“It’s Pretty Much My Favorite Animal…

…it’s like a lion and a tiger mixed...bred for its skills in magic.” – Napoleon Dynamite

Yes, I have seen a Liger, Napoleon, and I might have to agree. Except for the magic part. Because honestly, I have no idea about that stuff.

We finally took Caedmon to the Wild Wilderness Drive Through Safari the other day. The weather was beautiful and it was a perfect day to drive around in our air-conditioned vehicle and look at animals that might or might not care we exist.

Caedmon was excited. But he was also tired, which was weird. He’s usually a ball of energy at that time of day, but he kept asking to sit down and rest. Weird. And yes, I did check his temperature. It was normal.

We did the drive-thru portion first. I knew if Caedmon got out to pet stuff, we’d never get him back in the car to go look at the rest of the animals.

We’re coming up on the camels.

Apparently the Zebras didn’t really care much about us.

And this Longhorn was close enough to touch…but we didn’t. Because that would be against the rules. And besides, we’re more Razorback people than Longhorn people.

We saw a wide variety of animals, none of which Caedmon was very enamored with. He just wanted to know why…why that one was eating; why that one was laying down; why that one was running. The questions wore me out. We finally made it back to the petting area, where the kids (baby goats) were loving Caedmon. He thought they were pretty cool, too.

And finally…the Liger. A cross between a lion and a tiger. Yes, they’re real.

Her name was Layla and she was 7 weeks old. She was very affectionate – she would purr and rub all over you, trying to get up in your lap. She even nibbled on Caedmon a bit. She thought he was sweet, obviously.

In the same enclosure, they also had a Ring-Tail Lemur. It was extremely friendly and jumped on my shoulders several times. And I think this is the only picture I got of it, and actually, Caedmon took this.

It was eating a banana. And very spastic. I couldn’t help but be reminded of King Julien on Madagascar/The Penguins of Madagascar.

We also got to hang out with some baby lions. These guys were 7 months old and too cool for school. They didn’t mind being pet, but they were not very affectionate.

In fact, Caedmon and the lion were at one point, both distracted by something completely different.

The lion was checking out a nearby enclosure with a porcupine. Caedmon was wishing he could go play with this guy.

You have to be 12 to get to go into the monkey enclosure. I think if Caedmon had been allowed in there, we may have never left.

But he was tired. Caedmon kept telling us he was ready to go, which is so not like him. At one point, we sat down at a picnic table because he wanted to rest.

He was ready to go home. So after we made the rounds and saw everything we could see and pet everything we could pet, we left. And Caedmon promptly fell asleep in the car, which almost never happens. Ever.

When we got home it was noon, and I I stupidly woke him up and fed him lunch instead of just taking him straight to his bed. Why was that stupid? Because that meant there was zero naptime later. The boy laid in his bed and goofed off for two hours. Sang, talked, etc…but he stayed in his bed, which is the important part.

I was beginning to think he wasn’t impressed with his visit to see the animals. Until he saw Uncle HLB the next day and the first thing he said was, “I pet a lion!” I suppose if it’s important enough to tell your uncle about, it was a pretty good day.