Lions and Tigers and Bears! OH MY!

We went to the wildlife park on the weekend. What a blast! I probably enjoyed it more than Jane but she seemed to be quite happy herself. I wish there were more things like that where we live - zoos, aquariums, etc. That's the problem, sometimes, with living in smaller areas - none of the luxuries of "big city" life. With that said, that's also why I love it! :)

Jane was sick as a dog but happy as a lark (enough sayings for ya?) - upon arrival this gigantic peacock greeted us and she was sold. Combine that with some cheerios to keep her busy in the stroller for an hour and it was a great day! :)

Along the lines of the "big city" life... there's a lot of development going on in our area lately. New subdivisions, new highways, and so on. No surprise that we've been hearing rumours of coyotes in a few subdivisions around town. How are they supposed to know to go North? :p Their just pulling a Tu-can Sam and "following their nose" to a buffet of garbage-y-heaven. Coyote would scare the heck out of me, but not shock me. Bears on the other hand do both. If I went out on my patio one day and there was a bear there, I'm pretty sure I'd be calling out for Ashton Kutcher waiting for the PUNKED crew to show up (because I am, obviously, that big of a celebrity - DUH). That would be the "cool" thing to do. In reality, I'd probably SCREAM my head off, cry, pee my pants and lock myself and Jane in the house for the entire summer until I was pretty certain hibernation season had kicked in.

Well, that's ALMOST exactly what happened yesterday. And by almost I mean, I didn't see a bear at all but my neighbours did! ha ha ha. Holy Crap! WHAT? I live in the city. I live in a subdivision! Bears? WTH? Seriously? The odd masked rascal (raccoon for you slower folk) destroys our garbage pile but that's it. Raccoons I can handle. If they didn't reck and ravage your home, I'd want one for a pet - so cute! But bears?

So, I'm putting Jane in her car seat and my neighbour yells from her window "Jen, we saw a bear in Brenda's backyard this morning." What? Brenda lives next door. First of all, I'm strapping Jane in her car seat so I'm kind of stuck otherwise I'm pretty sure I would have ran back in the house. As fast as possible I hop in the car. Probably should have asked "when this morning" instead of freaking out but I was freaking out so... I mean we have a garbage pile the size of the pyramids this week from Jane's birthday. I completely expected to see a huge bear with pink icing all over it's muzzle coming at me at that point. Regardless, I forced Dan to drive up the street to see if we could see it because I was so excited! :p ha ha ha. I guess animal control picked it up down the street. On the radio they said is was a Momma bear and cub. AHHHHHHHH. All of a sudden the tone changes. I'm like "I get it, she's just trying to take care of her baby". What a sin. I hope they gave her a snack when they dropped her off in the middle of freakin' nowhere with a hungry child! Jeepers, can you imagine if you and your babes were hungry and someone picked you up and dropped you in the middle of nowhere with no snack in sight? HELL! :p Of course, when it comes to my child, I'm a Momma bear too so, yeah, I'm glad the other one is outta my subdivision. Still, I feel bad. We're totally taking over their territory and they are obviously completely lost. A little heart-broken actually. And still a little freaked out. I'm definitely watching my back out on the patio these days which just seems insane to me. The thought of a bear in my backyard seems as likely as running into Flipper in Jane's baby pool. Crazy.

Anyways, made for an exciting start to the week. Was super cute to see the kids walking home from school yesterday freaking each other out by calling out "BEAR!" every time they passed by a yard. And then hearing them fib about it to their pals that "I saw it and it was HUGE" - typical "fishing stories" (it was THIS big). :p

Dropped Jane off for her first FULL day of daycare today. I think she's starting to catch on that when we go there, Mommy leaves as today she kind of cried a bit when the girls took her away from me. But the gals know how to handle it - immediately taking her to the CD player to turn on some tunes - distraction is a Mom's best friend!