Where's the Self-Respect?

On Sunday afternoon, we went to the zoo with the teenagers from church. I have to ask...where's the self-respect? Seriously, these animals are pathetic.


First, there are the monkeys who will take sunflower seeds straight out of your hand (ok...that's probably not too unusual). But then...,


...there's the buck who will walk straight up to you as long as you wave some leaves at him (forget the fact that he is surrounded by trees with leaves in his reach).


And what self-respecting lion willingly shares his cage with a dog? Although rumor has it that he is regularly fed the stray dogs picked up on the streets around town...


At least the tiger seemed to keep a bit of her self-respect. Like any good cat, she was napping away the afternoon. We figure she earned the right to do so since she had just given birth to 3 little tiger cubs the day before. If you look closely at the second picture, you can see one of them nursing and the other two up near mama's front paw.