Petting Zoo

Lucy, Ethel, Fred, and Ginger helped bring in some bucks for my daughter's elementary school at the annual Fall Festival fundraiser this past weekend. Boy, were the critters ever popular! All afternoon we had a line of costumed, doing-their-best-to-be-patient children waiting to run their hands through fuzzy fur. We charged each person a dollar and came out with $133 at the end of the day. Not bad for an afternoon of apple treats and scratches behind the ears.

The herd did a great job with only a couple incidents. Fred nibbled on a kid's fingers a little too exuberantly and pulled down another tyke who didn't want to let go of the leash when Fred thought to scamper off for a nice game of chase with Ethel. No one was injured, thank goodness, so I think we will be able to come back next year.

Everyone was exhausted by the time things were winding down, including me. The entire afternoon I fielded loads of excellent questions from the children. Farm animals, in particular, seem to inspire queries pertaining to the facts of life with the young 'uns . Conversations usually went as such:

"Which one is the mommy and which one is the daddy?"

They are both girls. One is the mommy and the other is the auntie.

"Well then how did you get the babies?"

I had to send one to another farm to get pregnant.

"How did she get pregnant?"

You should probably ask your mom and dad about that one.

Kids, you gotta love 'em for their unbridled curiosity. It didn't help that Fred was trying to hump his sister all afternoon. More on that topic later.