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Thursday a week ago, my friend Cat and I had a Red Panda Day.

A zookeeper at Wellington Zoo took us into the enclosure and called them while we held a platter of pears and grapes. Nothing for a few minutes then one came walking up the path and just leapt straight onto Cat’s lap (Cat nearly fainted with ecstasy). A few moments later its mate appeared and the two of them just took the food from our hands while we patted them.
They were absolutely beautiful and little gentlemen the way they took the food. If a piece of pear was too big for their mouths they’d take a bit and hold the rest in a paw upturned to keep it off the ground — I don’t think I’ve ever seen cleaner and healthier-looking animals.

We went to the adjoining enclosure after that and had some one on one with their son, Sir Ed (named after my hero Sir Edmund Hillary, since they are from Nepal).

After that we went and fed a giraffe, watched the sun bears cavorting, met a one-legged kiwi (victim of an animal trap), oohed and ahhed at various other creatures, and completed the day with drinks with old workmates and dinner at a restaurant famous for its seafood dishes and Belgian beer.

Being on holiday is such a bitch — only a couple more weeks to go, thank goodness.

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