26th Most Favorite Thing About the State Fair of Texas: The Petting Zoo

Our guest photographer for this note is the very talented Clare Dempsey, yet another good friend who understands the full-on awesomeness that is the State Fair of Texas. She has sampled many fried products with me, survived the relentless advances of Cybertron Command Center, AND has actually been brave enough to climb aboard some of the extreme-throw-up rides on the State Fair Thrillway — AFTER eating her share of fried stuff. A hardy soul indeed.

One thing that is true of all my State Fair companions is this: we are suckers for baby animals. And that means that every year we must visit the Petting Zoo.

Located across the street from the Creative Arts Building, the Petting Zoo features a somewhat random collection of baby and adult faunae — goats, pigs, piglets, a giraffe, an ostrich, llamas, donkeys, you get the point. All visitors to the Petting Zoo are encouraged to purchase food which can be fed to some animals (the goats are relatively safe, but greedy!) but not to others (the ostrich is a case in point — he always looks very angry… I try not to get too close because I’m sure he’d take any good opportunity to peck my eyes out).

I love this place because something amazing happens here every year. You never know what it will be until you get inside, but think about the potential of the place this way: you have, in a rather small space, a bunch of non-domesticated animals running amok in open-air pens, small children with food those animals REALLY want, and a group of parents who are either very overprotective or really not paying attention at all to their kids. It is something to behold.

The baby giraffe is one of my favorite Petting Zoo fixtures. I have a special place in my heart for this particular creature. A few years ago, I was feeding a particularly gentle Baby G and unfortunately ran out of food. The giraffe looked at my empty hand, looked me straight in the eye, batted those beautiful lashes, and proceeded to lick one whole side of my face. I think the whole affair surprised us both – I squealed and the giraffe hastily retreated to the back of its pen.

The best thing I ever witnessed in the Petting Zoo was something I thought I would absolutely never forget. Allow me to do a regrettably poor job of describing the scene as it played out, in my memory, anyway:

One year, someone in charge of the Petting Zoo had the magical idea of putting piglets, a large tortoise, and a baby goat together in the same pen. It was Opening Day of the Fair and all of the creatures were getting used to their surroundings. Honestly, the general interaction between the slow-moving tortoise and the hyperactive pigs and goat was funny enough. At some point, though, while the tortoise was shelled-up, the goat managed to climb on top of him. The goat danced around up there for a couple of seconds before the tortoise woke up and unfurled himself to see what on earth was happening. Unfortunately, the goat was NOT able to jump down before the tortoise, fully agitated, started lumbering around the pen. For at least 15 minutes, all of us were treated to an amazing performance as an annoyed tortoise and a freaked-out goat tried to figure out how to extract themselves from this predicament. In the meantime, squealing piglets were either running for cover or nipping and the heels of the tortoise as it trudged ever more frantically around the stall while the distraught goat tapped berserk circles on his back.

Now comes the lesson in memory. Sunni actually found video of this very event online, and as I watched it, I was simply SHOCKED to discover that I’d remembered the entire thing wrong. Piglets were not in the cage with the tortoise and the goat, a kangaroo was! (I still find the whole thing insane.) The video is great, but I can tell you honestly that things were not nearly as calm in the cage when we were watching. My favorite part of the video, honestly, is the color commentary provided by one of the spectators.

The Petting Zoo. Anarchic animal hijinks for the whole family. And free anti-bacterial hand-wipes at the end.

All Photos courtesy of Clare Dempsey.

~ by nf1014 on August 30, 2009.