Friday, November 18

Brian = Tiger Food

I have created a monster. This monster says many fun random things to me, but sometimes, they are irritating things. One particular pebble in my shoe is, "We haven't done anything fun for me today." Sometimes, we can not always do something fun for Sydney every day. Sometimes, it's all about family things, or errands, or other responsibilities.
The last several days have been about these other concerns, and since Sydney has been such a trooper, we decided to do something fun for her today.
We visited the aquarium. I am actually pretty impressed with our local aquarium. They had a whole bunch of different fish and mammals: piranhas, huge grouper, jellyfish, eels, sharks and anemones.
But weirdly, the aquarium also has a white tiger on display. It has a lovely space, with big windows, a little pool to play in, and lots of room. The tiger though, developed an interest in Brian. Sydney and I watched the tiger from the left side of the exhibit. Brian passed by us and went to observe from the right. The tiger stopped chewing up its toys and followed Brian over to the window. It lay down right by the window, showing all kinds of teeth when it yawned, spreading out its legs while stretching, and watching Brian with as much interest as he showed it.
We allotted about five minutes of time in focused conversation with, and about, the tiger. As we stood up and turned to leave the exhibit though, the tiger LEAPT up, and seemed to try to grab Brian. No kidding, it jumped up, with claws out, teeth on display and, no doubt, some kind of predatory noise coming from its throat. I turned back just in time to see the tiger standing on its hind legs with its front legs on the glass and the teeth showing. As an understatement, I'll say that I was startled. Brian didn't seem to flinch at all, and Sydney didn't even get what was happening. But really, the tiger would have mauled him, had it been able to get through the glass. That would have been messy!

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