Mountain+Lion

//May 10, 1900// Leaving my home has been difficult, I'm not accustomed to traveling outside my territory. The other animals and I traveled for about five days on a big, loud machine I heard some humans refer to as a 'train'. There was a big fuss when we arrived here, and we were unloaded from our crates and separated based on species. My new home is hardly comfortable- the people here clearly have no idea what it takes to make a good home territory. This space is way too small for me!

This 'zoo' is crazy- never before have I seen so many people at once. All these humans encroaching on my new territory is making me uneasy. In the distance I can barely see the Antelope and I'm close enough to hear the Trumpeter Swan and Bald Eagle in the distance, along with some other strange bird sounds I don't recognize. Some man I heard others refer to as 'Secretary Langley' stood outside my new pen for a little while and commented to all the people around him about "structure" and needing to build a new 'roof' but still wanting me to feel comfortable. Apparently he wanted my new home to impress some important people around here and, like Teddy Roosevelt back at Yellowstone, advocate for the preservation of all my friends back at the park. Unfortunately, he seems to think he can do that by dragging all of us here. All these humans seem to be unusually interested in the architecture and layout of this zoo. From what I can tell by listening to human conversations, the very first "director" of this zoo (a man called William Temple Hornaday), wanted the zoo to be a model of total order that could serve as an example for the planning of actual human cities. How crazy is that?

//May 12, 1900// Speaking of crazy, some of these humans wear some really ridiculous outfits! The few people I saw at the park were usually men wearing their US Army uniforms. Later, National Park Service employees started showing up occasionally, but nobody ever dressed like this! It seems to me that women wear clothing that's far less convenient than men. However, the older ladies I hear whispering together as they pass by my new home seem to think that these various newfangled outfits (or 'bicycling dresses' and 'shirtwaists' as they call them) are too 'plain' and 'boyish' for their liking.



//May 19, 1900// Today I overheard a conversation between two humans about some event that went on last month near my new territory. The people called it "Easter Monday", and described it as a huge party where families gather to eat and do something with 'Easter eggs'. Apparently here in the city a lot of African-Americans worked for other families that Sunday and then got to take the next day off to celebrate this 'Easter' holiday. Another Easter event was also held annually at the 'White House', which from what I gather was the house of the most powerful human in the area, but black people usually didn't attend either because they weren't allowed or they feared the scorn of those white humans attending.