Bon Voyage Maggie

I'd say the Alaska fall is crisp, sharp, and enlivening, but it is cold today. We had business to see an elephant, and my hands are still like clumsy blocks of ice banging away at the keyboard. I don't know what your opinion is of zoos. I am torn. I have always been a biologist at heart, and have spent days watching animals in the wild, at zoos, and at Christmas parties. I know that there are good zoos and bad zoos, and the Alaska Zoo falls somewhere in between. I think the best description would be "well intenioned."

We took the boy to a going away party for Maggie, our lone elephant since her partner Annabelle died almost ten years ago. I grew up with Annabelle, I also grew up with a in a caged lion outside Brown's Drive-In and a gorilla that lived in the BJ Circus Store, a flea market when I was in college. Although it made me sad each time I visited, I still went and watched and smiled (of course I cried one single tear at each visit).

Maggie is going to some elephant sanctuary in California, sponsored by Bob Barker of Price is Right fame, and finally settling the fight that has been ongoing over the past years between animal rights activists, the zoo, and the Alaskan public. I think this is a reasonable settlement. I think this is for the best. Watching Jackson watching Maggie, however, made me a little sad. He stood against the cage barrier talking to anyone and everyone about how there was "an elephant over there," and "what is she doing?"

I know he will ask about her when we return to the zoo, because, we will return and he does not forget. I smiled and cried one single tear.