Holding Hands With Lucky The Lemur

My Dear Princess,

You have no idea what you started in 2017. My Dear Fellows, the Lovely Princess gave me the best present ever for my 48th birthday. A close encounter with a giraffe at Wellington zoo. 

Caro was quick to catch on to just how much I loved that present. And as a result she has subsequently gifted me visits to meerkats and cheetahs and now lemurs. 

We had a lovely visit with these furry little guys today. And they are so FLUFFY. The keeper told us that under all that fur, they are actually incredibly skinny. 

They are also incredibly LOUD. We could hear them whooping it up when we first arrived, but actually when we entered their enclosure they were very quiet and well-behaved. Other than trying to escape. Apparently they made it out to the cafe once, and enjoyed the experience so much they've been trying ever since.

We only met two of their black and white ruffed lemurs, Lucky and Ankari (father and son). They love getting visitors because this means they get GRAPES and CORN. They love the grapes, and the keeper encouraged us to hold our hands aloft to get the lemurs to jump on our laps.

"No, I don't bloody think so," said the lemurs, grabbing our hands and pulling them down. They are really quite strong. They don't mind being stroked, but you could tell they weren't so bothered either. However, if the transaction involved grapes, they could totally fake it.

"Yay. Strokies. Now gimme a grape."

Their little hands are incredibly soft and cool. It felt like a little kid holding your hand. Except little kids don't lick your palm, trying to get all of the grape juice. Apparently, they eat with their heads tilted back so they don't lose a SINGLE DROP OF JUICE. They demonstrated for us, making the most extraordinary faces (see extras). I loved watching them eat bits of corn on the cob and then - PTUI - spitting out the cob.

From watching ring-tailed lemurs on the telly, I was expecting them to be very rambunctious little things, bouncing all over the place and snatching at the fruit. But in fact, these fellows were very calm and gentle. They seemed very happy to sit and hold my hand while they waited for the next grape. It was very sweet and I was charmed by them.

So we had just the cutest afternoon, hanging out with our little hairy friends. I just loved them and wanted to take them home with me, if it were not for the fact that we are already home to two cats and a mouse.
 
S.

p.s. Also there were otters at the zoo. See extra.