the one on the bottom is crying?" asked our 7 year old companion. "um, I am not sure." I repeated and that darn woman beside me laughed one more time. "Maybe it's like the turtles at the UT turtle pond....he's just trying to climb on her back to get closer to the sun."

Seriously? That satisfied their curiosity? Awesome!

Sass brought some great artwork home from support group on Monday night. A beautiful picture of two tortoises...one on top of the other. Seriously. Awesome!

1 comment:

amycs said...

We saw some ducks at the park in the same state last summer. It was horrific. Looked like it was not consensual, if you know what I mean. At least since it looked like they were fighting, that's what we told the kids.

Note for future reference: if you want to avoid uncomfortable moments with children at zoos, avoid the Bonobos monkeys. They are X rated.