The Zoo and Animals

Having walked by the zoo a countless number of times, I decided to check out as V and I more jadedly had been guessing if whether or not there were actually any animals. There indeed were many different types of animals. I suppose the strangest animal we viewed may have been the pigeons that were being kept with all the other types of geese, flamingos, etc. There was a solitary ostrich that looked like it had just lost its mother, husband or other loved one. It was so genuinely sad, the impulsive humanitarian in me wanted to set it free. V convinced me an ostrich running around the ex-Soviet zoo might get itself shot so we reconsidered that notion. There were some very playful camels that frolicked on over to the cage door in their area. Some of their humps flopped back and forth as they ran. Later I saw one fervently licking the pavement and bars making a white gooey mess leading me to think perhaps it somehow quenched his thirst this way. A girl fed him part of an ice cream cone shortly after. In Spanish there is an expression “estar como una cabra”, meaning to be like a goat, otherwise referred to as crazy, which could be proof that the Spanish perhaps originated from the Georgian Iberia. V had the good humor and audacity to suggest that the Basques and Georgians were of course friends and then the Basques taught Spanish to the Spaniards as the Basques had a better language. A bit of Georgian logic and humor, but more seriously, I believe those Spanish goats must have been good friends with the Georgian ones with their long wrap around horn sets that they adore banging into anything really. You never should get on the bad side of a goat. The mountain goats in Georgia like to climb up on to VERY high cliffs or cliff substitutes that they construct for zoos.

Anyway, in addition to observing zoo animal behavior, the zoo itself is a wonderful place to observe the behavior patterns of the other animal species, the Georgians themselves. Before you judge that last statement, maybe you should listen further to my argument, oh great reader. Within 20 minutes I saw, men almost beating their children, then spitting at a zebra, kids throwing pine cones at a monkey, more men chain smoking in front of their kids at a zoo, a pregnant women light up a cigarette with smoke billowing on to her born child on her left and the icing on the cake: a group of power housewives attempting to control everything for their kids, all equipped with cigarettes in hand blowing smoke into the faces of their 2-4 year old children. Let me further describe the scene: This young woman, in her mid 20’s perhaps, stylishly dressed, with a very fancy video recorder shouting at her kid on amusement park rides to look at her and smile, carting them back and forth between rides. They take a break and decide to berate the small kiosk staff for delaying more than 30 seconds in preparing iced Nescafe for them. When I look over at them, all three have lit cigarettes in hand in front of the three kids who are inhaling every bit of smoke, as they are making no effort to blow it elsewhere. It is almost like, well, they do not care about the kids, which is a bit strange considering that they were putting on quite a show like they did. In the US, you may think, well it is the nanny and we should report to the parents about this behavior. No nannies here! They were definitely the moms, which is why this behavior was so very odd indeed. With looks of dismay, it only got more absurd. I turn around and see one of the women shove the kid next to the tree where they are sitting, pull down his trousers and take out his penis. She proceeds to shout at the kid, her friends while holding her coffee with one hand and his wee wee and lit cigarette with the other, as smoke was billowing up over his nose and face. I was not too sure which to be more afraid of. The fact that the woman was abusing this poor kid in violently making him pee in an outdoor café, the cigarette she couldn’t put down to do this strange act, or that she repeated it with another kid, this time a girl right after. For the girl, she held the kid in a lifted squat position with her bottom out for all to see while she screamed that she didn’t want to go pee. This is slightly odd behavior in a land where children are allegedly revered. It is strange that reverence is not equivalent to concern for health and future. Another frequent and disturbing scene around Tbilisi are mothers holding their kids on their laps in the front seat of a car without a seat belt. I’m wondering if perhaps no one ever sat them down and said, “Well, darling, it is a bit dangerous to put the kid in the front seat with you. Maybe you should sit in the back?”