My former co-worker, Jacqueline, often remarks that her mother would like to move to Montana because there are more horses than people there. I am not sure if this is true, perhaps Steph could set the record straight, but it sounds like a good place to me. Actually, I have been to Montana several times, the last being with Stephanie, and it really is a wonderful state. I was proud to discover there is a Kidd, Montana but beware it doesn't have any services to offer, i.e. gas stations. One freezing November evening my roommate, myself and a hottie named Rob almost were stranded in Kidd, Montana. It was pretty scary.
Jacqueline's mother is not the only who prefers the company of animals to humans. My mother is the same way. She is almost a total recluse and only cries when she hears about animals being mistreated. She treats the family cats like they are her children. Its pretty insane. What's even more unusual is my brother is becoming the same way. He reacts almost violently to anyone who teases or upsets Chef.
What is it that endures humans to animals? Can this characteristic be traced to Adam? He obviously had a special relationship to the beasts of the field, the fowls of the air, creeping things of every kind, etc. I wonder how he felt about pandas.
I saw a photo of Lun Lun's cub a few weeks ago in the Washington Post Express. Tonight while reading CNN.com I ran across this photo. Lun Lun and her cub are residents of Zoo Atlanta. As many of you know, Atlanta is my home and seeing this photo made me proud. What the National Zoo can do we can do just as well, if not better. The cub is female after all.
As you may have concluded the cub remains nameless. Nameless babies make me think of my brother also. Joshie has three birth certificates. Two that read "Baby" Kidd and the third with his full name, Joshua Ryan Kidd. I am not sure why it took my parents so long to decide on a name. Perhaps they assumed Joshie was going to be a girl. I just discovered my mother never had an ultrasound to determine the sex of her children before birth. (Another decision my parents made that I don't understand) I know they were going to name Joshie Autumn if he were a girl. Then we would have been Amber and Autumn. Another testament of God's mercy.
My parents also had an agreement that my mother would choose the first name and my father would choose the middle name. Heck. I think the mother should be able to choose both names because the father is already giving the kid HIS last name and that is permanent for the male babies and possibly the females too. Besides, the females can always hyphenate. In fact, I think I will insist on that should I decide to reproduce with some lucky man. Sorry, I know that's a scary thought.
In my house we refer to panda bears as pandy bears. This began while I was on my mission. My mother, desperately missing her favorite person, would take the missionaries serving in Atlanta site seeing. One Monday she took the Sisters to Zoo Atlanta to see the pandas. One of them being Lun Lun. Kelly Cole, one of the sisters serving during this time, still jokes about it with our family. I think I may have mentioned this before, but our family's ability to make up new words is a sign of genius. Yeah, you know it. So, here's to the suspense of waiting for the pandy bear christening and all the pandy madness that will follow.