Creature Comfort Day at the Cleveland Zoo

Saturday we spent the majority of our day at the Cleveland zoo. It was a special day because it was Creature Comfort Day. That is the day when the keepers give the animals special enrichment activities to let them use their natural skills and challenge them. Right at the beginning were some free give aways--hats and enrichment toys for our pets. We got a real nice adjustable cap, a rubber toy for our neighbor's dog that they can put peanut butter inside, a couple cats toys for our cats, included one I made myself! It's a ball with a bell inside with a rope through it. (My cats sniffed it some and walked away.)

Me trying to get Spunky Doodle to play with the handmade toy.


Playing with Manny with my handmade toy.

There is so much going on at the same time that you have to choose which ones to watch. We chose the lions, the polar bears, the tigers, the orangutans and the African Savannah tour which included giraffes, vultures, and zebras, and gray parrots. For the lions and the polar bears, a paper mache' animals was put into their exhibit that contained food for them inside it.

The polar bears also got a watermelon! The idea is to let the animals use their natural forging skills and work at getting the food like they would in the wild. They seemed to enjoy tearing it apart.


The tigers got bones that were frozen in a giant popsicle and dumped into their water. They seemed to enjoy fishing them out.

The orangutans had some baby food put inside a hole in their door and they used a small branch to stick in and scoop it out with like we would use a spoon.

The giraffes were given a bunch of leaves on some branches that were strung up high for them to chew off. They really liked that and the one chased a Canadian goose that invaded their exhibit until it finally flew over the fence.

The vultures were given bones with meat still on them which they devoured as a team. Two of them would pull on it together getting the meat off.

For the zebras, they just spread their food around so they'd have to hunt for it.

The cranes were given extra bugs but they were inside a paper mache' lady bug which they had to poke at to get the bugs out.

Different kinds of fruit were hung in the gray parrots' cage that they had to work for a little bit to get.

The keeper of the African Savannah animals said for those with dogs, you can spread some of the food around the back yard for them to hunt for to give them a little challenge and let them use their hunting skills.

We had a good time and the weather was on the cool side which is perfect for the zoo. We would have longer, but me feet were starting to hurt a little and Gerard wanted to wash the car. I took some video with my Flip camera, but it didn't come out very well because we were too far away. The zoom isn't very good on the flip camera so sorry, no video to show you this time.

My Top 10 Favorite Things

Starting out each day with a quiet time of prayer and Bible reading, having my own little worship time with God! James 1:17 says, Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variablenes, neither shadow of turning.




Being married to Gerard, Mr. Wonderful! (Click here for my post "I Married Mr. Wonderful"








Playing with and petting my cats (and other furry animals as well)!







Going to the zoo.








Blogging or playing video games or visiting my favorite sites on the computer!






Playing games--board games, card games, video games, tennis, softball, basketball, etc.!







Reading a good book in the main Cleveland Public Library garden on my lunch hour!







Teaching Sunday School!








Having a day with no plans at all but to just relax and do whatever I want whenever I want!






Watching Sunday afternoon football or a good movie!




What are your favorite things?

A Very Fun Game Site: Pogo.com

I like the pogo.com game site. It has such a wide variety of free games with chat boxes so I can chit chat with other players or learn new games by playing against robots. Games include card games (both solitaire and partner games), strategy games, sports games, puzzle games, silly games, and board games.

Scrabble was recently added which I especially enjoy because I used to play this often with my mom. Her goal would be to score 300 or she felt she hadn't played well. I seldom beat her but when I play on pogo, I try to make 300 and pretend I'm playing my mom. She would have really liked this game site--too bad she didn't have a computer before she died.

There's also a very slim chance of winning some money by turning in the tokens you win in exchange for tickets that they draw from to give away money (I haven't won anything yet). There are also jackpots on most of the games up to $4,999that you get jackpot spins for if you reach a certain score on the games. Anyone who enjoys games should definitely check this out.

Since I've started blogging though, I've been spending more time on that and promoting my blogs so I hardly get a chance to play anymore. Link Referral takes me about an hour a day and then dropping my entrecards, visiting and commenting on others' blogs takes me about 4-5 hours a day. I also spend about an hour a day on email.

I really miss playing on pogo lately so will have to make a special time for it in my weekly schedule somewhere. I think I'm going to actually set aside Sunday to enjoy pogo and take a little break from blogging.

In reading others blogs I came across this post about My Playstation at Winters Tale which is what inspired me to write this post.

Organizing Tip of Week 8: Scrapbooking

Keep the camera and camcorder handy if you have children or pets. You never know when someone or something is going to do something new or cute so keep the camera/camcorder handy to get some great shots. Then, organize your pictures right away so they don't pile up and become a chore to do later. Whether you put them on your computer, get prints made and put into an album or scrapbook, do it right away.

Here's a cool site I found recently that may interest you about digital scrapbooking

Do You Live In The Past, Present or Future?

Growing up, most kids want to be older than they are. When they are 7, they want to be 13! They get to 13 and they want to be 18! They reach 18 and want to be 21! Not me. I had a wonderful childhood and wanted it to last as long as possible. My advice is to enjoy every age you are. I always thought Peter Pan had the right idea--never grow up. Although I did get older and turned into an adult, I still try to make the most of each year God gives me. After all, life is short and we can never go back. Even now, as I anticipate retiring one day in about seven years, I still want to enjoy the time I am in now. Psalms 118:24 says, This is the day which the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.
I took this little test and here's my results:

You Live in the Present

You take things one day at a time. And it turns out, that's a pretty great way to live. You aren't consumed by the past, and you're aren't obsessed with the future. You live in the now, and you enjoy each moment. While most people don't live in the present enough, make sure you don't live in it too much. It would be a mistake to forget your past or neglect to plan for the future.

Do You Live in the Past, Present, or Future?