Guest Blog - Another Day at the Zoo by Princess

Yup, me again. But I promise this story is a good one, and it’s very much real. I was thinking about this story because we went to the zoo this week. It was a warm October Saturday. My baby sister had been born a couple of days previously and my mom and Baby Doll were due to come home that day. My friend Salsalita invited me to go to the zoo with her. I was super excited. I got up early and ate breakfast quickly. We got to the zoo and were having fun looking at all the monkeys, birds, and elephants. Our group was watching the baby elephant jump around and eat for much longer than our attention span would allow. “Hey Mom, we’re going to go look at the apes!” Salsalita hollered over her shoulder as we ran through strollers and groups of people.

As we got to the gorilla exhibit (Oh my, I’m shaking just by writing this!), we realized that a silver back, giantly huge, gorilla was sleeping right up against the glass. He was terrifying to look at, yet kinda cute and cuddly. Salsalita made some comment about the ape being her grandpa’s twin.  And she was telling me all about how she wanted to rub his tummy. We both laughed and soon we had forgotten all about the gorilla and were making plans for Halloween and sleepovers. 

Just then my friend’s phone went off. Her ring tone was VERY loud and before we knew it, the gorilla was awake and not very happy. We started to scream and he stood up on his hind legs (is that what you call them on a gorilla?) and pounded on his chest. Well, as you can imagine, when a full male gorilla is growling and about to attack you with only a layer of glass in between you and King Kong, we started running and screaming very loudly (which I’m guessing only provoked him further).

As we turned the corner we ran smack dab into a family (with a boy about our age might I add :). We told them about the gorilla and they laughed and went to go look at the crazy animal. We, being the silly girls we are, decided to go back, just for kicks and giggles. More like punches and growls! As we returned, the gorilla had another fit and actually smashed his fists on the glass. The family and the pair of us left VERY quickly, only looking back to make sure he was still enclosed.

We didn’t stop running until we were back with the group and the peaceful elephants. “I am never looking at a gorilla again!” I told Salsalita, who was already dragging me back to “her grandpa’s twin” who was now climbing in the trees in his habitat.  The gorilla saw us and started growling and baring his teeth. We hid behind the sign that told ape facts and waited for death.

Then we turned our heads to see a man sketching our furry friend and I guess we moved too much because the gorilla threw a royal fit so we hid again. The man told us we should probably leave, and after we took a quick video, we booked it out of there.

“I’m never going back!” I repeated again and my friend agreed with me. We got back to the group and stuttered out the whole story as our knees wobbled.  Well, of course we had to follow the group back to the gorilla den. We got there to find the gorilla had fallen back to sleep with the blanket over his head. “Boring!” someone said as they walked away. Salsalita and I looked at each other and shook our heads. “More like terrifying!”

I’m glad gorillas are an endangered species and I am very thankful for the thick glass that was put in at the zoo. ***Just a little mama-note…I think Princess is an endangered species too. After all, there is only one of her and she has already had her brush with death, so maybe we’d better stay away from the zoo! Although I think we need to have a chat about why she just kept going back...I guess not everybody loves you Princess, just most of us.***