I don’t know why I like the things I like, I know I just do.
If I dug down deep, I could probably come up with some justification. I’m pretty decent at making stuff up, so I could spin some tale or give some pretty reasoning, explain away why my favorite color is gold, why I love carnations, or why I never get tired of “Iris” by Goo Goo Dolls or the movie Big Fish. The truth is usually just “it makes my brain happy”.
A while back, I read that the reasons you like your favorite animal are what attracted you to your spouse. So, clever me decides to be sneaky and ask Michael all casual like what his favorite animal is and why.
He considered, then picked the great gray owl.
Because, he says,
- They have these teeny bodies under a ridiculous amount of floof.
- They screech to demand attention.
- And everyone thinks they are wise, but they’re secretly big idiots.
He had no idea why I smacked him and stormed to bed.
My favorite animal is a bear. The breed varies from day to day; some days I like the huge laziness of the ussuri bears, others the playful antics of the panda. Today I am partial to the sun bear of southeast Asia.
I don’t know why I like bears any more than I know why I cry at every church song that references the “fountain”. I just do. Even the reasons I can think of--fat, furry, and lazy--can be attributed to countless other species. When I think about them, my brain is happy.
Michael, of course, knows this. So for the last several months, he has been plotting and planning.
Today is my 30th birthday, you see. 2017 is kind of a big year for me all around--first I had TJ, then I turned the big 3-0. In November, Michael and I celebrate our 10th anniversary. It is a year of exciting things.
Michael wanted to take me to see bears.
There were a lot of ways he could accomplish this--we could plan a trip to a national park like Yellowstone, or to bear sanctuaries. There is a bear habitat in Waco.
Tula was...not precisely on the agenda, and her much celebrated birth complicated matters slightly. I cannot travel far from her for a while, and cannot leave her for long.
His hands thus restrained, he started researching options closer to home.
The Abilene Zoo (for a reasonable price) offers VIP tours for certain animals. Most commonly requested are the camels and rhinos, the giraffes, and the reptiles; they said they had never had a bear request before.
Michael set everything up, got my mother to watch the boys and the baby, and this afternoon we
went to meet the bear.
went to meet the bear.
The bear-taker (heh) met us at the gift shop and took us back to the commissary to prepare a snack for the their only bear, an American black named Teddy. While we walked, she told us his story--he is 25, which is old for a bear. They usually only live to be 30 in captivity, 10 in the wild. Teddy came to them seventeen years ago with one other bear, BooBoo, after being donated by a private owner. BooBoo choked to death on a bone, and two females were donated. They passed on as well and they got Boris from an SPCA raid near the Houston area. He lived with Teddy until he died of congestive heart failure. Teddy is alone now, which doesn’t seem to bother him. Bears are solitary in the wild.
Before we got to the commissary, we passed by the hospital and holding areas, as well as the animals she said were part of the “educational department”. Besides bears, I am also partial to cats and to donkeys. I love the way donkeys yell to get attention. Imagine my delight when I heard a donkey hollering at us! His name was Donkey, but I called him Professor Donkey because he was educational. There was a sign hanging beside him that said “I have developed bad habits; please do not feed me no matter how much I beg.” He liked getting scritches on his scruffy donkey head and apparently has a rivalry with the goats.
Teddy eats omnivore pellets that kind of look like dog food, plus fresh fruits and veggies and fish. They scatter it over his enclosure so that he will have to forage for it, make him move around a bit so he doesn’t get too chunky and lazy. We prepared little silver fish for him, plus grapes and an ear of corn. She said he doesn’t like bananas or kale.
We went around to the bear enclosure to see if he would come around and see us. The best thing I learned was that he has a hammock he likes to sleep in (pictured above). During the winter, they lay hay out for him and cover his hammock in hay, and he scrapes it together into a pile to make a pallet. I asked if he needs to hibernate, and she said that he doesn’t because it doesn’t get cold enough here for him to need to. He just eats a ton more in the fall to prepare, and then his appetite drops back down when winter hits.
They weigh him once a month to make sure he isn’t getting too heavy; right now, he is just over 400 pounds. He is generally in good health, but has arthritis due to his age, so he has to be on a couple medications--he gets to take them in meatballs. On Thursdays, he gets a whole fish. She told us they also have him trained so they can brush his hair because he’s so fuzzy he gets mats in his fur.
Finally, it was time to meet the man of the hour!
He was sleeping in his cave when we came around, which I can hardly blame him for--it was 90 degrees and 2 in the afternoon; where better place for an old man to be than napping?
We threw corn and grapes at him, watching his breath get faster because he heard us and smelled the food. After a few minutes, he grudgingly rolled over and came out to see what we wanted.
He was very pleased with the snack we brought for him. The guide said that he is a little hard of hearing and doesn’t always hear them when they try to wake him up, so sometimes they have to stand on top of his enclosure and call him to get him up.
He’s a short and stocky thing, which I like--it is endearing. While tossing grapes, I accidentally bonked him right on the head. He looked like he was just a happy, easy going guy; she told me he is a real sweetheart.
It was such a great birthday surprise. Michael was amazing for doing all this work and putting it together for me just so I could meet a bear. I had an awesome time, a perfect way to celebrate three decades of Andie
:)
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