Fuzzy Visits Wonders of Wildlife

Hi Kids,
If you look carefully at the picture, you can find me. I'm on a rock in front of the giant deer. This sculpture is monumental -- a word used for statues that are larger than life. It was really, really big. And I was in for a really, really big treat. 

Miss Elaine took me to Wonders of Wildlife in Springfield, Missouri. It's a combination of a museum and an aquarium --  and it's all about animals. 

First we went through the museum part. It's full of dioramas - full-sized animals placed in front of painted backgrounds. They really look real. 

A lot of them showed scenes in national parks and animals you might see if you visited them. This first picture is shows a family of American black bears in Yosemite (Yo-SIM-uh-tee) National Park. We even have black bears in Oklahoma. Not all black bears are black. Some are brown and there are even white black bears sometimes.

Not all the animals in Wonders of Wildlife are stuffed. Here's a picture of me with a real black bear.

This bighorn sheep is pictured in Glacier National Park in Montana.

Roosevelt elk live in low valleys and rain forests in Olympic National Park in Washington state.

Mountain lions live in one of my favorite parks -- Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona. Did you get to read my post about my trip to the Grand Canyon? If you scroll back through the posts, you will see it.

There are lots of different kinds of habitats in the museum. When we went into the part of the museum with animals who live in cold climates, the rooms got colder. I was glad I had fur! In this area we got to see gentoo penguins -- real ones -- who live in Antarctica where there is a lot of ice and snow.

It got warmer when we got to the Africa section. It had zebras, giraffes, even elephants. All the rooms had small video screens where we could read more about each animal.

When we finished looking at this part of the building, we went into the aquarium. The first area has a HUGE tank with lots and lots of fish. If you look at the size of the people, you can tell that the tank is really tall.

There were so many colorful fish to look at. I really liked the pattern on this fish. It's called a honeycomb cowfish. Isn't that a strange name?

Some of the tanks had tunnels under them. When you crawled into them, you could stand up in a glass tube and pretend you were inside the aquarium.

I don't know what kind of fish this is, but I loved the yellow color!

The giant moray eels like to hide in holes.

I really like the jelly fish. These are western sea nettles.

There are sharks in the aquarium, but none this big. Did you know these sharks have two rows of teeth? I wouldn't want to meet a real one.

I hope you enjoyed looking at my pictures. I hope you get to see some animals during your summer vacation. 
Love,
Fuzzy

Fuzzy Takes A Road Trip

Hi Kids,
I just visited another state. Can you guess from the picture where I went? Dorothy, Toto, the Scarecrow, the Tin Man and the Cowardly Lion went to see the Wizard of Oz. But they started out in Kansas. 

If you look at a map, Kansas is just north of Oklahoma. It takes less than two hours to get to the state line. We stopped at the Visitor Center to pick up maps and take this picture.

We were going to Wichita. Our first stop was the Pizza Hut Museum. This tiny building was the very first Pizza Hut. The company was started by two brothers. They decided to call their restaurant Pizza Hut because after writing Pizza on the sign, they only had enough room for a short word. Now there are Pizza Huts all over the world!

Exhibits in the museum tell all about the business and have displays on Pizza Hut toys, like a play Pizza Hut kitchen and a Pizza Hut Barbie. While Miss Elaine looked at the exhibits, I sat on this old Coca-Cola cooler. This is what people used 70 years ago -- they didn't have Coke machines or Coke in cans back then. They put ice in this cooler and put the bottles in the ice. People had to pay the clerk because there was no place to put money in the cooler.

Later we went to the Museum of World Treasures. 

They had lots of different exhibits but I loved the dinosaurs best.

The next day we went to the airport to see an antique airplane. This is a B-29 Superfortress. B-29s were very important during World War II (1941-1945). Many of the B-29s were built in Wichita, including this one, called Doc.

Doc was used to make sure radar could detect enemy planes.

You can tell how big this plane is by looking at my picture.

During the war, there was a shortage of men needed to build the planes so many women went to work in the plants. Many of them were riveters -- rivets held the metal parts of the planes together. Here's a famous picture -- Rosie the Riveter - and, beneath the picture is a uniform worn by one of the workers.

This was so cool! The lady who wore that uniform is now a volunteer at the museum. Her name is Connie Palacioz. She was 18 when she worked on the planes. Now she is 94. I was happy to meet her.

