The Dog named Wallaby and a Cock Fight

I've realized that my blogs so far have contained a lot of bitching.  So I thought I should share something positive that happened this weekend.

I have been working a lot lately.  I work on clients' photos usually all morning, then after my eyes are going crossed from looking at the computer so much, I get out my crochet hooks and whip out a pair of booties or a hat.  And, I've been really down, so when I have a chance, I tend to curl up in my bed to hibernate.  I can't remember a time where I was outside for more than the time it took to walk from my back door to my car.

Michigan FINALLY reached Spring this weekend, so cabin fever set in.  I had one of those sudden urges yesterday to get out of my house and just take a huge deep breath of fresh air.  I thought about sitting out on my swing in the backyard, but I felt like I needed more than that.  I needed an outing.  So I texted my mom and asked her to meet me at our favorite place to hang out with the kids--Anderson and Girls' Orchard.  Not only is this an orchard with fruit trees and pumpkin patches, but they have one of the absolute best petting zoos in the world.  And it's FREE!

Remember Luke hurt his knee this week, so that's why I asked my mom to go with us, to help me chase after the boys (Annie was away at her biological dad's house for the second half of Spring break).  Plus, Tyson is my mom's biggest fan.  He likes her more than me.  So I'm pretty sure he would have shivved me if I went anywhere that he knows Gramma could have gone to without her.

Like I said, BEST PETTING ZOO in the world!  Not only do they have the normal farm animals like goats and donkeys and pigs and horses, they have reindeer, zebras, camels, emus, llamas, peacocks.... And they have a new "exotic" animal house where there's a sloth (ugly but absolutely fascinating to watch how it moves so slowly) and this really neat bird feeding station where the birds actually fly around you and come sit on your hand and eat seeds.  But my favorite animal there is the wallaby.

I went through all the animals with the boys letting them bound about freely enjoying the freedom to run around in the fresh air.  We fed the goats and the donkey and listened to the pig snort as it tried to get the feed we put down the shoot to his pen.  Tyson was having a sensory fit, so he and Luke were sitting on a bench waiting for my mom to arrive.  While wandering about, I peaked to see if my wallaby was in its pen, and I didn't see it, so I passed it and went on to the other animals. 

After our first go-round, I noticed my mom got there so I brought the boys back to her to say hi and let them drag her around.  I could tell Luke wanted to leave. He's funny like that.  He likes to go places, just doesn't like to stay there long.  I'm trying to push him out of his habits and make him relax and fly by the seat of his pants a little more (with an extra boost from this not-so-subtle hint in my blog!).  So I kinda ignored his normal cues allowing the boys to feel like they had all the time in the world to play and run around. And allowing myself to completely enjoy the moment.  It took a while, but I could tell Luke fell into feeling more comfortable with not having a plan or deadline.  It was nice to see him enjoy himself more.

With the boys under the watchful eyes of my mom and wonderful hubba bubba, I wandered off on my own when I noticed the wallaby romping around its pen.  I knelt down next to it and put my hand inside the fence and clicked my tongue.  It looked right at me, then slowly came over to me quite cautiously keeping his eyes on mine.  It got just close enough to sniff my fingers and then turned a little to allow me to stroke its fur with my fingertips.  I cooed at it lovingly and it moved ever so slightly closer letting me scratch its neck.  Then it turned its cheek into my hand and let me rub its face getting that euphoric closed eye look like, "I'm getting some love!"  I melted!  Sweet little thing!

Then Cooper ran up and said, "WOAH!" as loud as he could because I had this wallaby practically in my lap (as close as I could get to it with a cage in between us anyway).  The wallaby scampered away and looked back at me sad that its wonderful massage got interrupted.  I hushed Cooper and put both my hands through the fence and clicked again.  It slowly came back to me, but a little more trusting this time.  I let Cooper put his hand in and pet the wallaby's back.  "Wow, that's soft," he said, then ran off to do something else.  A nice docile wallaby must be boring for rambunctious boys.  I went to pull my hand back and follow Cooper, but the wallaby put his hands around mine and his cheek right into the palm of my hand.  He had me at "hello"!

I loved on the wallaby quite a bit, just having a me and wallaby moment.  The boys came over and checked it out, and mom and Luke did too.  At one point, I jokingly said I was going to take him home.  Luke said, "You already have a 'wallaby' at home named Ernie."  And thus, the dog named Wallaby...I'm changing Ernie's name.  Or just adding another one, because he's already Ernie, Ernie Bernie, Ernest Bernard, Fred, Turtle, Ninja, Peanut Butter...and now Wallaby.  My little Wallaby!

I tore myself away from my new best friend to feed the fish with Tyson.  This is his favorite place.  I'm not sure if it's the huge coi fish or the ducks or maybe just that it's a bridge and he can clomp back and forth over it.  But it sure is fun to watch him smile while he throws food pellets into the water, to see his surprise when a fish pops up and eats it, and to hear him say, "Hi Ducky!"  Eventually, Luke, JJ, and Cooper joined my mom and I with Tyson on the bridge and we all fed the fish and the ducks.  It was nice and relaxing.  Really enjoyable.

And then we saw one of the coolest things I have ever seen!  A&G has two brightly colored male peacocks that roam free around the orchard, and one lush white male and a small white peahen in a pen together.  Inside the pen, the male had his feathers up and spread apart in all his glory trying to attract the peahen, and outside of the pen one of the colorful peacocks brought his feathers up to do his mating dance as well.  Then as these two males are shaking their tail feathers at her, we all hear this squawk from over in the pavilion and turn to find the second colorful peacock with his feathers up and dancing too.

No trip to the zoo is ever complete without mating animals!  No animals actually mated in front of us, but we got to see one of the most beautiful animals in world and their mating practices.  I was in awe of it and couldn't take my eyes off these gorgeous animals for at least a half hour or so.  And I rooted for them to hook up because nature is freaking awesome!

Speaking of nature....it's also natural for males to fight over their little lady.  Three men, one woman, let the fighting begin!  ....and since it was all in nature, it's a legal cock fight!  The one peacock that was over in the pavilion made its way to the three others and positioned himself on the opposite side of the cage.  So now there was a colorful peacock on either side of the cage and a pure white one in the cage with the female, all with their feathers up and spread apart.  What a sight!

After watching these magnificent birds dance around for a bit, Luke and I began chatting with a couple that we know that had showed up at the orchard during this time.  We both had our backs to the birds not paying attention.  I turned around to see one about 5 feet away from us and another right behind it lunging forward to nip at its heels!  We all jumped and scrambled to get out of the way.  The first rule about Fight Club is not to talk about Fight Club, so I can't tell you anymore details.

All in all, it was a great lazy afternoon spending about 2.5 hours meandering about with the kids, forgetting about time, feeling the breeze and the sunshine (finally!), and enjoying each other.  Absolutely good for the soul and much needed!