Question of the Day, Sunday January 14

[MoochNNoodles]

I am a solid look-but-don’t-touch person.

I still remember freaking out when my ex-stepmother put my stepbrother’s guinea pig inside the sleeping bag I slept in at their house with me. Poor Smokey. Smokey Joe and I later shared the floor in a tiny bedroom at a different house. He got me back with all his night time antics squeaking and banging his metal house if you didn’t take it from his cage. (Thank God we know how to give them more enriching lives now…)

So yes…no unusual animals for me.

 

[denice]

I have never touched a big cat, but that would be absolutely awesome assuming we're not talking anything shady or illegal.

I remember when they took a tiger out of an apartment in NYC. They were able to tranquilize him. When they took him out there was a crowd of people reaching out to touch him. He ended up in a sanctuary in Northeast Ohio.

 

[bbdoll22]

In my twenties my mom and I went to the now defunct Catskill Game Farm, it’s kinda like a zoo but more natural. I was obsessed with bison so I jumped a fence and pet one. I have a physical photo of it somewhere. I’m just glad the bison didn’t charge me and that I didn’t get caught by the keepers.

 

[posiepurrs]

Nothing to exotic here. As a kid I raised a baby mocking bird to adulthood that had fallen from the nest into the middle of the road. The temperature was in the 90s. I also saved a possum that had been hit by a car- we couldn’t get him to leave when he was well! The oddest was a red tailed hawk that my cousin shot through the wing while trying to get rid of crows in his garden ( this was many years ago and no one thought anything of shooting crows even though I abhorred it). He brought the hawk to me and I took care of it until I could release him back out in the wild.

 

[aliceneko]

Red squirrels - they are very rare here in England and I managed to see one in Cornwall a few years ago.

 

[MonaLyssa33]

I can't think of anything super unusual, but I've ridden an elephant, chased by a goose, bit by a duck (or gummed really because they don't have teeth), had a chipmunk in my bedroom (it somehow got in the house), and also held a chickadee (it was being released after rehabilitation, I was 10 and it was the best thing ever because I loved birds growing up).

 

[Lari]

There would have been a big brawl with the monkey who stole my brownie. He would have eaten the brownie and after being released from the hospital and then the prison, I would have been featured on the show Locked Up Abroad.

He was too fast for there to be a brawl. We were there for my dad to do a marathon and he was still on the course and I'd come back from watching and was enjoying the outdoor buffet. I was sitting alone, playing on my phone or something and he jumped in front of me, grabbed the brownie off my plate, and scampered away before I could even react.

A marathon was the reason I went down to Antarctica as well. I actually walked the half marathon for that one instead of just being a spectator. It's good to have a crazy dad sometimes, lol.

 

[nurseangel]

I found a picture in my phone of the giraffes while looking for another photo. Though I also think animals belong in the wild, this zoo does seem to take good care of them and nobody goes hungry. Our driver would remind us to feed the smaller animals, like the pigs, who could be easily overlooked because they were short in comparison to many of the other animals that approached the cart.

The other zoo we visited for my birthday a couple of years ago has met with some controversy. I thought they were doing a good work, however. They had a lot of big cats that had been rescued from private owners who couldn't afford to feed them and/or other abuse situations. They posted things on plaques about the animals, like their backstories and even that a lion wasn't available because he was recovering from dental surgery. I was impressed that the animals seemed well cared for and had room to roam.

I wonder if large cats that have been kept as pets can be released back into the wild? I'm not judging, just wondering if one that had been treated with the best of care could hunt and fend for itself?

There was a man in my county who had a liger, which is a lion/tiger mix and huge. That and his pack of wolves brought about the exotic animal laws here that don't exist in neighboring counties.

Ah, there they are...so soft.

 

[Winchester]

Izzy the Iguana. Izzy belonged to a friend from Chicago. She had her own temp and humidity controlled room. She was absolutely gorgeous. She was even spayed because laying eggs took an enormous amount of calcium from her body. Biggest iguana I've ever seen. Linda would take her out for walks and she got a lot of attention. When she introduced me to her, she said to watch her because if she started to bow her head, she was "peeved". She was simply beautiful.

 

[kashmir64]

I wonder if large cats that have been kept as pets can be released back into the wild? I'm not judging, just wondering if one that had been treated with the best of care could hunt and fend for itself?

Unfortunately...no. Big cats that are pets are almost always bought as cubs. Without mama to teach them, they don't develop the knowledge to hunt for themselves. Also, they are no longer afraid of humans and associate us with food. It can turn very bad very quick.
A refuge is the only humane option.