After we saw the airplane, Miss Elaine had to go to a meeting. She was visiting with people from towns all over Kansas. They told us about things to do and see in their towns. Mostly, I napped in her bag until........

a lady walked by with an African crested porcupine on a leash. I had to meet him. He was friendly but I didn't get too close to his quills. 

When it was time to go, I got to meet the ladies from Dodge City. This town was famous in the Old West. Here is my picture. Do you think I look like a real cowboy?

Love,

Fuzzy

Fuzzy Goes Wild

Hi Kids,
You've probably guessed that I love zoos. This spring I visited the Cincinnati Zoo in Ohio. My new friend, Miss Debbie, is holding me and feeding Zoe, a young Masai giraffe. Giraffes are the tallest living animals in the world.

I always like to see bears. This is a polar bear. Polar bears usually live in the far north. They like to eat seals but they are kind of slow and can't catch them in the water. Instead, they wait on floating ice and wait until a seal comes up through a hole to breathe. Then they grab them with their huge paws and long claws. Because of climate change, a lot of the ice is melting. This is very bad for the polar bears. Unless we take steps to slow the heating of our planet, the only polar bears left will be the ones living in zoos.

Very few zoos have manatees. These are large, peaceful water mammals. They have to breathe air but they can stay under water up to 15 minutes. They are sometimes called sea cows. You would think they would be related to whales or dolphins -- but their closest relatives are elephants.

This is me with a sculpture of two manatees. Not all the animals I met on my trip were real. Actually, I guess I'm not a real bear -- but I am a real toy bear. Here I am with another not-really-real animal --

This is me with Who-dey. He's a not-really-real tiger who is the mascot for the Cincinnati Bengals professional football team. He was very friendly. I love traveling because I get to meet so many nice animals -- and people.
Love,
Fuzzy

Fuzzy Meets a Star

Hi Kids,
Meet Fiona. She's a star in Cincinnati. She lives at the Cincinnati Zoo with her mom, Bibi. When Fiona was born, she was the smallest hippo anyone at the zoo had ever seen. She was six weeks premature -- that means she was born early. She weighed 29 pounds. The average newborn hippo weighs 100 pounds.

People at the zoo were worried that she wouldn't survive. She couldn't drink milk, her lungs didn't work efficiently, and she couldn't stand up like normal hippo babies do. She wasn't strong enough. 

She couldn't even suck milk from a bottle. Her keepers at the zoo ran a tube through her mouth to her stomach and squirted milk through a large syringe -- a syringe is the plastic part of a shot needle -- sort of a bigger tube with a pusher.

Nurses from the Cincinnati Children's Hospital came to the zoo to help. Fiona had to have someone with her day and night. They had to rub her skin with lotion so it wouldn't dry out. Normal hippos spend a lot of time in the water, but Fiona was too little. They took very good care of Fiona.

When she got bigger, they had to introduce her to water. They put swimming noodles under her tummy to help her float.

Look at her ears. They're round and cute. The keepers thought they looked like ogre ears in Shrek -- so they named her after Princess Fiona.

Fiona was a determined little hippo. When she got too big for her keepers to lift her into her tiny pool, she learned to walk up a ramp. She loved the water. She could close her nostrils (nose holes) and stay under water for several minutes.

Today she is two years old and weighs 1000 pounds -- exactly what a two-year-old hippo should weigh. She lives with her mother and together they enjoy a huge pool. Everyone in Cincinnati loves Fiona. A children's book has been written about her -- she even starred in a television commercial.

Fiona and Bibi like to eat lettuce and other vegetables. Miss Elaine and I got to get close and watch them be fed. Here is a picture of Fiona and Bibi waiting for food.

I hope you liked learning about Fiona. I saw lots of animals on my trip to Cincinnati. I'll be telling you about more of them soon.
Love,
Fuzzy

Take Me Out to the Ballgame

Hi Kids,
Miss Elaine and I just traveled to Cincinnati, Ohio. Can you find Ohio on a map? On our trips we get to see lots of different things. One day we went to the ballpark where the Cincinnati Reds baseball team plays. I love baseball.

We didn't get to see a game, but we did get to tour the stadium and the museum.  Here's a peek inside the stadium. The Reds were practicing before their night game.

Do you see the tall things across the field? These are the lights for night games. Because of their shape, they are called toothbrush-style lights.

After we looked at the stadium, we toured the Reds Hall of Fame and Museum. One of the Reds best players was Johnny Bench. Johnny Bench is from Oklahoma. He's retired now, but when he was playing, he was the catcher for the team. He is one of the best players of all time. Here is me with the statue of Johnny.

