Miscellaneous

I was at the Natural Science Center this weekend, which is a poor excuse for a scienctific study arena that's full of animals that are either bored or obsessive-compulsive - didn't see a happy creature in the bunch, not that there were many to see. Only two stand out in my memory: first, the hapless Mexican coati (such as pictured below; picture not mine) which seemed to spend most, if not all, of its waking hours pacing back and forth along a two-foot strip of packed dirt on the edge of its roomy cage. The enclosure was carpeted in lush green grass, except the strip where the animal's endless trampling had killed all sign of life. Clearly, they thought the animal would thrive in that setting, simply because it's a male and male coatis live a solitary lifestyle (according to the plaque on the miserable creature's cage). Guess they didn't figure the coati would want more than an 8x8 cell to roam around in, perhaps a female with which to have the occasional romp. Animal rights advocates: you want to do something important, work to abolish zoos. Especially zoos that think they're doing monkeys a favor by giving them trees with no leaves to live and play in. That was bullshit, and it's threatening to ruin my entire summer if I can't get the depressing image of that insane, overgrown rat-cat out of my head soon.

Second, though, are the meerkats. Without even trying, they are freaking hilarious; I was bent double, laughing. Zoology lesson: a group of meerkats is called a mob. This mob had two babies, born May 9, and they were just adorable, miniature versions of whichever ones were their parents, i.e. they could have belonged to anyone. When I first walked into the zoo, they were shy and hiding underground. When I was leaving, they had their heads out of the hole, so I stuck around to see what they would do, if anything. All they did was stand up, on their haunches, and they set me off tittering. Mostly because they were just standing there and staring at us with the same amount of interest as the gathering crowd had in them. Then their elders started coming out of the hole, and gathering around them, and they stood up as well. One of them had a big belly that also doubled as a resting pad for its upper paws. It sort of settled down around the belly, like an old man, or Obasanjo (same thing really). Seeing them all just standing/sitting and staring at us sent me into hysterics. It was an interesting mirror for we humans, I think - questions like, who is really in the cage then? came to mind. (Them, obviously, but maybe they choose not to acknowledge that.)

They still make me laugh. Note the sharp attention of the little one (standing straight) and the more laidback (nearly drunken) expression on Obasanjo-kat's face - the true mark of an experienced zoo-dwelling meerkat, with the stomach to match. One of them came to get a closer look, kinda like a customs officer: yes, how can we help you? (see below)


I was still giggling when I left the NSC.


The rest of the week is looking pretty tame, as always. With any luck, I'll be able to whip up the energy to go and see Sicko, see what all the hoop-la is about.



In other news, I'm looking for a night-time job (in addition to), though I have no idea how I'll be able to pull that off, since I kinda like to sleep at night....