EMBRACE THE SLOTH WITHIN. Or This One Over Here.

Now that the Halloween frenzy if over, I thought I'd show y'all a fun outing we had a few weeks ago. Our friend Karen luuuurves capybaras, so for her birthday we visited Amazing Animals Inc, a non-profit exotic animal preserve about an hour outside Orlando.

They do educational tours and have capys, sloths, and other fun creatures.

Our tour started in the reptile house, where John baby-talked a snake and I maintained a reasonable distance:

It's not that I don't like snakes, it's that... oh wait, yes, that's it exactly.

Big parrots also make me a little nervous, but these stayed in their house.

I won't bore you with a slideshow of animal pics, but suffice to say there are lots: from Fennec foxes to monkeys to fuzzy things whose names I don't remember. The grounds are lovely, everything looks beautifully lush and well-kept, and the animals clearly adore their caretaker.

In fact the adorable Geoffroy's cat spent our educational talk trying to wrap himself completely around his caregiver's legs:

SO CUTE.

My personal favorite were the lemurs, so it's a shame my best photo of one has it trying to pee on us:

We were told this matriarch is... kinda pissy.

HEYOOOOO

The male lemur was a total sweetheart, though, and cooed at me through the fence and later reached out and touched my hand while I was taking a video:

MY HEART.

If you've been here a looooong time you might remember I once got to snuggle a lemur - or at least feed it grapes while it hopped around on my shoulder - and it was THE most amazing experience: 

(He's only looking snooty because he's eating a grape.) Lemurs are softer than rabbits or even chinchillas, y'all. Softest animal I've ever nuzzled, and this is a happy core memory.

That was at a different preserve called Single Vision, though, which focuses mostly on big cats. Here at Amazing Animals we weren't allowed in the lemur house, since that one matriarch is territorial and kinda violent.

The main attractions at Amazing Animals are the sloths and capybaras. The two capys are named PJ and Penelope, and while PJ kept his distance to snooze in the shade, Penelope could NOT get enough attention. She was downright insistent that everyone give her proper tribute with love and chin scratches:

Within a few minutes of us all cooing over her - and with the sound of a groaning, creaking ship - Penelope rolled in slow motion over onto her belly. Kelsey's absolutely fiendish glee at this new development is my favorite:

"AAAAAA"

This is a happy capy.

Capybara fur feels like coconut fibers, incredibly course and thick and not at ALL snuggly. Penelope's personality made you want to oblige with plenty of scritches, though.

"Yesss, humans, LOVE MEEEE"

Our final stop was the sloth house, and as we approached the door we were greeted by one giant nose slowly dropping into view from the ceiling, bahaha:

This is Luna. The other sloth, Lilly, arrived through this side entry to greet her crowd of paparazzi:

Both sloths were given an ear of corn to munch, and so long as that corn lasted we were welcome to pet Luna here and take pics together:

The happy birthday girl! (And yes, everyone was singing the TikTok corn song.)

I did my best with a selfie, curse my short arms:

(If we all look a bit pink it's because it was SO hot. October in Florida is still 90 degrees, bleh.)

Then Karen got the happiest photo ever of John and Luna:

Luna was in the process of leaving, but she looks like she's posing. :)

And here's the big group shot:

Amazing Animals only does private tours, but when you get a group together the cost is extremely reasonable. If you're going to be around Orlando and love sloths and/or capys especially, then I highly recommend booking a tour.

(Not sponsored or compensated, btw.)

I'll leave you with a pretty magnet from the gift shop:

Hope this made you smile, and that you have a fabulous Friday and restful weekend, fam!

*****


Oh, and if you want to see John's and my tour at Single Vision - where we met a baby tiger and the world's most affectionate bobcat - click here.