Johnny's nickname was "Hands." His hands are so big, he can hold seven baseballs in them. 

The museum has all sorts of exhibits -- from uniforms and items from players to this exhibit about how baseballs have changed over the years. In the front of the picture, you can see what's inside a baseball.

My favorite thing was getting my picture taken for my own baseball card.

In the Hall of Fame section, there are exhibits and videos of the best Reds players.

I had a really good time at the museum. And I was really lucky because during this trip I got to meet two of the Reds' mascots, Mr. Redlegs and Rosie Red.

What a fun trip! And there's lots more to do in Cincinnati. In my next letter, you'll meet the most famous animal in Cincinnati. I'll write soon.
Love,
Fuzzy

Party Animal

Hi Kids,
     I bet you didn't recognize me in my Mardi Gras mask! Do you know what Mardi Gras is? Mardi Gras is French for Fat Tuesday. For hundreds of years, people celebrated Fat Tuesday by eating and partying before they began the somber period of Lent, 40 days before Easter.
     But they don't just party on that day. They start the parties 12 days after Christmas. That whole time until Lent is called Carnival or just Mardi Gras.
     The favorite dessert during those months is King Cake and it's served at almost every party. It looks like this -- 

     It's like a giant, oval, cinnamon roll with a yummy filling inside and icing and sugar sprinkles on top. When Miss Elaine and I went to Mardi Gras in Shreveport, Louisiana this year, we ate lots of King Cake. 
     Parties are planned by groups of friends called krewes. Many of them plan special balls -- parties with food and dancing. They have a king and queen and royal court and everybody dresses up and wears masks. 
     My picture above shows me in a Mardi Gras mask. We got to go to a museum and saw a whole bunch of fancy masks. This is me at the museum -- 

    
     Several of the krewes have parades with lots of big floats. All the krewes build floats to be in the parades. They even have a pet parade put on by the Krewe of Barkus and Meoux (meow). 
     Miss Elaine and I got to ride on a float in the Krewe of Highland parade. This is me getting ready for the parade -- 

    
      Here are some of my favorite floats --

     
People line the street waving their arms and yelling, "Throw me something, mister!"

    The most popular things to throw are strings of beads but other things get thrown, too. From some floats people threw plastic cups, snack cakes, packages of ramen noodles, oranges, avocados, stuffed animals and even hot dogs wrapped in foil. 

     This boy caught a lot of things. It was fun throwing things to the crowd. Some people even remembered to yell, "Thank you." I had fun at Mardi Gras. Most of the Mardi Gras celebrations are in the South in places that the French people settled. Do you think we should have a Mardi Gras parade? I do!
     Love,
     Fuzzy

Bon Jour, Quebec

 Hi Kids,
It's cold out -- so I wanted to tell you about a place that makes the best of the cold and snow. These are pictures my cousin Vanilla sent me from her trip to Quebec, Canada. You know Canada is our country's neighbor to the north. It gets so cold and snowy there that people leave their Christmas decorations up until Valentine's Day because it helps them feel cheerful. And they have a big celebration this time of year -- Carnival. That's Vanilla and Bonhomme. Bonhomme means snowman in French. Many people in Quebec speak French. Bonhomme is the official greeter at Carnival.

Another cool thing they do -- and I do mean COOL - is build an ice village. All the buildings are made of ice blocks and all the furniture and decorations inside are made of ice. Below is a picture of the village. They even have a little church. That's Vanilla in the church. The benches are made of ice, so they put deer skins on them to keep people -- and little bears-- from freezing their bottoms! You can spend the night there -- on beds made out of ice. But they do put mattresses on the beds and plenty of blankets!

 Back in the city, they build an ice palace for Bonhomme. He doesn't really live there but they use it for concerts and other special events during Carnival

 There are lots of fun things to do, too. They made big, snow hills for skiing and for sliding down. You wouldn't expect to see a river raft come sliding down the hill -- but it is lots of fun

They also have games and races -- like this sleigh race.

 And they have snow sculpture contests. Vanilla liked these dinosaurs.

Some people take snow baths. That didn't seem like much fun to Vanilla!

At the end of Carnival, they have a big night parade. Bonhomme waves good-bye for another year. I'd like to go to Canada for this celebration. Wouldn't you?

Love,

Fuzzy