When a Horse Meets an Ass ...
Adventure on a cold winter's day
With the New Year right around the corner, things are going well in Buffalo. We had a white Christmas, the Bills kicked the New York Jets in the pants, and this is a mild weekend. Mild, that is a word I remember from being a kid. I remember my father saying it, to describe a day like today. And yesterday.
I kind of regret this mild interlude. I was enjoying the snow and the cold.
I went to the Buffalo Zoo a few times right before Christmas and it was just me and the animals and the docents and about 10 other people, pictured in the photo up above walking away from me.
It is nice to have the zoo almost to yourself! I got to spend quality time with the mule, who, as I learned is named Candy Ann.
When a horse mates with an ass the result is not a horse’s ass. It is a mule! You learn a lot at the zoo.
Candy Ann’s mother was a horse and her father was an ass, as it was revealed in that video. You have to wonder how that went over with the horse’s owner. It must have been like “Lady and the Tramp.” You have some purebred horse, you bring her up well and spend money on her and feed her the best hay and want to introduce her to the best studs, and that pampered princess horse goes out and is enamored of an ass.
Never say the word donkey when you can say the word ass, you know? Honor your inner 8-year-old.
My mother and I once were on some pilgrimage together and what I remember was, we got to ride donkeys in the mountains on the border of Spain and France. We loved it just because we got to tell each other, “Move your ass!” The tour guides must hear that all the time. But I bet it never gets old.
Candy Ann was stamping her hoof in impatience to get back to her pen because sheep were in her pen eating. She watched avidly as the sheep were led back inside.
The little dramas of the zoo! When I look back on 2024, that is one of my highlights, all my lone wanderings there, and what I have seen and learned about the animals.
The day I was hanging out with Candy Ann, Dec. 21, was absolutely freezing. I think it got worse when I left the zoo. I think the wind kicked up. Because walking home it looked like this …
…. And I was thinking, it is bitterly cold! Why did I go to the zoo?
But I am glad I did!
I also went to the zoo on a cold day last week, and was happy to see that the rats who live in the aviary were especially active. It was like they were putting on a show for me! Several of them came out and scampered through the snow to drink from the stream. The zoo was so quiet due to the weather. I went back on Saturday when it was warm, and it was not nearly as enjoyable. So many people around. The rats must have found it to be disruptive, as they were not nearly as active on that day.