Each in Our Own Way

This post may look like another thinly veiled attempt to show some more zoo pictures, but I can assure you that is not the case THIS time. Oh yes, there ARE zoo pictures in this one, but they are merely to illustrate a story. A story I knew I would be telling you dear reader(s) as soon as I saw it. Oh yes, I think about you like that.

We met this woman at the zoo.

She was talking to a group of people that had gathered around her, and I had to start listening, as her story was very fascinating to me and I'm kinda nosy. She reminded me of the "Feed the Birds" lady in Mary Poppins, and it turns out that's not too far from the truth.

















Only in this case, the 'bird' is an orangutan.
I apologize for the glare on the glass in the picture, but once we were here watching this I didn't want to move around and break the spell.

*I don't know the name of the woman or the orangutan, so for the purposes of this story we'll call the orangutan Mimi, because that's much shorter to type than 'orangutan'.

The story is this... the woman in the picture starting visiting Mimi at the Woodland Park Zoo about ten years ago. She would sit on a bench across from this window and watch Mimi in her enclosure, being very conscientious about not eating in front of Mimi. One day she did have a sandwich while sitting on the bench, and she said Mimi immediately pulled the barrel over to the glass and sat on it to watch the woman eat. Over the years this interaction has become what I saw Monday, which is this woman bringing a variety of objects to the window specifically for Mimi's entertainment. Mimi will tap on the window to show what she wants to see next, and the woman complies; whether by blowing bubbles, painting her fingernails, or eating, which apparently Mimi still likes to watch. On Monday it lasted until the door in the enclosure opened and Mimi ran off in search of her own food.

Seeing this interaction got me thinking quite a bit, and I'm pretty sure this won't leave my mind for awhile. I wonder about the woman, about the people that exist in her life so that her best friend is an orangutan that she visits every day, but I assume she's never touched. And what of our little Mimi, whose face has that bemused expression, but who also seems to be placating the woman to an extent. Does Mimi look forward to the daily visits? Does Mimi think the woman is her key to escape? Would Mimi eat her if given the chance? (I don't really think that last one, but I thought I'd put it in to see if anyone was still reading). I do have to say that the woman seemed to have so much love for Mimi... it seemed that Mimi was giving her a reason to get out of bed every day. So maybe I'm reading too much into this, but I certainly would like to see someone turn this story into a movie so I could watch the lady blow bubbles while I eat popcorn. The zoo doesn't sell popcorn anymore (tragedy).

By the way (change of subject). I promised myself that I would never ever ever use this blog for complaining, but I do want to say one thing: the feeling of having to pay a deductible (and mine unfortunately is $500.00) to replace something that you already bought and that you yourself did not break or lose is really sick. And yes, I'm glad I have insurance. But I'd be even MORE glad if I had my nice stereo with XM and Mp3 and CD. Grrrr.

And that's all I have to say about that.

~Tasha