Our Summer Start

So being the awesome cool mom that I am, I planned our Summer vacation out. I did this about 2 weeks ago and decided that we were going to have fun and the kids were going to enjoy every.single.second. Uh, well can subtract the times that they were poopy, hungry, tired or otherwise discontent with my choices of venue? Ok, so for our fabulous 20 minutes..... No really, they did enjoy the first venue but at the end, mama was not happy.

But let me tell you why. Do you care? Well you should, because you're still reading... (Hi Kim!) Our outing started off a little shaky. Prior to our excursion, I had taken the kids to the playground one morning so I would not strangle someone and my little angel Ian had clearly decided to empty half of the playgrounds pea gravel into the bottom of the stroller. Great. Fabulous. It would have been ok had I remembered and emptied it out prior to folding up stroller and emptying rocks all over the van and into Chris's grass. Uh yeah, Chris's grass. As in he's obsessed with the grass in the lawn. Murder. It.was.awesome. So after listening to that for about 10 minutes on the way and making sure my lungs and voice were working well, we got there. Where you ask? The zoo. The Capital of Texas Zoo.

Here's the thing about zoos: I think they're only one level up from circus's. I don't like circus's or rodeo's. Hate is a better word I'd say because you would not and could not pay me to go to either of them. Ever. Something about containing wild animals in small tiny inadequate "enclosures" (like that, Kim?) irks me.  This zoo clearly was no different. It was tiny and run down and even though Ian was just flabbergasted with the animals, I felt sad.  I felt sad for the snakes in the obviously too small cages, the tiny little wallaby's that looked like they had been forgotten and the horse that looked starved. Don't even get me started on the macaws and monkeys that also seemed lonely and forgotten. Then we got to the Zebras, Tigers and Lions, OH MY. Don't Zebras live in grasslands or Savannah's? Uh, well here they live in rocky hillside... One deer got his head stuck trying to get to the grass just outside his cage.  Maybe it's the animal lover inside of me or the notion that these majestic animals just don't belong in cages where they can't run and hunt and do whatever it is that wild animals do. And don't camels live in the desert? Not here, friends. They live in grassy hills. Away from the other animals, surrounded by junk.  Now here's the thing, I love that some zoos are actually here to help with programs such as rehabilitation, breeding etc. but this place just seemed wrong to me. Inadequate. It was a bit disheartening.

All in all, we had fun. I did not or will not let my feelings about the animals show to my kids but I just felt like this zoo did not have the love or funds really to keep up a place like this. The kids liked it and I do like seeing the animals but I can never shake the thought about what they feel or what they think about their new home. Do they remember the wild? Were they ever actually IN the wild to remember it? Do they miss their family or place?

I'm not anti-zoo but I do feel like something as majestic as a lion or bear or monkey should at least have a place to run and call their home that is not a thrown together shack... Clearly my heart is bleeding...let me go put a band-aid on it. ;)