The Spider Monkey and the Tiger

First, the spider monkey.  Long arms and never-ending legs wrapped tightly around mama's neck and middle as he screamed mama, mama, mama.  Yeah, that was the reality of our first morning drop off at the babysitter.  The little manh's babysitter cares for a couple of kindy kids in my school neighbourhood so I was reassured by my kindy teacher friends that though he was teary and not himself he was no longer wailing for mama an hour later when she brought her little ones to school.  By lunch time pick up the teariness had subsided after a good nap and a snack.  Thank god for spies...they kept me going today.

He cried himself to sleep for that morning nap, ate well (yummy Indian fare, not mama's food), skipped his afternoon nap completely and refused to drink any milk at all ALL DAY LONG...

An 8 oz bottle in the classroom before heading home and a very long car nap, a big dinner, calming bath and another 8 ozs while watching dancing with the stars leading up to a later than I had hoped for night and we will do it all again tomorrow starting at 6am.

Yikes.

Now Tigers...seriously, remember this picture?

Yeah, and Auntie Cindy feeding the tigers using tongs while we stood way back from the fencing.

We were IN the enclosure, a little feeding cage.  Cindy was explaining how the keepers had to use tongs to give snacks to the big cats to make sure they didn't get grabbed...and mauled.  I was holding that baby boy TIGHT.  The only risk was that a cat might "spray us" and that certainly isn't life threatening.

Now, in the news tonight was this:
Police and Calgary Zoo officials are investigating an incident where two men were attacked by a Siberian tiger after allegedly breaking into zoo property around 1 a.m. this morning.


Zookeepers believe Vitali, a two-year-old male tiger, hooked onto one of the men's arms with his claws.

Though it is not known how this happened, zoo officials said tigers cannot reach outside the cage so the men were likely pressed up against or reaching inside the cage.


Seriously people, this is Vitali...

afraid to come up to the fence to meet a 30 inch infant standing beside a bucket of chicken heads.  What were these donkeys doing, throwing rocks at him?

So, advice from the resident Spider Monkey: 

Herbivores good...

Pat the camels. 

Stick your arm all the way into their mouth if the mood strikes you. 

Carnivores bad...

Enough said.