A RARE ZOO SIGHTING

Because Jan is a zoo docent at the L A zoo, we have visited many zoos on our travels, so it wasn’t a surprise to find ourselves on a city bus headed for the Edinburgh zoo. We no more than walked through the gate when the daily penguin parade started. It was amazing to see the penguins out of their enclosure and parading and strutting around a paved course.

Afterward, scanning the zoo flyer and map, Jan spotted a Painted Hunting Dog exhibit and said, “I’ve never seen such an animal, let’s see if we can find it.”

We were heading for the new exhibit, but somehow the map was not quite getting us to our destination. We approached a man with some papers and a torch (flashlight) in his hand, who we thought was a zoo employee. We asked his help in finding our desired exhibit. He was most helpful as he sprinted up and down paths trying to find the dogs.

After asking how long he’d worked at the zoo, he said, “I’m the zoo’s insurance person, and this happens to be the day to inspect the zoo.”

As we followed him around, he seemed as excited about the painted hunting dogs as we were when we finally found them! He didn’t seem to mind that we had interrupted his work day.
We thanked him for his time and kindness as he went back to work.

All five dogs were lean and good size. Their multi-colored coats reminded me of camouflage. Endangered they are almost extinct. Their huge ears stood up antenna straight. Obviously, their sense of hearing is excellent. The dogs were not very active but were not sleeping either. It was neat to see them.