Lions & Tiger & Bears, Oh my!

I pulled this post from my original blog, because I thought I did a pretty good job of it. Original date: 07/09/11
Enjoy,
Reb

What a great day Monday was! We saw lions & tigers & bears & so many other things!

I have been wanting to get out of the city now for months, seems more like years! Odin, I hate not having a car! It's a good thing I have friends. Emily & Shayne & I went to Innisfail to see the Discovery Wildlife Park.

First off, I have to say I couldn't live in Innisfail, they have the Purina plant there and when we were there on Monday, I don't know what they were doing, but when you were downwind of it... yeesch! From what we overheard, that is not normal, but still, it was worse than P & G's pulp mill in G.P.

We went to the park in order to get there in the morning for the first show, only to find out that they were not working the cats Monday, as they had just been fed and they don't work well on full tummies. So, we went into town and had some lunch and killed some time and went back to see the bear show. Now, I said we had a good time, but, we also felt a bit cheated. Emily had phoned to make sure they were open still on Monday and was told that the small animal show would not be on, but the cats and bears would be. So, of course not getting the cat show was a bit disappointing. Well, we were early for the bear show and so, we wandered around and looked at the other animals. They have Monkeys, a Badger, a Beaver, a Racoon, a Porcupine (he was hiding, we couldn't see him), a Bobcat, an Alligator, Ostriches, Camels, Reahs (a relative of the Ostrich), Mule deer, Reindeer, Elk, a Bison, Lions, Tigers, Jaguars (one black, one spotted) and of course Bears. They have Black Bears, they have a Cinnamon Bear(a Black Bear of a different colour) & Kodiak Bears. On to the Bear show...these Bears have movie credits and the woman who has trained them gives the talk and has them show us what they can do on command. Of course on Monday, she had had dental surgery and couldn't speak clearly and being doped up only gave half a show (well, we assume half - she showed us three and pictures were taken with a fourth). Second disappointment. No, we didn't get pictures - are you nuts! I am not kissing a Grizzly and then paying $20.00!

We did have a good time, oh, there is also a reptile room and a room with cute rodents - hamsters & rats & what might have been chinchillas. Emily bought me a sweatshirt, in fact she paid my way for the whole day as an early birthday gift. On the way home we stopped at Rocky Mtn House, decided it was too early to eat, so went up to Crimson Lake and had a look around - very pretty and quiet on a Monday. We then went back to Rocky and had a pretty bad supper.

Ah well! In spite of everything we did have a pretty good day overall. It was relaxing and good company. I got to get out of the city.

Of course, as I was typing the list of animals, I realized that the potential is there for them to feed one to the other! I am pretty sure they don't, they are a zoo after all.

We thought we might like to go back again maybe next year when Emily's back is feeling better and maybe get the whole package, all three shows, maybe then we will get a picture - for sure a camel ride!

Good night.