Happy Birthday To You, You Live In A Zoo

I did not expect a great deal out of my birthday.  My parents are coming to visit this weekend, and my friend Laura, who's talked for YEARS about us doing something wonderful and exotic for our 25th birthdays, will be here mid-July.  (A weekend in Pocahontas County is probably not what she was envisioning, but we'll see what kind of shindig we can cobble together when that rolls around.)

I was up extra early to drive Vista into Bath County, VA for her spay procedure.  She spent the night there, and it was so very odd not to have my second shadow, as Kat calls her, all day.  At about midday, Tamar mentioned a hiking trip, and while on any other day I would have shunned the prospect of driving to Lewisburg on a whim, I decided that it was my birthday, dang it, and I was going hiking.  So Em and I drove up, met Kat, and then Tamar and I headed to the Greenbrier State Forest!  (When I got to Tamar's place, the banner in the top photo was waiting for me.  Happy Kelly.)

Don't you love Tamar's leash-as-belt styling?  I was very impressed.  Vista missed out on the trip, but Barley had a good time!

The original plan called for dinner at Biscuit World, but in the end I played the birthday girl card and changed the venue to the Irish Pub.  I am super glad I did, too!  They had Woodchuck Cider on draft (which I got for free when it was mistakenly left off of my check.  I pointed out the error, and Tamar hinted heavily "Maybe it was because it's your birthday!" and the waitress decided to run with it) and owner Patrick O'Flaherty kept up a stellar stream of songs in English and Gaelic, switching between so many different instruments I stopped keeping track.  I'll definitely be going back there!

For those of you who were concerned, Vista is now home and recovering.  I was worried that she'd have a bad night, but--unsurprisingly--everyone at the clinic fell in love with her and gave her lots of attention, which I think kept her worrying to a minimum.  I'm pretty sure I had a worse case of separation anxiety than she did!  I'm not going to lie, I said goodnight to her, then realized I was talking to an empty room.

Thanks for all of the birthday well-wishes, on here and Facebook!  It felt almost like being at home.

*Note: the title of this post was totally inspired by the 20 minute conversation I had with my mom, the Small Mammal Interpreter and Naked Mole Rat Aficionado (she's also quite fond of Golden Lion Tamarins), about Black-Footed Ferrets while she was on her way to the Zoo.