Another Zoo trip

Well we've definitely been getting our money's worth out of our zoo pass these last couple of weeks. We went again today with my sister, Lori. She's been wanting to see the Polar Bears and we never turn down the zoo. Addison would go every day if she could! Thanks for making the trip up to see us, Aunt Lori!

It was a little rainy (just drizzling on and off, mostly) which was actually nice because it wasn't too crowded. Even better, it wasn't 95 degrees like yesterday!

Of course, our first stop was the Polar Bears, Addison's new favorite.

They were pretty lazy at first but one of the girls (they're twin sisters) got really playful and put on a show for us, playing with her ball and bucket. It was so cute to listen to Addison tell Daddy all about it tonight!

We stopped at a lot of the other animals, but this one was really special.

That's Misha (MEE-sha) and she was born at the Louisville Zoo in February. When she was 2 months old, there was a fight within her family group consisting of her mother, father and another adult female that resulted in Misha losing part of her left leg and breaking a bone near her left hip.

When Misha was taken from her mother for medical care, her mother's milk dried up. Because her mother didn't have surrogacy history or training, they transferred Misha to Columbus where they knew she would receive the best care possible as the Columbus Zoo has been a pioneer in the gorilla surrogacy program. Surrogates are taught to not only care for their baby like their own but also to bring the baby over to staff when prompted for bottle feedings, medication and regular check-ups. AMAZING!

Misha is making excellent progress and they expect her to permanently enter her gorilla family very soon. I can't wait to go back and see how she is doing with her new family!

And speaking of family...I just ADORE mine!