Month: October 2020

Boo at the Zoo

We went to the ZOO! Since Halloween is all but cancelled this year, I’ve tried to find creative ways to make the season special for Gigi. One of the things I stumbled upon is “Boo at the Zoo,” a month-long Halloween celebration at the Bronx Zoo. Children are invited to wear costumes, the zoo is decorated, and, importantly, the Zoo takes appropriate COVID precautions — limiting the number of patrons, requiring masks, etc.
So, off we went! Dave wasn’t feeling well, so Gigi put on her flamenco dancer costume, and we had a girls’ day. She loved every minute of it, and her enthusiasm was constant from beginning to end. We saw SO many animals: bison, deer, Dholes (wild dogs), snow leopards, red pandas, giraffes, ibex, baboons, ducks, grizzly bears, blue cranes, and a few others I’m sure I am forgetting. At the end, we stopped by the gift shop, where she made the tough decision between a cheetah (her favorite animal — though she’s never seen one in person) and a snow leopard (which she saw and fell in love with today). It was a hard decision but she didn’t once push me to buy both. In the end, she relied on a “hug test” to determine which would be more snuggly. The snow leopard won, and, in true to Gigi form, she named her “Snow Leopard.” On the car ride home, she fell asleep, snuggled up to her “first pet cat.”
It was a wonderful, beautiful, gift of a day.