Annie At The Zoo

Annie At The Zoo


Zoologist Trainee Annabel Lee had been waiting in front of the lion enclosure for almost five minutes, and was now starting to worry.  "Yo, guys - suppertime!" she called.  "Xerxes, Themis, Athena - c'mon out and eat."  When the animals didn't appear, she turned, apologized to the disappointed park visitors, and walked quickly back to the operations building.  "Victor!" she called to her supervisor as she entered the office, "the lions won't come out of the cage area to eat.  Unless you know something I don't, I think there's a problem."

Turning to the video control board, Victor called up the closed-circuit camera feeds from the lion enclosure and routed the images to the main display monitor.  Split now into quadrants, the monitor displayed both maintenance entrances, the passageway between the cage area and the public part of the enclosure, and the cage area itself.  Readily visible in the lower right frame were all three lions, with Xerxes and Athena actively engaged in making lion cubs, while Themis rolled about on her back to show that she, too, was ready to mate.  Quickly, Victor blanked the screen and then turned to Annabel, who was blushing furiously.

"Pride lionesses synchronize their cycles, so that the cubs are all born about the same time," he explained.  "Our little group's going to be - preoccupied - for the next few days.  Now, then," he said with a smirk, "while Roddy gets the 'Animals Temporarily Unavailable for Viewing' signs out, are there any other 'problems' I should know about?"

"Men!" Annabel huffed, and turned to leave.  Laughter followed her out the door.  "Kids in khaki, that's what they are!" she fumed to herself, as she headed for the Elephants habitat.  Judging from the size of the crowd along the fence, there was some kind of activity going on.  I hope it's nothing normal I should know about, but don't, she thought to herself.  Hurrying forward, she came around a bend in the trail and saw that the elephants were apparently just being elephants - but visibly so - and had attracted a large crowd.  Giggling to herself as she recalled the onscreen 'bedroom scene', she decided that the pachyderms had simply garnered "the lion's share" of the park's visitors.

Finally, the end of the public part of the day arrived and the park's final tasks could be completed.  Every gate needed to be checked, each cage verified as secure, before the staff could call it a night.  Detailed checklists were completed and verified to the park's standards, and everyone was finally released.

Clocked out at last and on her own time, Annabel made a quick trip to the Big Cats habitat to take a last look at the lions.  Both females were sleeping, but Xerxes was chewing on something near the exit.  As she noticed the sign Roddy was supposed to have posted, as well as splashes of blood by the gate, Annabel began screaming.