Hairy stared at the woman incredulously.
Either she was the dumbest woman Hairy had ever seen or the biggest prude.
The male and female hippos were doing what male and female hippos do on a hot day during mating season. Yet here was the woman dragging her two young daughters, attempting to cover their eyes, and all the while screaming at a young zookeeper to "make them stop."
Hairy chuckled to himself as he tried to imagine just what the zookeeper could do to make them stop.
He pictured large harnesses attached to the hippos on one end and attached to Sherman tanks on the other.
He doubted it would work. The male hippo obviously intended to complete his work.
Hairy thought about yelling "Stop it!!" at the hippos, but thought better of throwing fuel onto the fire.
It was a great day at the zoo. Hairy had given the slip to his Aunt Pansy and Doody and now had the rest of the day to himself.
His aunt would scold him later for making her worry, but for now Hairy was just glad to not be listening to Doody's incessant litany of erroneous facts about zoo animals.
Hairy could hear him now.
"Well Mom," Doody would say. "The larger hippo is attacking the smaller one probably because it got near his food."
Hairy just shook his head.
As much as Hairy wanted to stay and see how the "hippo debacle", as it would surely be known in zoo lore ended, but he wanted to get to the new reptile exhibit.
Hairy didn't know why it was important to him to go there but ever since it opened over a month ago he felt a nagging need to visit.
Hairy continued along the path, the sound of the woman's shrill shrieking still echoing in his ears, towards a tan brick and glass building.
REPTILES AND AMPHIBIANS was etched into a large granite stone sitting just to the right of the entrance door.
Hairy entered to find multiple corridors each marked with various world locales. The Gobi Desert, The Amazon, The American Southwest, and The Nile River Valley, were just a few of dozens of exhibit areas.
As Hairy stood looking at the various corridors he felt he was required to enter into the Amazon exhibit first.
He didn't know why. He just knew he absolutely needed to.
Hairy walked past rows of glass enclosures displaying frogs, turtles, lizards, and snakes of all shapes, sizes, and colors.
He was singularly uninterested in any of them.
He felt compelled to continue walking towards a large glass enclosure at the end of the corridor.
As he approached the enclosure he saw a large brass plaque on the wall near the glass. He walked over and read the plaque.
"GREEN ANACONDA . Related to boa constrictors and pythons. Non-venemous. Anacondas suffocate their prey by coiling around it and squeezing. Anacondas have been found weighing up to 441 lbs. Adults can grow up to nearly 30 feet in length. Anacondas are excellent swimmers and divers."
"Wow. Everything I never wanted to know about big snakes," Hairy thought to himself.
Movement behind the glass caught Hairy's eye and he practically jumped out of his skin when he saw the huge, green, spotted snake staring at him not one foot from his head.
Though the snake had startled him, Hairy immediately recovered and looked at the snake with interest.
Surprisingly the snake appeared to be looking at him with interest too.
"Lunch," Hairy mused as he imagined the giant snake squeezing the life out of him.