There's A Zoo in Austin? With Real Animals?

This week I went to the Austin Zoo with Winks the one-eyed cat and Rohini the one-eyed pediatric neurologist. I am not sure Winks's story, but I hear Ro lost her eye in an ugly bar fight in Long Beach.

The zoo, for those of you who have never been or even heard of the Austin Zoo, is a little out in the middle of nowhere and I am not sure it still qualifies as being in Austin, but it is nevertheless a pleasant place to visit. Between the one-eyed cats, three hundred free ranging peacocks, and a variety of legitimate zoo-type animals it was a relatively respectable establishment. I do use the term "zoo" loosely, however, as it was composed almost entirely of animals hillbillies and rednecks throughout the South and Midwest had acquired for themselves until they got "too big to manage" which I can only imagine to mean they "got eaten" or had their arm or arms torn off by "play bites." As a result it was mostly big cats, monkeys, and traditional farm animals. This unfortunately meant no meerkats, but it did mean there was a good number of very friendly-looking foxes and one slightly less friendly-looking and constantly pacing, brooding fox. With the intent of his stare I'd stay away from the opposite side of the zoo for a while. He's got plans.

So go to the Austin Zoo, see some cats, feed some goats, wade through peacocks, and prize goes to the first to find which animal's only got three legs!