After these pandemic lockdowns, it’s so good to be able to go to my favorite places again. We have a little zoo in Santa Ana where I love to hang out for an hour or so. Lots of big trees, walking trails, and interesting critters. After re-opening I saw an article in our local paper, the Orange County Register, and it seems the animals miss us too. Well, at least Lou did! Here’s an excerpt:

After almost two months apart, some of the animals seemed as happy to see the visitors as the visitors were to see the animals.

Education Specialist Terri Hernandez put on an educational show, Critters for Conservation, one of two featured during the day, with an assemblage of animals including a boa constrictor and a hedgehog. Lou, 38, a blue-and-yellow macaw and the oldest resident of the zoo, squawked loudly and disruptively from his perch during the show. At one point Lou had to be removed and taken backstage.

“He’s very jealous,” Hernandez told her laughing audience of grown-ups and children. “He thinks all the people came here to see him.”

After the show Hernandez said the primates and parrots were probably most affected by the shutdown.

Lou thrives around people, she said. “When we were closed he’d get quiet and then demanding, screaming for attention when he’d see workers go by.”

Employees would take him on walks through the zoo to keep him happy and entertained because “large parrots are said to have the intellect and emotional development of a 3-year-old,” Hernandez said.

Screams, squawks and smiles: Animals, humans reunite as Santa Ana zoo reopens – Orange County Register (ocregister.com)

This post is for Becky’s April Squares “Bright”. Here’s a link to her Brightness