Petting Zoo of Dreams

I heard from someone at work that there is a petting zoo right outside of Charlotte that I just have to take James to - he will love it. My first thought was a bunch of goats that will try to eat our shirts and shoes and he will be terrified (I know I was terrified from my memories of a petting zoo!). Earlier this week John and I were talking about what to do this weekend and I mentioned that I heard of a petting zoo... and John was on his phone calling them for more information by the time I finished my sentence. He was told that they have lots of different kind of animals, not just bard yard animals. So now my curiosity was piqued. Fast forward to this morning, we were loaded up in the car early since we had a 9 am reservation for the wagon ride. John was grinning ear to ear. James and I were not so thrilled.

We pull in the long gravel driveway (I wish I got a picture of the entrance) and go through an open gate, on the other side of this gate were camels, llamas, goats, cows, deer, pigs and lots of other random animals just grazing. John and I just looked at each other - the gate was wide open! A camel could very easily just wander out and start walking down the road. It was surreal. I have never seen a camel grazing right next to a cow with a warthog walking by.

Once we parked and were lining up in the barn with the rest of our group for the wagon ride I began to realize that this really is a petting zoo and all the animals were all right up close. In the stalls next to the horses, there was a baby giraffe and a baby camel. They were both abandoned by their mothers so they were being nursed in the barn with the colts.

We were loaded up onto a wagon pulled by the biggest draft horses I have ever seen and off we went, bucket of food in hand. Our driver was awesome, pointing out all the different kids of animals and how to feed each one - but honestly, it was so hard to hear him over the oohs and ahhs of everyone.

This guy (no idea what he was... some sort of antelope is what John thought) got smart and bypassed all the people and went right to the floor of the wagon where all the spilled food was.

All of the buffalo and cows literally just opened their mouths and stuck their tongues out waiting for you to dump the food in - there were a few crude jokes from the dads on the wagon, but it was pretty hilarious.





The goats (mountain goats?) all tried getting in the wagon with us. They were super friendly but were a little more determined to get fed than some of the other animals

It was an amazing petting zoo, the wagon trip was about 90 minutes with nonstop animals - so it was a little overwhelming for James. By the end of the trip he was half asleep. He did great though, had a bit of a hard time sitting when the wagon was moving - but in all fairness, I did too. There was just so much to see! Hands down, this was the best petting zoo :)