Today, I had the pleasure of visiting the Sequoia Park Zoo with my son's preschool class. While some of the more exotic type animals were neat enough, what really won the kids over was the barnyard area. After the inital, "Oohhh! It stunks in heyah!" (from Gun-Gun), and the warning to Gun-Gun not to eat any raisinettes he might find on the ground, we were ready to go. Here's our top three reasons of why you should immediately drop what your doing (that is unless it's after business hours and then you might be committing a criminal violation) and walk - no RUN - to the zoo:

3. Lovin' Llamas
The draw of potentially getting your fingers nibbled on or perhaps a wad of chewed cud being spat at you, is too overpowering to pass up. Thankfully, neither happened to our little group and all made it out with ten fingers and ten toes. And the llama suffered no ill effects as a result of our inspection.

2. The Butt Scratchin' Goat
This goat must have the itchiest butt in Humboldt County. She itched that thing for at least 15 minutes. The preschooler's thought it was hysterical and I just hoped she wouldn't rub on me - in case it was worms rather than just a case of dandruff.

And last, but certainly not least, the most important reason that you need to FLY down to the Sequoia Park Zoo Barnyard:

1. Goat With An Underbite
Once you look at these pictures, I almost won't even need to write anything. This poor goat needs an orthodontist in a major way. This nanny had a perpetual smile on her face and I was a little freaked out at first until I realized it was all cosmetic and not the result of a Prozac saltlick. To top it all off, as nasty as her underbite was, she had an equally fierce rectum of fiery. She was letting off the nastiest smelling alfalfa and grain air biscuits that one could handle. As a class, we decided that she was a major contributor to the world's global warming problem due to her personal donation of methane. But she was cute and let me scratch her ears.

Hopefully these top three entrants have enthralled you enough to skedaddle on down to the zoo. They have done some awesome improvements to the exhibits and I know that our kiddos today were thoroughly impressed. Have fun and watch out for Underbite!

Edited to add: I would be remiss if I didn't warn you to be a little cautious when exploring the zoo grounds due to some some animals wandering loose. I'm not sure if it's because this critters are too ferocious to contain or if it's because the handlers are scared of their bloodthirstiness. Whatever the reason, I consider myself lucky to have obtained this final shot of one of the said terrifying beasts: