by Vickie Gross

Created on: November 21, 2009   Last Updated: May 19, 2011

"That zebra just bit me on my head!" "HOW IN-CREDIBLE!" "Am I bleeding?"

"No, but you sure do have one serious blob of slobber in your hair."

Well, that's it then. It seems I have been fully initiated to now learn the real reasons why so many Texans wear cowboy hats. It's not simply because of the skin-piercing sun, or the dust clouds that rise with each new lawn mowing. No sir, it is because there are some strange and exotic animals that have come to make their homes here on the open Texas ranges.

The Exotic Home-On-The-Range Initiation:

One of my brother's came down for a visit along with his girlfriend. The three of us had decided to take a day trip to an exotic animal ranch in Texas. Taking his motorcycle was out of the question and I wasn't feeling too comfortable about the idea of taking my small 4-door economy car. Nonetheless, my small 4-door was the only option we had that day. Aware of my hesitancy, my brother commented on how he felt completely confident in my driving abilities. (Hmmm...) Reguardless of his superb tactic, I tried to tell him that it wasn't my driving that I was worried about, but the anticipation was risen and so we went.

My state of discomfort grew once we entered the ranch gates where a sign was posted that read: "Enter at your own risk." Then a list of "what to do in case of emergency" rules followed. Once in the parking lot however, things didn't look too dangerous. The bears and goats were in their cages, the free-roaming roosters were not attacking us, and there were trees all around the parking area making the whole scene a more pleasant invitation than expected. We talked with the owner for a moment and then went to the ticket booth to pay for our tickets. Apparently we were thinking of gentle creatures when we decided to purchase three small paper bags of animal food.

We got in the car and headed down the path. Once we drove over the cattle guards, the wide-open range was suddenly before us. We encountered antelope and the usual Great Dane sized deer and watched the jackrabbits scampering about. We then encountered a herd of camels. Most of them were hanging out near a creek bed until we began to feed one of them. Suddenly, the whole herd seemed interested and started to head our way. Seeing the huge head of that one camel practically pinning my brother to his seat inside the car was all it took to know that a herd of them could easily use my little car as a stepladder, so I decided to

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