Date Night

While I worked at my old job I used to make up lists of goals for myself. Some were travel goals, some were life time goals. On that list was 'go to a national park and howl with the wolves'. I had seen a spot on this on PBS years ago and planned to do it some time before I die.

Last Saturday on "Date Night", I was able to cross that off my 'Life's To Do List'. the original story i saw on PBS was of a park in Canada were in the summer the park rangers took a group into the woods and got the wolves to howl. Imagine my surprise and delight to find that a small zoo in big bear does a similar event on Saturday nights during the month of October. Not as far as going to Canada.

The small zoo is right across from Bear Mountain and open to the public. It houses three grown bears, some coyotes and a great big snow leopard. It was so great to see them live, not on TV and so close. They will be moving in a year or so, right now they are up close, I'm not sure it will be the same when they relocate. There were also birds of pray, with dead mice in their area so they could eat them. There was two maimed Bawled Eagles, and one wing or not, it was still great to see one that close, he is still pretty.

It was very cold and I had on a coat as well as a hat and a thick sweater, it was only an hour tour and that's about all I could take in the cold. There was two groups of about 25 of us taking the tour It was nice and yes we got to get close to the wolves, they were white and so great. I wanted to go up and hug them like I do my dogs. Of course I can't, oh well. They had been howling before, and we got them going. That great haunting sound, that starts out high, then deep and low then high again. It was so wonderful to see them and hear them, it was so cold that I could see the breath of the wolf as he howled into the night air.

If it hadn't been so cold and if I wasn't already getting sick, I would have loved to stay for hours just listening to them howl. Before I knew it, it was time to go. I have to come back in the snow and see them play in it, and yes get them to howl some more.

One of the more original date nights I have ever worked up. It really made my month. Yes I get to check off an other thing on my "life's to-do list" and it makes me so happy. I'm not ill with cancer or anything life threatening, I would not want to wait until then to work on this list. I want to do things that I love while I have the energy to do them and enjoy them. So what is on your list and what are you doing to get it done?