Animal Experiences

[okapi_07]

im just making this topic for people to tell cool things that have happened to them with animals here are some of mine:
every once-in-a-while there are special offers where you can adopt animals at the columbus zoo for much lower prices than normal(so i adopt one or two) and when you adopt an animal you get invited to special events i went on a behind the scenes tour and got to go up on the catwalk inside the giraffe building (and got licked by the big male giraffe ) and went in the elephant exhibit (with the two females not the male since he could get aggressive) they gave them some browse to keep them occupied (and it happened to be broken off the trees not cut so the end was fairly sharp) and one of the elephants became a little agitated(i cant remember which) and threw the 6 ft branch sharp end first like a spear right at me (at first i was a bit scared but after i dodged it and it hit the floor behind my i couldnt help but laugh )it was really cool

[dude_88]

during Christmas break i swam with the manatees in Crystal River, Florida. It was really fun.

[phantom]

Back in sixth grade our school district had a program where every six grader got to spend one week out in a camp in the woods. That first night was so exciting. I had the top bunk and was looking out of the window in my cabin, all of us who had the top bunks were since no one could fall asleep, and the next thing I know I see this dark shape wandering outside. I recognized it and said "Hey guys there is a bear out there!" The bear was a common brown bear found in Colorado. One of us had a flashlight under his pillow and shone it directly on the bear's face. It looked back at us and then growled before walking back into the woods. Pretty cool experience to be roughly 10 feet from a bear in the wild. I only recommend being that close in the wild if you are in a cabin seperated from the bear by sturdy wood and thick glass windows. But it was fun. I even went back as a high school counselor and but no bear visit that time

[okapi_07]

once when i was in tennessee i saw a white-tail doe about 50 ft up the path and when i approched she moved off into the trees but i looked over a log beside the trail and there was a nearly newborn fawn laying on the ground it was cool to see it so close

[Jay]

(This first one will mean more to me than others.) A long time ago when I was 7-9 years old, my family went to SeaWorld in San Diego. (Back then, it was the only SeaWorld.) We were walking along, nowhere near any buildings or plants. Then we saw a trainer slowly walking on the sidewalk, followed by a group of penguins "waddling" behind him. The group came to us and stopped. Then the penguins did a number of tricks. Then they went back on the sidewalk from where they came. It's a wonderful memory I'll have forever.

When I was 13, I went camping. The campgrounds had tents that were on top of wooden platforms, but they were not completely enclosed. Each tent and platform had 2 bunks and we slept in sleeping bags on top of the bunks. I kept my supplies in a trunk near the bunk. One night, some strange sounds woke me. I turned on my flashlight. A skunk was sniffing my trunk. I figured I couldn't do anything, so I just shut off my flashlight and went back to sleep. Fortunately, the skunk didn't do anything to me or my belongings.

[Kielo91]

A few years ago I took a vacation to Wisconsin. We decided to take this tour through a large area of woodland. It was through the lower and upper Dells. The tour was called the "Duck Tour", because our traveling vehicle was both land and water capable. So, we came to a part of the woods where the tour guide stopped and talked about the awesome beauty of the scene. All of a sudden, he stopped and looked over to his right. Everyone looked as well. There, off in the distance, was a black bear cub traveling slowly through the dense trees. It was small and fuzzy, but so adorable. I'm glad we didn't see ol' Momma bear that day though...

[okapi_07]

at the columbus zoo i was volunteering at the show pavilionand they have some animal rooms back stage and i got to handle legless lizards a burmese python a ball python and some baby gators and when it was about time for me to leave they asked if we would like to see the new sugar gliders they were really small and not used to people so we went in the staff room and put towels under the doors and we were playing with them shen suddenly one ran up a pair of rubber boots then up the cord of the time-clock then it jumped from the time clock and glided down to my knee it was cool

[Kielo91]

That sounds pretty neat, Okapi.

When I was down at the Indianapolis Zoo, I had attended an elephant show. It was a single, young adult female who performed some neat tricks she had learned from the handlers. Once the show was finished, the handlers allowed the audience to come down to pet the elephant's side. I was able to; the skin felt slightly leathery and rough. But she was a sweet elephant. I thought that a cool little opportunity to have.

