Going to the Zoo, Zoo, Zoo...

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Going to the zoo, zoo, zoo...

How about you, you, you...

Do you want to come too, too, too?

I'm going to the zoo, zoo, zoo.

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August 9th, I went to the Philadelphia Zoo. Not for the first time. I've been there with family and school groups as a child. I even mangaed to get lost once...but that's a tale for another day. I've been to the Zoo on dates, with my spouse and several times with my child.

I was disappointed to learn that our country's oldest zoo is giving up on housing elephants. By this autumn, there will be no elephants at the Philadelphia Zoo. I understand. It's decisions about resources and how best to keep the large mammels. Our standards of housing animals in cages has changed to one of letting animals move about in larger spaces that resemble their native habitats.

Change. Few of us like change. And even fewer of us handle it well. The passage of time and the gaining of understanding through information both help. Sometimes venting and whining is necessary.

The other big change at the zoo was the new "Big Cat Falls". No more lions and tigers in cages. Guests of the zoo walk along paths that show the edges of green habitat with the cats moving around the enclosed area.

Trivia for this post. What's the difference between "big" cats - lions, tigers, cheetahs and the black leopard --and "small cats"? Two things. Big cats can roar and the pupils of their eyes close to a circle, not a slit- like the small cats' eyes do.