Lions and Tigers and Sloths! Oh My!

Madeline claims to like puppies. And she does, as long as they're a safe distance away. The puppies on the other side of the street are just lovely, but put Madeline in the same room with a dog, and she'll claw her way up the nearest adult.

She doesn't even pretend to like cats. Every time we go to my parents' house, she quietly and fretfully asks about their cat. We try to assure Madeline that it's a nice kitty and that Mimi will put it away in the basement if she wants. Maybe on some level the great cat incident of 2011 has been seared into her memory.

On the other hand, animals in books and on TV seem to fascinate her.  She likes to pretend there are monkeys in the trees when she drives to school in the morning. Sometimes she pretends to be a bear who steals our picnic baskets. For a long time she tried to convince us that a lion, who was also named Madeline, lived in our basement.

A few weeks ago we decided to take her to the zoo. We've taken her every spring, and she asked to go this time.  Based on her reactions toward cats and dogs, we figured she might be a little shy at first, but that overall, she'd enjoy seeing the animals.

We were wrong.  She cried the entire time.

She cried to go home when we saw the tiger, who was lying in the shade so far away from the fence that we could only vaguely see his nose and paws. She cried when we brought her near the sleeping lion.

Mumma, that baby zebra back there is stressing me out!  

It wasn't just the giant cats that frightened her either.  She cried at the camels, and the kangaroos, and the emu. She calmed down when we entered the indoor tropical exhibits. She really liked the fish.

But then we rounded the corner to see an ant eater and she began crying all over again.  We tried to point out the cute, little monkeys to her.  She was not impressed.  She cried loudly as we rushed past the gorillas, but she didn't mind posing with this statue just past the exit.

After we finally gave up and headed toward the exit, Madeline decided she had enough courage to ride the zebra on the carousel.  She even liked the tiger with a pink saddle behind us. I guess plaster animals are just fine.

On the way out, we saw a sloth that she thought was pretty cool, and she didn't mind the prairie dogs either. Fish, sloths, and prairie dogs are about all the gal can handle.

I can understand why lions and tigers and bears would frighten her. They at big, unfamiliar, and roar. But last week we stopped by a local farm to see the goats, sheep, and bunnies. She cried some more. Animals stress her out.

I guess we shouldn't expect Madeline to grow up to be a veterinarian or a zoologist unless she can specifically work only with fish and sloths. Dr. Doolittle she is not.