I went to a zoo on Saturday. First it was chocolate and raspberry crepe and hot chocolate then off to High Park Zoo in Toronto, Ontario. Why is it important that I share a story about a small quaint zoo with emu, goats, bison, wallaby, reindeer and cows?

First, it is a zoo. If that isn’t enough to celebrate then what is? The thought of exotic animals from every continent around the world cohabitate in one place and being able to touch, talk and learn about them is just one of the most amazing concepts on earth. It is a utopia of life from the simplicity of eating and pooping to the complexity of mating. We get to bear witness to how other animals and species live around the world all at our finger tips.

Second, The National Major League Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY and zoos are a bit of a holy grail to me. I can sense them, I can feel them but somehow I never thought I would see them again. Like many people, when I have a quest, I will stick to my guns until that need is met. Now The Hall of Fame has become more of a joke between my father and I so the likelihood of meeting this destiny may not be in the near future but I was able to go to Yogi Berra’s Museum last summer and that helped ease the pain.

Now back to the zoo. Due to a calendar overlook, we were not able to go to Shakespeare in the Park last night and see A Mid Summer Nights Dream but through a little additional research, I learned that High Park had a zoo.

Yippy! Are you feeling the excitement now! So after bribing my father with a nice savory sweet crepe, it was off to the zoo. What a time was had. I had a nice conversation with an Emu who posed so nicely, watched a couple of young goats experience true love or mounting, watched a bison poop for what seemed like an hour, was amazed by the wing span of the peacock, cringed as the goats who were in mid shedding and laughed at the reindeer with their furry antlers.

A zoo is one of the rare places you can feel like a child each and every time you walk through the open gates. As I walked on the medium like a gymnast in the Olympics minus the style points and eloquence, I felt like I was ten again. It is nice to get an hour sometimes to forget about life’s problems and just be an innocent child once again. I wanted to pet every one of them and even may have renamed a few. I liked the names but some just didn’t fit based on the relationship I created with them.

As the sun was setting so too was my visit to the zoo. You can give me a 50 acre zoo with an IMAX theater, a dolphin experience, a one of a kind albino alligator, giraffes that touch the clouds and elephants so massive you won’t believe your eyes, but in my mind, if you can find a small zoo where you can make an intimate connection with the animals in a small setting, it is so worth it.

So there you have it. I went to the zoo. I hope you enjoyed my little story and maybe, just maybe it too inspired you to want to befriend an animal or two at the zoo.

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