It was spring of 1995, I am riding trolleybus 16 from the Oismae region where I lived to downtown Tallinn, the capital of Estonia. Early on the route, just as the bus leaves our neighborhood, we would pass the zoo. For the 2nd or 3rd time, I observe a row of kindergarteners following single-file behind a smoking bunny. Actually, it was a man who was dressed up in a white bunny costume. Ears flopping with each step, dressed in a pale pink bow-tie, he plodded along, taking a drag periodically from his cigarette, seemingly unaware of the tots keeping step behind him. They were following him to the zoo - Oh Happy Day!
I scratched my head in confusion each time I saw this scene play out along the road. I could not figure out where they were coming from - the zoo felt like it was in the middle of nowhere. The "Moses bunny" must have led these wandering children from distant pre-schools. Yet, the children didn't seem tired, nor did they seem overly excited. They were purposeful.
And why a bunny costume? Bunnies are not a typical zoo animal. Maybe he was afraid he would be mistaken for a zoo animal and would, thereupon, be thrown into a cage..... deprived of cigarettes.
And about those cigarettes! Isn't it dangerous for a bunny of synthetic, highly flammable fur to be smoking a cigarette?!?! What sort of fire safety was he modeling to those kiddos?!?!
In the end, my team and I decided, we must get ourselves to the zoo and find out what they had journeyed from afar to see there! I really wanted our team leader, Kirby, to dress up in a bunny costume with a pink bow-tie and lead us there. I was disappointed when that didn't happen, but we cheerfully and quizzically embarked on a field trip to the zoo!
When we first entered, we noticed something else strange. From the first cage to the last, almost every animal was being fed dead baby chicks. While seasonally appropriate for the springtime decor, the "deadness" of the chicks was.... disturbing. Even the zoo-cats that were free to roam the zoo uncaged carried in their mouths dead baby chicks. Were we going to be offered dead baby chicks at the concession stand? Did Smoking Harvey have dead baby chicks in his pockets? I think this is where the bounds of my crazy imagination failed to serve the purpose of the bars on the polar bear cage. My dangerous mind was left wandering throughout the streets of the town called "Crazy Possibilities". Not a good thing. My imagination needs to be caged.
The last strange recollection of this trip to the zoo was the free-range zoo gazelle. Somehow he (I am assuming it was a male because it had long, straight horns shooting off the back of his head, but I don't claim to be Jack Hannah) had gotten free from his cage. He was spooked and decided to make a run for it. Head down, he would begin to gallop at ever-increasing speeds... until he ran into the fence that enclosed the zoo. Then, he would shake-off the collision, point the top of his head in a slightly different angle and take off again. All the while a toddler dressed in a snowsuit would teeter around, taking uncertain steps, paying more attention to the gazelle than to her newly acquired skill of walking. This seemed like a disaster waiting to happen! I was afraid that the gazelle was going to charge me, much less mow down the little teetering toddler. Where were the zoo workers? Well, several were diligently sweeping the sidewalks, keeping them free of cigarette butts and paper cups. Good work, zoo workers!
So, as I ponder my strange, international zoo encounter of years gone by, hoping that years of cross-culturaly living will provide a framework that will give this weird, dream-like experience meaning, I am disappointed. I still have no idea, but I am much less likely to follow smoking rabbits.
1 comment:
Somehow this whole thing brings to mind the infamous line from "When Harry Met Sally" - "I'll have what she's having." I'm sure your story is real, but it sounds like something from a distburbingly vivid hallucination. :-)
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