It’s been almost two months, but I’ve still got a few Atlanta posts left in me!

One of the places that we visited was an animal park. Now, I’m not much for zoos, but Sarah loves this place so we took a little ride.

 

 

 

 

The whole place is surrounded by a fence so that the animals can’t escape. To get in you walk into the front building where you pay your admission and purchase any food that you want to feed to the animals. Then you walk out the back door to start on your way around the compound.

We were greeted by this dapper fellow.

I’m not much for birds, but I’m a sucker for the coloring on a peacock. What a gorgeous animal!

 

 

These colors match most of my wardrobe: blues, greens and browns.

 

It looks so lush… I just want to rub my cheek on it.

 

 

 

 

As we walked along the path through the woods there were various signs posted.

Okay… I’ll stay on the trail…

 

 

 

A broken limb is for…. WHAT?! What is a broken limb for??

Are we talking about an arm or a leg? Or a tree limb??

Either way I think that it’s always good to not break any limbs.

 

Our first stop was with these fellows. Black bears. They sat there just waiting for you to throw food at them.

This is where I started to get uncomfortable.

These are beautiful creatures and here they were sitting there, begging to be fed. Not because they were hungry, but because they knew that if they did that they would get a treat.

 

Around the corner at the other side of the pen was this black bear who had parked its butt right in front of the PVC pipe that allowed visitors to drop food right onto the tray placed below.

I was getting rather sad and depressed about this whole thing. Again, I’m not fond of zoos and how naturally wild animals are kept caged for our viewing pleasure.

 

This sign was posted nearby and it made me feel somewhat better. If these animals weren’t here then they could be killed or starve to death. That’s not how I like animals to live, or not live, either.

*sigh* Okay, so let’s pretend that the caretakers here talk to all of the animals every day and spoil them rotten.

 

Which, to be fair, if I had a PVC pipe that dropped wet cat food onto a tray these two would be right there sitting in front of it, too.

It’s all about perspective I guess.

 

 

 

 

After we left the bears we came to these guys.

I much prefer to see them here than running in front of my car!

 

 

 

They had a nice big area to run around so they seemed to be in a good place.

 

 

 

 

Not everything was in pens. There were quite a few ducks walking around and I even saw some guinea hens.

This guy cracked me up. As Sarah was giving him pieces of cracker his little tail was wagging back and forth so fast that I couldn’t get a picture of it. He reminded me of my Chester when she’s happy.

 

This is as close as I wanted to get to the coyote. I’m not fond of them at all. That kind of happens when you dream that you’re attacked by one as you’re trying to cross your driveway to get to the house.

 

 

 

As we headed down towards the farm animal area of the park I could see these two little guys running around.

Sinkin’ kids! Where’s your nanny??

 

 

They were not shy, either! In fact, one came up to me and put his front hooves on my leg as if to say, “Hey Lady! Where’s the grub?”

I pointed to Sarah and told him to talk to her.

 

 

The alpaca wanted in on the action, too. I can’t seem to find pictures, but they also had a ton more goats, sheep and some donkeys.

All of them knew what it meant when a strange person came walking by… feeding time!

 

 

This skinny little guy didn’t seem to care that we were there. He barely looked up as Sarah tossed a cracker his way.

 

 

 

 

This pen made me hungry for Thanksgiving dinner. And omelets. And Chicken Salad. And deviled eggs.

 

 

 

 

Mmmm… hasenpfeffer…. (the ‘p’ is silent)

 

 

 

 

 

As I watched Sarah feeding the animals I had to marvel a little bit. Who would pay money to feed animals?? Then I had a conversation in my head that went something like this: “Kerry, you’re a farm girl. You grew up with these kinds of animals in every day life. Not everybody can be so lucky. What about my kids? They won’t grow up on a farm so they might actually enjoy a park like this, too. You can’t think that it’s goofy because it’s not every day that they can experience this up close.” “But self, of course they think it’s cute when they get to walk through here and feed a little bit of cracker or apple to these animals. I bet they won’t think they are as cute when they are mucking out the barn where they sleep or having to stack hay bales for these guys to eat. And what about the general maintenance of the area? Somebody had to build these pens and make sure that they stay together so that the goats aren’t wandering into the coyote’s pen!” “Kerry, you are too logical and practical for your own good sometimes. Just stand back and enjoy!”

I guess that having to listen to a conversation in my head is enough for you guys for today! I’ll post the second part of our Animal Park trip later.