01 February 2008

I Like Hippos

Sorry if you've actually seen me in the past five years or so, because, if you have, you will have heard everything I'm about to say. I was chatting with friends tonight, though, and we started discussing my deep and abiding love for hippos and I was so filled with joooooy, that I thought I should share.

I love hippos! The very best thing about hippos? Their ears. They look like little flugelhorns. Great big, able-to-crush-you-to-death animals. Little, tiny ears. And they spin. Unfortunately, they also kill more people each year than any other animal, even though they're vegetarians.

This is a picture of a baby hippo, Owen, who was orphaned in the big tsunami a few years ago and made friends with this tortoise in an animal shelter.

The Marmot Family and I went to the zoo several years ago, where I saw the saddest hippo ever. There was only one hippo, and he was submerged in the water, and he wouldn't come out, so I couldn't see his dainty, flugelhorn ears. And he didn't do any spinning. I think maybe he'd been drinking.

My brother's wife had a baby tonight. (Congratulations!) I hope that immediately after introducing her to the most important things in life--family, religion, and the like--that they teach her all about libraries, hippos, sheepdogs, and airports--the good things in life.

5 comments:

Annie M. said...

Joel LOVES hippos too. When we went to the Denver zoo a couple of summers ago he was also really disappointed in the hippo exhibit. There were 3 hippos and they were submerged in water the whole time except for tiny little spurts where they would come up for air.

Moo said...

At the L.A. Zoo, they have a great hippo display. You can see the hippos underneath the water. I stayed at that exhibit for quite a while watching the little baby hippo walking through the water.11

JAMES said...

SK and I saw a hippo in real life in s. africa. IT WAS HUGE AND FAST. Scary water cows.

Amy said...

I've been a little scared of hippos (Grace's favorite animal as well) since we saw a zookeeper chuck a giant pumpkin into the hippo pool in Cleveland. That hippo JUMPED out of the water and SMASHED that pumpkin in its mouth so quick, and then he leisurely paddled around and ate the smashed bits. It was very intimidating!

Grace and Ethan have fed hippos by throwing apples into their mouths, which is fun, but it's not nearly as scary as seeing a giant pumpkin smashed to smithereens before it hits the water.

EP said...

I like hippos too. They're cute. Not too long ago Joe and I bought two pink hippos from Ikea. One was for a friend who had recently had a baby. The other was for Joe's brother who we fondly call Hipporider. Here is the address to the cute pink hippo. (Sorry it wouldn't fit all on one line). Gratefully, she is much brighter in person. For $6 maybe you should check her out too. :)
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/
products/40107792

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