Alligators and Allergies

Today was Alligators and Agriculture Day at the Oxbow Meadows Environmental Learning Center, which is run by Columbus State University.  Gavin, Steffany, Shylo and I all went. We got to see a bunch of reptiles, some farm animals, and learn about some agricultural and farming stuff. We got to eat soybeans, make a garden in a plastic glove, and learn about why it's important to keep our water clean.  Then we visited with the animals.

 
Gavin with Old Bess the cow.  No, I'm not kidding, that's her real name.

One of the full grown female alligators.

Maurice, the Nile Monitor who devoured three dead rats while we watched.

A weird looking black and white turtle.

A catfish almost as big as I am.

A giant tortoise, sunning itself under a heating lamp.  He's pretty chill.  We hung out for a while.

Two tiny baby alligators. They're kind of hard to see, but they're right in the middle of the frame. They're almost cute when they're that small.

We had a pretty good time--Shylo loved looking at all the fish, and Steffany even took Gavin to look at the snakes.  (I chickened out and hung out with the tortoise while they did that.  If it has more than four legs or less than two I'm really just not interested.)

Then pretty much immediately afterward, we went to Wal-Mart to get some Benadryl for me.  After we touched the farm animals at the end, I started breaking out in hives, on my hands and my neck, which I must have touched.  I'm fairly convinced it was Old Bess the cow that started it.  I've been around chickens and rabbits before, and I touched the goat when we first got there as well as at the end.  Old Bess was the last thing I decided to pet before we left, and by the time we got to the car, I had hives on my right hand (which I petted her with) and up my neck as well. So, I'm fairly certain that today I discovered a cow allergy...

So now I'm a little zonked out on Benadryl, covered in anti-itch cream (which I may take a bath in later), and we're all relaxing on the couch watching How to Train Your Dragon.  So the next time I get a bright idea about taking the kids to some fun, family friendly event... Some remind me about the cow, okay?