ryanhand_llc

Let me start this out by saying I love animals and am all about rescuing, saving, and helping.

Took a little trip out to the “Capital of Texas Zoo” (http://www.capitaloftexaszoo.org/) Sunday. I bought a Groupon awhile back and had that Groupon Guilt (the guilt you feel when you realize a Groupon is going to expire but you still don’t really want to go)  so I had to go use it. The weather was nice, Jonathan and Kay joined me, it was set up to be a nice afternoon.

<flashback>

We all went to the “Austin Zoo” (http://www.austinzoo.org/) a few months early and felt somewhat gyped… there was literally a cage that said “Wolf” and it was someones dog… umm… no thanks. I understand that this is a rescue zoo so I will give them a kudos and just take the experience for what it was.

back to the Capital of Texas Zoo…

We drive, and drive, and drive… this place is no where near the capital of Texas… I’m not sure how they get off calling themselves the Capital of Texas Zoo… maybe I’ll start calling myself the fastest woman in the world and see where it gets me (-Tina Fey)

We pull off the road on to a path… “why is this zoo isn’t off a paved road” you can almost hear our inaudible thoughts. Pass by a number of cow pastures and some small back woods houses before we actually find the ZOO sign. It was at this points our dreams of going to a normal nice zoo with diet coke and quarter feed vending machines were crushed. My face went from hopeful excitement to this…

“This is going to be worse than the Austin Zoo” we allagree in unison. Oh well… we drove here, we are going to see some freakin animals and hopefully some energetic monkeys.

Walking into the office there is NO ONE there just a bunch of cages of snakes/lizzards/spiders and other things NO ONE should have PERIOD. The Rattle Snake literally rattled as you walked by it… my only thought was it was PISSED that it lived here and not a better zoo. Finally a maybe 11 year old boy came up and took down my Groupon number. “Its going to be $1 because we forgot to charge tax” he informed me. “ok”, “keep the change” I told him as I handed him a dollar. (ok that may have been mean)

Luckily they have the highlight of the zoo at the very front. Its a Guinea Pig exhibit (no they are not SHOW QUALITY Jonathan and Kay would want me to tell you…) which is a big open area where Guineas can run around as they would in South America. Its actually a wonderfully cute thing to watch and makes me want to have them all over my yard.

Some other highlights:

Malnourished Black Leopard Cats that wanted to scratch eyes out (but they are super cute)

Hump-phree the tortise… REALLY?

Lenard the Lemur (These are consistently my favorite of all the monkeys)

Then this crazy thing. Don’t really know what it is, but I want one!

The real problem with this zoo was that the animals didn’t look very healthy. It was also hard to find where their food and water was/would be placed. Sad. I don’t know alot about the owners but I think they are in over their heads. My best recommendation is drive the extra 30 mins and go to the San Antonio Zoo. Please send $8 to me as I have just saved you the trip