Satire: Tiger Always Checked Out Of Local Zoo

https://thezooreviewer.blogspot.com/2024/04/zoo-review-oakland-zoo-part-i.htmlEarlier today, I had a visitor come up to me and ask me where our jaguar was.  So, I gave them directions to the exhibit, but he shook his head.  "No, I didn't see him there.  I thought that maybe he was at the fair today."  (Today being our county fair, our zoo did send some staff and some animals... no big cats, though).

I've also gotten a chuckle over the years from people who seriously misunderstand the whole "Adopt an Animal" concept, with some people even showing up with dog crates to pick up the animal that they wanted to "adopt"... now we call them sponsorships.  Put those two together, and you get this story from The Onion.

Tiger Always Checked Out Of Local Zoo

SAN FRANCISCO—Complaining that another patron always seems to have borrowed the animal before he gets a chance to take it home, frustrated local man Scott Gardner told reporters Monday that the sole Siberian tiger at his local zoo is checked out every time he visits. “No matter when I head over there, the woman at the tiger habitat tells me the Siberian is checked out but that I can get it once it’s returned in a few weeks,” Gardner said, noting that the same person seemed to repeatedly renewing the 350-pound cat and that he was always relegated to taking home “some leopard that’s not nearly as good.” “I looked it up online, and they’ve got a Siberian available at another location, but I’m not about to drive all the way out to Oakland.” When pressed, Gardner admitted that the availability of the tiger was a moot point, as his borrowing privileges had been suspended until he paid for the tiger he lost a few years ago.