Our day at the zoo

Oy, tough day today. Last night one of the giraffes at our zoo slipped and fell into a pit below where people feed them crackers. Well, pit, ravine, moat, people don't have a good word for it. The giraffe, Uhura, was 20 years old, born at our zoo, and has had 10 kids, 5 of which still live at the zoo. Colorado Springs Fire Department brought in their high angle rescue equipment to try to help. They were apparently able to get her back out to flat ground and the high angle rescue equipment was able to help her get to standing. However, she was not able to stand on her own. So, the vet staff decided the best thing to do was to euthanize her. You can read the story here:

http://www.gazette.com/articles/responding-108335-firefighters-need.html

If you know me at all you know how much I: A)love animals B) love our zoo and C) love giraffes. The news was just devastating to me.

I can't even imagine having to work at the zoo and make that decision. The lead animal curator has been there since the birth of Uhura. I spoke with my friend who is the VP of the zoo and has worked there for 10 years. She said yesterday was the hardest day she has ever had at the zoo.

A tragic freak accident that ended in having to make a very hard decision.We were of course supposed to have zoo preschool today. And we did, the zoo was open for business as usual, except the giraffes weren't allowed out in the main yard. They have to make sure it's safe. Of course, that yard has been open for 7 years, but now that something has happened, they have to have a safety review.

So, we went to the zoo, we had an amazing day, other than the fact that there was a very somber mood hanging over the zoo. We stopped to see the brand new baby giraffe first. She was born last Sunday. She is sooo cute! So tiny and knobby still.
From there we stopped over to see the Meerkats. Wouldn't you know that the keeper came up to feed them just as we were standing there, and asked Courtney to help. This included getting to go in with the Meerkats! She got to put their food bowls down. Pretty cool!
From there we went to preschool and learned all about turkeys. Our "craft" today was to make a cupcake into a turkey. And once they did that, they devoured the turkey.
Kasey enjoyed watching her big sister make a turkey cupcake. I think she was a bit jealous too.

From there we went to see the real turkeys. Courtney fed them crickets. Real live crickets. Thankfully she has no fear.

After that we stopped at the education center where she got to help feed the tortises. She got to feed a lot of animals today! Some pretty fun experiences.
That was our fun and exciting day at the zoo. But there was just this somber mood over the zoo.