Many, many months ago (it was mother's day in 2006) we all went to the Potter zoo to have a good time. Little did we know when we set out on that fateful day what horror loomed before us. Potter Zoo is quite old, and one of the reptile/bird/tamarin buildings dates back to the 1930s. Unlike modern cages, the spaces for the animals are small, gloomy and sterile (the plastic vinery isn't fooling anyone, human or otherwise). However, as an antiquity the building has a certain charm. To get in, you must go through two sets of swinging doors, each of which is with large wrought iron screens. I have no idea how we managed to all collide into one another as we were trying to get out of the building, but doign so managed to cause one of the iron insets to fall out of the door frame and fall onto Frederick. He went crashing to the ground, while the rest of us went sprawling out of the building. The frame, which weighed at least 40 pounds, hit Frederick on the head, shoulder and the back of his leg. Needless to say, he screamed his head off--and so did the rest of us. It didn't take long for frantic zookeepers to arrive, ready to escort us to the snackbar for comforting burgers and fries. Thomas, Simon and I ate well, but Frederick wasn't so easily bought off. They then offered him ANYTHING HE WANTED from the ZOOvenier store. He took a small stuffed wolf, but STILL wasn't happy. And then came the legal forms--pages and pages of documents, all requiring our signatures. Finally, we got out of there and got home to take naps. (The documents still followed us--for weeks we received forms in the mail asking us to swear that we wouldn't bring legal action against the zoo. We didn't--perhaps we should have for the stress caused from trying to free ourselves from the hassle of their forms?)
Seventeen months later, the wrought iron insets are gone and cheap aluminum screens have been put in their place and this sign warns all who enter this strange little building of the unseen dangers that lurk inside.
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