Farmazoolapalooza

This has been BUSY, animal filled weekend. Saturday found Cooper and I at the farm, again, visiting all of our now very familiar friends, and making one new one - Truffle, a black cow who let us scratch her ears and nose. She is a very short, stocky cow. She is the kind of cow I imagine I would be if I was a cow. I am not a tall person, only 5'4" and I kind of liked Truffle's look. Short, compact, and appreciative of a good ear scratch.

Today we checked out the Franklin Park Zoo. We have quite a few zoos in this area to choose from. This has officially been deemed the Summer of the Zoo. We will try to check them all out. Franklin Park has many of the traditional animals you hope to find at a zoo if you are a small person obsessed with the movie Madagascar: lions, tigers, zebras, giraffs, and LEMURS. It also has a nice selection of primates, which Cooper was quite interestingly unimpressed by. There are 6 gorillas there, and at one point you can be as up close and personal with them as being separated by a giant reinforced pane of glass will allow, and yet, Cooper was all "Yeah, nice, LION?"

I am not a big fan of zoos, what with all the imprisoned animals and all, but this is a pretty nice facility with very "realistic" and open air enclosures. If by realistic we mean in almost downtown Boston. How close to being in Africa is it in January in Boston? Whatever. The animals seemed comfortable. There are two Bactarian Camels. I am not sure how these differ from any other camel, but I was surprised to see that their humps were floppy. Since I have very little experience with camels, I don't know if this is normal or a sign of something like being old. Flumpy humps aside, they were impressive.

In other news, we went to a birthday party yesterday held at our local YMCA. There was a bouncy house. This was Cooper's first experience with a bouncy house. It took a solid 15 minutes before he was convinced going inside was okay, and then once in there, he never actually BOUNCED. He walked, ran, laid down, but never jumped up and down. He loved it, as long as he wasn't on the receiving end of any of the punches and elbows being thrown by a kid who is soon to be on the Rangers roster to replace Sean Avery after he gets his butt suspended permanently one day. That kid needs some Cesar Milan style pre-schooler whispering. He was downright hostile. His mother was on his case the entire time, but short of removing him from the gathering, there didn't seem to be any stopping him.

For me, the bouncy house looked like one giant germ fest. I can't help it. I looked at this thing and thought "How much spit, sweat, snot and gunk is on the floor of this thing that my kids' face has just been rolling on." Heebie Jeebies. It didn't cause me to stop him from going in there, but ugh. Tubby time could not come fast enough. And now I keep hearing about how the swine flu has surfaced in Mexico, killing 60+ people, and how people are coming back from their vacations sick - helloooo anyone else notice this is SPRING BREAK and SCHOOL VACATION time - and you just know this is not over yet.

I know it seems contradictory that I don't mind if Cooper pets a cow but I am grossed out by a bouncy house. I know how that cow has been raised on that organic farm. I don't have the same level of confidence in the cleaniness standards for everyone who has been in that bouncy house. Let's just hope none of them have been to Mexico recently.