a zoo keeper in the house

It's no secret that Quincy loves animals.

I think his favorite place on earth is the zoo. He always wants to go but never wants to leave. He talks about our trips to the zoo in such detail for months and months. Sure he has his favorite animals, but he gives equal attention to the blue-tongued skink and the giraffe.

We have been lucky enough to visit three different zoos in the last eight months and thanks to my obsessive picture taking, he keeps track of which animals were found in which zoos. On our last trip to Wellington Zoo, he was understandably a little frustrated with our zoo's lack of elephants, so he hopped in the zoo truck and drove "to the Cincinnati Zoo where there is a whole variety of elephants."

He studies the zoo vets as they treat animals at the Nest, our zoo's very cool new animal hospital, and gives Berkley and Kai the same treatments at home.

Following our last stop at the Nest, the cellphone in his pocket is now a critical part of the zoo vet uniform.

He pays careful attention to the zoo keeper talks.

And he even goes so far as to mimic them, move-for-move, during a presentation. I'm not kidding.

Endearing now, but this kind of behavior might result in a black eye someday!

He regularly sets up elaborate zoos with his animals,

making sure to keep the African animals of the Serengeti Plains separate from the polar ones, the rainforest ones, and the New Zealand natives.

Speaking of New Zealand natives, the tuatara is a current fav.

But he is also very partial to all sea life. He would love nothing more than to have a great big aquarium complete with turtles, tadpoles, frogs, clownfish, a baby otter, the biggest goldfish he's ever seen, and the oft-neglected skunk-cleaner shrimp.

And he regularly fishes for great white sharks, basking sharks, humpback whales, and salmon.

On Saturday he got to rent his first movie. Finding Nemo lost out in the end to a South African one called Elephant Tales (where the animals weren't cartoons) but insisted it should be called Elephant Trunks. He was terrified of the poachers but couldn't look away. (It was rated G, who would expect poachers?) He was so engrossed that he never actually ate the popcorn.

If he had his way, he would be able to watch animal videos on National Geographic Kids at his leisure.

I am pretty sure all his current library books are animal-themed. One day before his nap, it took quite a bit of convincing before he accepted that I could not and would not read this 375-page animal encyclopedia.

Well I bet you can't guess what kind of birthday cake he wants this year. One with wild animals on it. Just like last year.

So it should be no surprise that he wants to be a zoo keeper. In fact, he currently is a zoo keeper, round the clock, and he has the gumboots to prove it.

Dolphin gumboots, at that.

I so admire this boy's passion.