#1. The Kangaroo.
We entered the Healesville Animal Sanctuary in Australia last week and I had no idea what to expect except I knew I wanted to see the kangaroos. When we approached the kangaroo area, we noticed the zoo keeper was in their pen and all the kangaroos were surrounding her getting fed. I also noticed that people were petting them!!! So, of course I ran and yelled at my husband to have the camera ready. As I reached out to pet one of the roos, another tourist cut right in front of me and smiled for her husband's camera! A major frown came across my face. Luckily, the zoo keeper saw the whole incident, handed me a carrot (roo food) and said "you're lucky. this is the last one." And this is what transpired:
Yep. That's pretty much the happiest me you'll ever see.
#2. The Panda
We had the chance to visit Hong Kong for a few days and they had this great amusement park. We kind of stumbled into it unplanned but ended up really enjoying the afternoon. The thrill for me was visiting the Chinese Pandas. They were gifts from China and cute as could be. We walked into this "Panda Exhibit" hoping to see a whole bunch of them and encountered this:
He looks dead, right? It was a little disappointing. Here was this one panda and he was fast asleep. At one point he rolled over and the whole audience did a collective "ahhhhhhh." but then he went back to sleeping and looking dead and I thought "well, he's cute but wish he would have been awake."
We continued to explore the park and were pleasantly surprised when we found another panda area. This time we saw 2 pandas who were wide awake and eating like crazy. Branch by branch, they were just tearing through their lunch and it was wonderful to watch. I was so delighted and took lots of pictures!
#3. The Cat
I know, cats are everywhere. Cats in Singapore are especially mangy. They're missing half their tales, they won't come near you and they're always meowing at each other. None of this bothers me. I still try to get close and call them to me whenever we're walking in the street.
Well, when I visited Indonesia, I met a completely different type of cat: the beach cat. There were about a hundred cats on this beautiful beach and I was instantly in love. I was hoping they would be more friendly than our Singapore cats and sure enough they were.
This feline let me pet him/her (whatever it was) for over 20 minutes. I was in heaven. I just sat there and told it what a good kitty it was, pet it's ears and back and kept secretly wishing there was a way to bring it home with me. It was a truly relaxed beach kitty and it made my day!So, there you have it. A highlight of just a few of the animals I've met on my journies. None of them fit in my suitcase but they are fondly set in my memories. I hope to see many more animal friends in the year to come!
