When YA was four, we had a nice day at the zoo.  As we went through the Minnesota Trail, there was a beautiful lynx right in the middle of its habitat.  YA was mesmerized; she stood right in from of the glass and stared at the lynx.  The lynx stared back; they literally had locked eyes.  The two of them stood still like that for a good five minutes.  YA broke eye contact to look to me and at that point, the lynx bolted for another part of the habitat.  I probably should have realized at that moment that YA had some animal whisperer talent.   Maybe it started that day – the lynx has always been one of her favorite animals.

We get emails from the zoo so we were aware that there were two lynx kittens born at the zoo in late spring.  The email announcing that the kittens were out for viewing came a couple of weeks back; YA has been on me ever since to get to the zoo. 

Yesterday, since I had Blevins in the afternoon, we zipped down to Apple Valley at opening time, 9 a.m.  The plan was to go see the lynx first, then see other stuff, then circle back to the lynx before heading home.

Going in the cool morning was great!  All the animals were up and about (except the beavers).   We even got to see the two martins, who are NEVER awake normally.  The wolves, who are usually all sacked out in the back of their area were up, rolling around and even coming right up to the windows!

Saw the red pandas, the sloth (who is usually sleeping when we’re there), all the otters, the caribou, the big moose.  Even the prairie dogs were all up and working on their breakfast.

We did go back to the lynx – the kittens had found a way to climb up to the top of their habitat and were looking down at all of us.  Even though we could hardly see them and they weren’t doing much, YA had us stand there almost 10 minutes.

All in all, it was a glorious day at the zoo.  I think we’ll probably head out early and get there at opening from now on!

Are you a morning person or a night owl?