Bunnies, tigers and bears, oh my!

First off, Happy Easter!

After CC and I hit Mass at St. Brendan (and somehow missed the coffee and donut line -- seriously, how does that happen?), we made our way up the crowded streets of Los Feliz onto the traffic-heavy 5 en route to Big Bunny's Spring Fling at the Los Angeles Zoo.

Little did I know (although I should have suspected) that everyone and their second cousin would be there. Not that I was expecting intimate bunny time with only a few other pint-sized Angelenos, but heck, this was insane.

Luckily, the crowds did not deter my little munchkin from making her own bunny ears, throwing hay at the bunnies themselves and trying to leap into the tigers' digs -- while one of them was batting around ... a keg? Yeah, a keg.

It was actually adorable watching tons of kids gather in the giant egg patch, complete with stacked bails of hay, to make their own set of bunny ears to wear around the zoo. In addition to the arts and crafts, there were exhibits showing how rabbits live, eat and play. Then there were the actual furry guys themselves.

Safely protected behind a little fence and some hay bails, the bunnies seemed to multiply on sight. There were so many of them. For some reason, CC thought it would be fun to pull out straws of hay and throw them at the bunnies. This disturbed me, even though the hay ... being, well, hay, doesn't have the weight to go very far. But who throws things at bunnies? What disturbed me even more was that the boy next to her thought it was kind of funny and wanted to do the same. What had I created? It was time for Distraction Technique #254: Hippos!

As we roamed around the zoo, taking in various owls and monkeys, we stopped at one exhibit where a large crowd had gathered. "Up, Up!" C said. I lifted her out of the stroller, and we poked our way through a guard rail of people to peer into the tigers' den. "Tiger! Tiger!" she squealed. This was before she grabbed onto the fence and tried to hurl herself over it.

There were three tigers in all, pacing around their little space. But one leaped into a pool of water and was batting around, like I said above, a keg. What was next, a keg stand? Beer pong? I tried to be discreet while describing the scene to CC. "Look at the tigers, Sweetheart. That one's got ... a barrel."

"Look at the keg!" said the guy next to me, holding his infant son and laughing. "Looks like that tiger wants some beer!"

"Beer!!!" screamed CC.

Good God, I thought. Your baby son may not talk, but mine does, mister. Time for Distraction Technique #255: Bears!

"Beer!" screamed CC at the bear. Doh! Forgot her pronunciation of that word is still a little off.

Now it was just time for the walk of shame back to the parking lot. But not before we hit the playground, where she joined the equivalent population of the city of Fresno on the jungle gym.

CC had a great time and even got to ride a stationary elephant ... which, for a parent of a 2-year-old, is the best elephant ride ever.

Los Angeles Zoo
5333 Zoo Drive
Los Angeles, CA 90027
323-644-4200