This weekend we decided to do some touristy kind of things. Being in Springfield, Illinois, we could have done things like visit the Lincoln Library, or the Lincoln House, or some of the museums in town. Instead, we discovered that Springfield had a zoo.
A concern of mine was whether we could take Macky along with us. For those who don't know, Macky is my golden retriever, Leader Dog. My uncle had a Leader Dog and was refused into the zoo at St. Louis. They made him leave his dog in the visitor centor all day while he and his wife toured the zoo. Fortunately the folks at the Springfield Zoo are more considerate than that and we got to take Macky for a little visit.
Our zoo, of course is no where near the size of the St. Louis Zoo. There is no train to ride. No dedicated houses to keep the various species of reptiles, monkeys, birds and so on. The cages are pretty close to the humans who walk through. The walk ways are much narrower than those in St. Louis. In the St. Louis Zoo, it might take an hour just to get to and walk through the monkey house. At Springfield, the whole zoo can be walked through in probably just a little over an hour. Longer if you take your time and relax. Maybe a two hour event if you want to spend time at all the displays and really see all the animals.
Despite the small size, there are an impressive variety of critters there. As we walked in, we were met by a collection of Peacocks and Peahens. The Peahens really liked Macky and followed us around for quite a while. Next, we took off for the cages where some Spider Monkeys were swinging around and chattering. Macky got really excited to watch them play. The feeling was mutual. As we walked around the cage the monkeys all followed us to watch the mighty Mack dog do his thing and lead me around. There was a little kid standing near where we started who called out, "hey, the monkies are going away. They're following that doggie!"
There were some other monkies who also seemed to get worked up over being visited by a dog. Just in a way that didn't seem so happy. Maybe it was just their natural sound, but they kind of were making Macky a bit nervous and he was glad to leave that cage behind him.
There were displays that included a fox, prairie dogs, ground hogs, and some sloths. I've seen sloths before. They are not very quick critters. As Macky approached, there seemed to be a little stirring going on. I don't think they were afraid of us, just curious. We also saw some farm animals like goats and chickens. The chickens were, well, chicken and didn't hang around us very long. Not like the Peahens, who had discovered us again.
By this time it was getting past the time for the Mack dog's usual dinner time. He began to lose some interest in some of the animals. They had a little machine there where you could put in a quarter and get some food out for feeding the Elk. We did. I think Macky got a little jealous. We cruised by some geese, ducks and other birds on our way out. There was a mountain lion somewhere in there too. We didn't quite make all the rounds to all the displays. I didn't want to keep the Macky out too long on this first zoo trip. We headed back home and called it a day. I just wish those St. Louis zoo folks would get off their high horse and give a working dog a break.