Picking up from last time –
So, I totally became friends with the rhinos. First, they came up to a place on the truck that made is super easy for Victoria to get great pictures.
Then almost immediately, they went over to a part of the truck that made it harder. They’re smart – those rhinos – keeping away from the paparazzi while still getting fed… I can’t blame ’em. Do your thing, rhinos!
Anyway, I got to feed the rhino. They seemed happy. Victoria told me about the old legend that if you touch a rhinos horn, you get a year of good luck. She also said it totally wouldn’t hurt them or upset them to touch their horn. So, i did that. I guess we’ll see what happens this year!
After I met the rhinos, I got to go hang with the giraffes! Two came over – a big one and a small one. And I got to feed them both!
Yet again, the large one kept kind of trying to bogart food from the small one… (Where does that saying come from, by the way? Is it a mean saying about Humphrey Bogart, or what’s the deal with that?)
Anyway, the big one kept trying to take a bunch of food. But I kept doing my best to make sure the little one kept getting food too.
There was a whole special way you were supposed to feed the giraffes – holding the leaves away from them by the side of your body and then presenting them. I forget all of the logic behind it.
But there was a specific way, so I tried to hold to that (even though sometimes the giraffes would just come on in for the leaves).
The giraffes had these crazy huge incredibly long tongues… The most interesting part to me was being oh so close up to them, I could see the area on the way back of their tongue that was pink.
Most of their tongue was black (to protect it from the sun), but the part that didn’t see the sun was pink. Crazy, huh?
I also got to see the little back nub horn things that I heard about on a tour, but couldn’t totally see until I got super up close.
It was very cool to feed the giraffes!
And this is where I’ll pick up next time.