However, since I’m currently here alone, there’s not too much fun and debauchery. No pranks involving electric blankets on 90 degree days, no blokes camping in the roof, no packaging up of black rhinos, no Big Brother-style evictions, nobody’s water breaking (in some unknown room of the house) because the baby decided to come early. Maybe I’ll have more stories before I leave.
But even without all the fun and debauchery, it’s a great place to live. It’s nicer than Brookfield’s Zoo house - I know, the 70’s décor is hard to beat – but this house is actually INSIDE the zoo! [OK, I realize I was pretty much living inside the zoo my last few months at Brookfield, but it’s not the same when you’re locked in the lab.] This house is also more updated (i.e., the appliances look like they were made sometime this century), and it has a beautiful patio and a fireplace. According to the guest book, the fireplace is nice to have at times, but right now I’d rather have a/c, which the house does not have. It does have some good ceiling fans and big huge windows, but the aforementioned patio (which surrounds most of the house) is all brick and spends the whole day sucking in heat so it can trap the house in a nice heat bubble even when the temp drops at night. But it’s going to get cooler soon.
Given the current lack of depravity in the house, I’ve taken advantage of the quiet evenings to explore the zoo. Western Plains Zoo is “one of the world’s finest open range zoos… where endangered animals breed on wide open plains.” Basically, the enclosures are big. I don’t know if the animals are so skittish during the day, but in the evening, when you’re the only person walking around, all eyes are on you – it’s kind of crazy to have a whole field of elands watching your every move. The zoo also attracts some wild animals, especially birds, because it has some great ponds (and probably a lot of surplus food lying around). I failed to spot any camels at the camel exhibit, but I saw more cockatoos, galahs, parrots, and rabbits than I’ve ever seen. I secretly suspect that the rabbits are plotting to take over the zoo. But my favorite moment was when I was standing by the kangaroo exhibit watching the roos and rabbits stuffing their faces side-by-side, and I heard a footstep behind me – only to turn around and see a WILD kangaroo standing about 15 feet away from me. We both stared at each other for a little bit, and then it decided to go on its merry way. I just stood there, still a little stunned, and watched it go.
These are some of my other neighbors (wild black swan and maned wolf):
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