Underwater Dogs

Do not be alarmed, nor allow yourself to be thrown off by the so-called "Bizarre" title.  Just read on. :)

So my family and I went to The Living Planet Aquarium in Sandy today.  At first I was like, "Eh, whatever", mostly because I'm usually pretty indifferent concerning fish.  I mean, I've only just barely been able to stand eating a small bit of fish when we go out to eat.  I do have three pet goldfishies, though. ;)  And several Beta's...in separate bowls, of course.  But that's beside the point.  Point, [Squirrel!] :-p I wasn't incredibly excited to go to the aquarium this morning, but once we got there...it was pretty neat. :)

We got there in time to watch the octopus and penguin feedings, that was interesting.  And the jellyfish were cool.  I mean, they're basically brainless blobs with the ability to shock and possibly kill people...whoa...that's epic... ;-) but still, they're fascinating.

There was one of those animal presentations where they had the parrots talk, that was cool.  One imitated a UFO...haha, Senior All Night Party... ;)  They also brought out a scorpion, boa and cockroaches...hmmm.

My all-time favorite were the Stingrays. :)

They had four of them in a small pool thing with some other fish, and you could "pet" them.  At first I just stood by the edge and watched the other little kids splash around in the water.  Then, one came up and of all the people around the edge, came up the edge and splashed around and waved to me, saying "hi".  He pretty much won my heart from then on, as he'd swim around the edge of the pool, occasionally approach others around the edge, then continue to come back to me and wave at me, and allow me to admire and pet him.  Sometimes the other three would splash up, too, but this one had a certain level of curiosity inside and I understood what someone meant when they compared stingrays to dogs.  Curious, playful, and generally fairly domestic.  It was hard to imagine these organisms with the capability to seriously injure someone. 

Here's a video, I'm sorry it's dark and kind of hard to see it, but it's the stingray that I'd play with, you can kind of see him wave along the edge at the end of the video.  Hope the video works at all :-p

What surprised me was their texture.  It wasn't slimy per se, and it wasn't grimy or sandy or rough on the main wing part.  It wasn't velvety exactly, but it was smooth, almost creamy would be the better adjective, I'd say.  Gliding.  Like when you turn the water half-way on in the sink and let it run over your hands, kind of like that.  Or, if you've ever cleaned out a fishbowl, and felt the algae along the edge, it's comparable to that, but Better!! ;) haha. [South America! It's just like America...but South!!]  This is a really funny blog post.  But, if you've ever interacted with Stingrays...I think you may understand better what I mean and how incredibly loving they really are.  They are...beautiful...amazing...and sadly misunderstood and stereotyped into the Extremely Dangerous, kill-upon-meeting category.  While, like dragons, yes, they are dangerous upon extreme provocation, they bear the endearing quality of a four year-old with the ability to soften anyone's heart and introduce delightment into the lives of those around them, once the mysterious surreal-ness wears off, and you reach out in spite of yourself and touch them.  Ahhhhh man, they're just amazing. :)  Definately on my Highly Unlikely to Achieve as Personal Pets list, along with Toothless, horses, and wolves.  But, hey.  What's life without wishing, eh?

Anyhow, that's my update as of today, which also happens to be Thursday, I'm reminded.  Oh, wow, I still haven't put up the post from the 9th!? I'll get on that...Ohhhh...which reminds me, there's A LOT of things I need to get on...bahhhhhh.....

Right. Well, have fun, enjoy life, enjoy the sunsets, that's what they're there for.  That, and I also believe they're the result of energy meeting for the day.  Or something like that.  Anyhow.  Don't eat bugs. :D

Love, Me.