I always tried to hide the whimsical side of my nature fearing that people wouldn’t regard me seriously. Who cares now?

I have a mammal list (also bird, fish, crustacean, and reptile lists) like bird watchers maintain. But to add a creature to my list, I have to bare-handed touch a live and healthy specimen. Besides every type of pet and farm mammal, I’ve touched at least one wolf, tiger, tapir, cottontail, hedgehog, river otter, elephant, armadillo, kangaroo, brown bear, sloth, lion, coatimundi, giraffe, deer, manatee, bat, porcupine, koala, opossum, wombat, raccoon, reindeer, sea lion, and coyote. I had to escape from some of these afterwards. I’ve had many other near misses but didn’t manage the touch.

Gobi is a camel who lives near us sharing a pasture with three horses. Gobi prefers human company to  horses though. Although I’ve seen camels many times, I finally added camel to my touch list. Gobi’s huge lips are soft and bristly like a donkey’s.

I hope you have a  whimsical side as well. If so, I’d enjoy hearing about it.  Or perhaps some of you have touched unusual animals.

Drew