[Dragon_of_doom]

One of my Favorite Experiences was when I was 12. My parents and I went to Seaworld for my Birthday and I got to swim with these Beautiful dolphins! They were so cool and one of them gave me a kiss.

And when I was 11. I went to Las Vegas with my parents and at one of the hotels (I forgot which one) I got to pet leopard sharks. There such cool sharks and they feel really neat.

[superlion]

Alright, here goes nothing...

Alongside the numerous pets I have had in my lifetime, and the pets that I have taken care of while their owners were on vacation...

Once, when my family were traveling along the pacific coast, we decided to stop at a certain privately owned zoo. While there, they brought out several of the young animals that they had, including a couple young red fox kits. I got to hold one. Fox kits are really darn cute and fuzzy, and I could understand how someone might want one as a pet, forgetting that as an adult that fox would probably turn vicious or at least reclusive...

Also, I worked at a farm with a bunch of animals that handicapped kids could come and visit. I got contact with pigs, goats (even got to groom the goats), rabbits, horses, ponies, sheep, and a couple of calves. The calves would lick your hand... calves have sort of raspy tongues like cats. I got to hold a baby rabbit when it was just old enough to be handled (too young and the mother will kill them), and one of the goat kids when it was very young. Aside from stable-mucking and sweeping the barn floors, our jobs were pretty fun. We got to feed the animals and change their water, put the rabbits in the runs during the springtime and put them back in the hutches later (a big task, especially when each female rabbit had about five or six little bunnies), grooming the goats, bringing the calves in from the pasture, and putting blankets on the horses and ponies so they could go out... some of the more exciting things, though, were seeing how goats are castrated, and chasing down one of the sheep that had an infection in his hoof so that the vet could treat it. (this is part of why I'm working toward being a vet... at which point I will have innumerable stories of animal encounters! And beat all of you out on exoticness if I become a zoo vet, not that it's a competition.)

[dude_88]

i work at a vet clinic and when the owners calf was in the barn i got to give it its bottle. one time the bottle slipped and it started to suck on my hand.

[okapi_07]

i take pigs for 4-H and quite a few times ive watched my pigs being born (at my cousin's farm) its sometimes "interesting" when they get stuck and someone needs to help the mother along(using a plastic glove up to the shoulder) and ive never done it but i hear the baby pigs bite pretty hard when you try to get them out but they just come out and then we wipe them with towels and they crawl over to suckle they are only about 6-8 inches long

[Kielo91]

Hey, that's pretty neat, guys. SL, about the fox being taken as a pet, it could be possible to handle it throughout its whole life. Of course, every animal has a different personality as well, though it also depends on how the owner's personality is, too. If treated quite well and lovingly cared for, the fox may grow into a sweet adult.

I read this true story in a 'Chicken Soup for the Pet Lover's Soul' that this little kid found this injured Mexican wolf off in some woodlands. His family took the wolf for care and nuturing and the wolf grew accustomed to the family as well as growing into a loving pet. But sadly, since his dominance took hold and once he left for good, the family found him lying dead off in a deserted field. A farmer had shot the wolf because he said the wolf looked like he was attempting to attack his sheep. Though the wolf didn't, but his life was taken instantly.

[okapi_07]

i wonder if they called any authorities about that if it was only "attempting" to kill a sheep you cant legally do anything about it but if its on your property(not public land) and it does kill livestock you are legally aloud to kill it (i dont think you should be able to kill it at all because you can get rembersed for your losses) but if i saw wolves on my property i would shoot at them(but not shoot them) to scare them away before they had a chance to attack any of my animals

[Kielo91]

As a matter of fact, the wolf was on the farmer's property, but had not killed any of his sheep. The farmer just simply killed the wolf. I didn't recall reading anything about whether or not they called any authorites about that though. I was thinking they should of, of course they could have left that out of the book, too. Like you, I would probably just shoo the thing away, but I would never shoot it. Not until it came to absolute drastic measures.