Yesterday was the best day of my whole entire life. Well, maybe not ACTUALLY, but it was pretty damn close.
Here’s why……
Yup….Tom and I did the lemur encounter at the Hamilton Zoo and it was freakin’ amazing. Before we walked into the enclosure the zoo keeper gave us some instructions, like “Don’t pet the lemurs.” and I was thinking to myself, “What is this?! I can’t love ’em and squeeze ’em and hug ’em?! This is bullshit!” But once you’re in there and those adorable little things are climbing all over you to get to the yummy raisins in your hands, it really doesn’t matter much that you aren’t supposed to pet them.
The reason we weren’t supposed to pet them is because lemurs don’t like how we smell and are only even anywhere near us because we’ve got raisins in our hands which is their idea of the VERY BEST TREAT IN THE WORLD. Petting the lemurs gets our scent more embedded in their fur and makes it harder for them to groom our yucky smell out. The zookeeper came around once and gave us a handful of raisins and said she’d come back around with one more handful but to be stingy with the raisins because the lemurs would leave as soon as they discovered there were no more treats for them. Tom and I were SUPER stingy with our raisins and I discovered that you didn’t actually have to feed the little critters to get them to climb all over you, they’d smell the raisins and search you look crazy until you gave them one. Mine and Tom’s raisins outlasted everyone else’s.
And sure enough, as soon as all the raisins were gone, so were the lemurs. The zookeeper said they’d be off grooming each other for hours to get our smells off. Man, they REALLY like raisins.
Their fur was super soft, way softer than I expected (I didn’t pet them, I promise! But I did accidentally touch them a few times), and they’ve got little pads on their feet so when they climb all over you they don’t scratch you up at all, and they’re really really light. Tom kept saying it was like being walked on by marshmallows. And they didn’t smell at all nor did they pee or poop all over you.
I kept luring them onto Tom’s head with the raisins.
I know I’m inundating y’all with these photos but you all know how I feel about lemurs and after this lemur encounter I’m more in love with them than ever. And now I can cross something off my bucket list which I didn’t even know was on there which was to get a lemur to climb onto Tom’s head. Life is complete now.
I just have to add these last few photos because they make me laugh…it looks like Tom found himself a new lemur girfriend……
The way her (they were all female) paw is on his leg, it almost looks like I’ve got some competition.
Doesn’t her facial expression say, “Back off, bitch?” to you? It sure does to me.
All in all, it was a great experience and it made me really happy. I couldn’t stop smiling the whole time. Tom really liked it too which made me even happier.
After the lemur encounter we walked around the zoo and looked at the other animals which all paled in comparison to the lemurs. I did enjoy watching the meerkats do their little famous standy thing (what the hell are you supposed to call it?!).
They’re cute and all, but MAN did their enclosure ever stink. I don’t think I’d want them climbing all over me.
I’ve been coughing (again) and sneezing for the past few days now. And I went in to a bathroom at the zoo and read a sign next to the sink that said there is a minor measles epidemic going around. It listed all the early symptoms like a runny nose, sneezing, coughing, and a fever. I walked out of the bathroom and told Tom I have the measles and he said, “You were in a public bathroom Googling your symptoms? That’s kind of weird. Plus, you’re not supposed to self-diagnose using the internet anymore. It doesn’t end well.”
“I didn’t Google my symptoms! The bathroom told me I have measles! Feel my forehead, am I hot?” But Tom just shook his head at me and wouldn’t even check to see if I have a fever. He really should listen to me more often. The last time he didn’t believe that I had whooping cough and look what happened….I wound up in the emergency room. Tom says that regardless of having to go to the ER, I still did not have whooping cough. He may be right, but I feel this means he needs to pay better attention to my early warning signs.
I hope I didn’t give those little lemurs the measles. I’d feel so bad.
Happy Easter, y’all.
You were vaccinated against the measles, my love.
Against NEW ZEALAND measles??
best pictures evah!!