I know the Virginia Zoo now pretty well. This was my fourth visit, and given the weather forecast with pending rain, I planned my visit to hit the major outside focus areas in the beginning. But first, after a couple of hours in the truck, it was "necessary room" time. After paying admission, I also realized that there would be very few fellow visitors on this day as there were virtually none to be seen across the grand plaza beyond the ticket booths. The restrooms are to the right of the entrance, and when I came out I encountered a group of 6 developmentally delayed adults with two caregivers. Other than thinking that I was no longer "alone" at the zoo, I didn't give them much consideration.
With my travel patch-festooned knapsack containing my camera, jacket and water secured over my shoulder, I rushed off to my first stop at the Asian collection called the "Trail of the Tiger". When you enter past the Thai pagoda and Tiger statue you have two choices: Orangutans or Siamangs. From here the path climbs along a faux rock palisade and leads you around to a boardwalk with views of one of the two species of Asian bears. Then you walk past a maze of displays and interior access to the Primates when they are not outside. Next you come upon the Red Panda. All the while I was taking my time and just really enjoying the animals. Some were out. Some weren't. By then I had encountered a couple of other young families with little children, but it was at the Red Panda habitat that the crew of differently abled adults caught up with me.
You know my powers of observation are legendary not to mention that I have been a social voyeur since early childhood. The arrival gave me a chance to size them up. Two women and four men with a man and woman as caregivers. One was propelled in a wheelchair while the rest were ambulatory. Most did not speak, the man in the wheelchair conversed quietly with the male caregiver. And then there was Melvin. The mere fact that know his name says something.
Melvin was black, kind of rolly polly, a little queenie and definitely a chatty-Cathy! He was a non-stop verbal smorgasbord of stream of consciousness monologue. To get his attention, the woman caregiver would good naturedly call out his name, which would momentarily stop his chatter and bring him to look in her direction. Of course, I was immediately taken with him. From his narrative, it was clear that he had been to the zoo before. He knew all sorts of information about the animals and not just about the species, but the individual animals.
For my part, I tried to just stand still and focus my attention on the Red Panda--my best attempt at being a fly on the wall while multi-tasking between admiring and photographing the Red Panda and eavesdropping on Melvin's rambling observations and anecdotes. From everything I could tell, my plan at being unobtrusive was working wonderfully.
Then as the group prepared to move on and Melvin was saying, "I wonder if the Binturong will be out? He's usually out, but sometimes he's not out. You know the other Binturong is at the farm, because they want to have some babies, but I don't think it's working. I wonder if they know why." and then to me, as he reached his closest proximity on his way down the path, he said, "By the way, I really like your bag." Before I could say, "Thanks." (which I did), he was on to the next topic. "Don't go to close to the Tapirs. They're spitters! I don't want no Tapir spitting on me...." Apparently, I was not the only one with a keen ability to multitask!
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