Allergic reaction to lion scent

During our stay in California we drove down to San Diego to go to the zoo and Sea World. Brendan had been looking forward to these particular two days moreover Disneyland. In fact, on day two in wonderland Brendan was pouty and kept saying that he just wanted to go home. He didn't want to stay at Disneyland anymore. When we asked him what was wrong he finally came clean, "We just have been here so long and we haven't even been to the zoo yet!" After telling him that we would be there tomorrow he perked right up and kept saying "Tomorrow is going to be AWESOME!" We had to keep reminding him that TODAY was pretty awesome too. He had a lot more fun, which- so did we.

We drove down early Friday morning and went to the San Diego Zoo. Kids are free in October so that was a bonus. We got to see everything we wanted and more at this zoo. There were two particular animals that Brendan was excited to see... the hippo and the crocodile. These are two animals that we don't have here at our zoo. There are actually millions of animals that we don't have at our zoo. Okay, maybe not millions- but you get the idea. Our zoo is pretty pathetic compared to San Diego's.

Another animal we don't have is a lion. At this zoo they had the king of the jungle and his woman. This exhibit had a netting kind of fence that walled off the animals along with the metal hand rails out a few feet from that. This lion was walking back and forth along the mesh, rubbing up against it like a cat to your leg. Jason and Brendan stood on one end of the fence while I went to the other to try to get a picture of the lion's face as he walked towards me. There are about 10 other people there watching this lion with us, so a bunch of us went to the other end to get pictures. As the lion was turning to head back away from us, he lifts his tail and *squirt* - out comes a spray of what I thought was pee. Of course, pee does not come out of under his tail- but that's what I thought of at first. We all jump back 10 feet to avoid this spray, which did not get on us. Pretty amusing, right? Well, he did it AGAIN the next time he came down. We still managed to dodge his marking, but I'm sure I won't be wearing a fushia colored shirt the next time I go and visit him. The funny thing about this is that I actually have a picture of the sign that is in front of their exhibit which warns people to stay 7-10 feet away. Notice how he is rubbing up against the mesh fencing.

A few hours after we leave the lions my throat starts to swell up. I could still breath and swallow, it was like someone karate chopped me right in the adams apple. I couldn't think of what it could possibly be- then it hit me. I must have inhaled some of that spray that was in the air. There was nothing else it could have been. It actually didn't go away for about 4 days. So now on the next doctor's forms that ask what my allergies are I can write down "Lion's Scenting." I don't know how it would be applicable to any situation, but darn it- there it is.

My cute baby giraffe. This hippo was the size of a Smart Car. Not kidding.
The cute little 4 year old boy. He climbed this tree, turned around on it and layed his back on that branch to chill out.

These guys were a hoot to watch! I wish we could have stayed a little longer. We would have, but so much zoo, so little time!
This was the two year old girl. She was pacing back and forth the whole time. She just wanted to be sure that everyone got a good angle of her. Such a show off. She was so cute!