Fort Worth Zoo

Since my mom’s in town, we decided to take Troy to the Fort Worth zoo. It was pretty warm out, but still a pleasant afternoon. The zoo had lots of shade, which made it even better.

Troy rolled around in the stroller, watching all of the people walking by, preferring not to try to walk through the throng. He was very much taken with the baboons and their bright colors, the colorful varieties of fish, and the crocodile (who was dozing, but managed to open his eye a slit to give Troy a warning look). At the hippo tank, he was so focused on the fish that he completely missed the two large hippos swimming by his face!

Unfortunately, the Africa and Asia exhibits were closed for remodeling, so Troy didn’t get to see a lion or tiger. But he did come face-to-face with a giraffe (you could buy lettuce to feed them, although we didn’t) as she stuck her head over the side of the fence.

Troy’s absolutely favorite part was the petting zoo. We were able to let him lose to run around petting the sheep, goats, and hogs. He loved being able to touch and interact with the animals, and one sheep in particular seemed to love being pet as much as he loved petting her! Some of the goats were a little aggressive with each other, so we had to watch him closely in that pen, and one tried to eat my pocket. But most of them were docile and would walk right up to you and sniff you curiously.

After all these years of going to zoos, it’s interesting how your perspective changes when you have a two-year old. You see things from a whole new viewpoint, literally kneeling on the ground at his eye level. You get excited at him getting excited. You get to enjoy sharing your sparse knowledge with him about the animals. And you get to fall in love with his innocent joy, as he shakes with uncontrollable glee at seeing animals alive and so close. I’m glad we went, and I’m glad he enjoyed it. I hope we can take him to many more zoos and see many more different animals.