we want dik dik!

My kids and I went to the Wild Animal Park on the last sunny day of 2016 before all coupons expired. It was a brilliant cloudless day in the low 80s.  We hit the jackpot! Of course, so did approximately 80 gazillion other revelers, but it was a great day nonetheless. We love the Wild Animal Park, we had visited a couple of years ago when we fell in love with Nola, God rest her sweet critically endangered pachyderm soul. We had vowed to pursue the surprisingly reasonable annual family membership that first day, and efficiently planned our return visit for 2 short years later.

I guess I should mention that it’s not called the Wild Animal Park anymore, but San Diego Zoo Safari park is a stupid mouthful and I refuse.

We wandered around, following our whims and inclinations and managed to stumble upon all the beasts we hoped to see by relying more on our tried and true “which way feels castle-y” navigation system than on the confounding map. You can’t really go wrong at the WAP!

When we eventually made our way to the exit, the last enclosure that we passed appeared to be empty, but I took a look at the signage. Naturally, I read it out loud and proud: “IT’S A DIK DIK!”

The kids’ heads swung around in unison as their eyes widened just as their faces melted into laughter.  The Dik Dik! How grand.

We continued on our way home, taking every possible opportunity to use Dik Dik as adjective, pronoun, and verb in most sentences. When you find a word that good, it’s your job to exploit it! 

Later that night we told Beth and her girls about the Dik Dik, who by that time had reached mythical proportions. I was seriously wondering if I’d read the sign wrong or had a stroke or something. So we looked it up to see if it was real.  

Oh, it's real. And I neeeeeeed one! They are one foot high off the ground! They mark their territory with tears! They go like this: 

I can't wait to find a Dik Dik under my Christmas tree this year!