Yep, that's an urban legend. Heard it several years ago. But here's a real zoo story.
Back in the seventies when I was a drag racing crew chief, we used to race in Miami, Florida once a month in the winter. One day on the way back home to Chicago, we stopped on the side of the road in the Everglades to change truck drivers. The race-car driver, who was somewhat of a maniac with uncanny reflexes, decided to chase an armadillo. Well, he caught him and put him in a compartment in the truck. We got back to Chicago and moved the armadillo into the office of our shop. We figured we'd keep him for a pet. We tried feeding him various things: hamburger, lettuce, carrots. He wouldn't eat anything, and he was very unhappy. So we decided to take him to Lincoln Park Zoo. We drove to the zoo, put our armadillo in a cat transporter and walked into the office. We told the clerical people we had an armadillo that we wanted to donate. They called the curator. Well it turns out that the zoo had been trying to get some armadillos but had little success. Just the day before someone had tricked the curator by piling some blankets around an armadillo shell that was part of some kind of musical instrument. The curator was sure this was another trick. But we turned our guy loose, and he ran across the office floor. The curator was ecstatic. Of course we told him that the critter had made it into our truck on his own. "That's very strange," said the curator, "they never do that. In fact, they're quite difficult to catch." Unless, of course, you're a race car driver with uncanny reflexes. Paul On Sep 19, 2006, at 10:13 PM, Perry Pellechia wrote: > This is a piece of urban legend that goes around on the Internet: > > http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-penguin20.html > > > On 9/19/06, Bob Sullivan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> The boss's daughter-in-law works at the Shedd Aquarium here in >> Chicago. >> >> http://members.aol.com/rfsindg/Lakefront.html >> >> They had a Wisconsin Grandma who drove down to Chicago for an >> aquarium >> visit with her 5 year old grandson. In the middle of the visit, >> Grandma turned away for a second and the little boy was gone. She >> didn't panic at first, but after 15 minutes the whole place was >> looking for the little boy. After a full hour, they found him and >> reconnected him with Grandma. She was overjoyed and all seemed well. >> >> As it was getting late and home was at least an hour and a half drive >> away, they packed up and headed for Wisconsin. Half way home, the >> little boy said "I have a secret." Grandma asked "What's that?" The >> 5 year old said "I have penguin... in my backpack." and proceeded to >> open his backpack and show Grandma a baby penguin! >> >> She pulled the car off the road and placed an urgent call to the >> aquarium. It was a long way back into Chicago and the aquarium staff >> arranged for her to drop the baby penguin off at a Wisconsin zoo on >> her way home. >> >> Now can you imagine what mischief this little boy is going to get >> into >> when he's 7? >> >> Regards, Bob S. >> >> -- >> PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List >> [email protected] >> http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net >> > > > -- > <----------------------------------------------------> > Perry Pellechia > > Primary email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Alternate email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Home Page: http://homer.chem.sc.edu/perry > <----------------------------------------------------> > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > [email protected] > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
