You may have already caught this if you're on facebook, but if you choose not to get your soul sucked into that evil global superpower, then I don't blame you. So basically I'm going to talk about the zoo's animals and I'm going to try and find names for them all. The zoo has an official policy of not naming its animals, but that doesn't mean individuals can't personally give them names. I choose to name these animals not because I'm trying to "make them into pets" or "anthropomorphize them", I'm just doing it so I can tell them apart, and also begin to appreciate their individual characteristics and personalities. It's just not easy to do when you just call them "bear" or "the fishers", or even worse, not acknowledge that there's animals existing at all, and just refer to it as "the back wall" or "the circle" as the staff lingo goes when dealing with the daily chores of zoo maintenance.

So first off, let's just get this over with, you know what I'm doing first,

This is Callisto. It's the name I gave the oxbow zoo's bear. She looks like a Callisto to me. She's waiting for her bear chow at closing time. She's quite a character, and very smart and spunky. She loves to jump up in the air and clap her paws together to try and grab at low-hanging vines at the top of her enclosure. She also goes nuts for enrichment toys, throwing them around, somersaulting and and splashing in her pond. Can't get very good pictures of her, but they'll have to do.

This is Helena, the zoo's badger. Doesn't she look like a Helena to you? Anyway, working on coming up with names for the animals, it's a work in progress... but Helena spends most of her time sitting in a hole she's dug and hissing, snarling and bluff charging me with her needlesharp fangs and 2-inch claws when I climb into her pit to feed her and change her water.

...This is the snowy owl, Albedo. This is the look I get every time I go into his cage to throw him mice or pick up his crap. From the looks of it, he ******* hates me.