{"id":7124,"date":"2014-04-30T02:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-04-30T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/polarbear60.org\/randr\/?p=7124"},"modified":"2014-04-30T02:00:00","modified_gmt":"2014-04-30T07:00:00","slug":"zoo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jeanschara.com\/pmtoo\/zoo\/","title":{"rendered":"Zoo"},"content":{"rendered":"

What have I gotten myself into? Odor. Overpowering. Cover nose. That cuts it. A little. I opened my eyes. How austere. Looks nothing like the tundra. I seem to be alone.<\/em> I lifted my head. The odor abated some. I stood up. Not so overpowering.<\/em> I shook my body to get the kinks out and to try to clear my head from whatever they’d used to knock me out to bring me to wherever I was now. I bounced lightly on my front paws. Sturdy. Solid. Good.<\/em> I walked to the edge of the place I was in, until my path was blocked by something. Hard, porous, room to poke my nose through, but hard, vertical…things.<\/em> I turned. I walked to the corner. Hard. Blocked my path. Couldn’t see through it.<\/em> Turned again. Brushed the hard thing as I walked. A lot of strange stuff in front of me. Ouch! I didn’t see that. A substance I can see through but not walk through? A human is sitting over there.<\/em> I lifted a paw and pressed on the clear substance in front of me. Firm. But I can see through it. Interesting. The human watches me. Scratching on something in front of her. Curious.<\/em> I walked along the clear, impenetrable substance. Back to the hard, porous, room to poke my nose through things.<\/em> I turned around, sat down, and watched the human watch me. Another human came in and spoke with her. She gestured, and the other human slid a tray with food through an opening. Smells unusual. Nothing I’ve ever seen before.<\/em> I glanced at the woman watching me. I angled my nose. Sniffed. The human still watched. I placed my paw on the orange stick-like things. The white things were soft. I pulled the tray toward me. The human scratched more things. I lowered my jaws and tried the orange stick-like things. Crunchy. A little sweet. Good.<\/em> I pulled the white things into my mouth. Soft. Chewy. Almost melts on my tongue.<\/em> Brown nuggets under the white stuff. Not unappealing. Crunchy.<\/em> I finished the snack, curled up in front of the clear solid substance, placed my nose on my paws, and, through my lidded eyes, watched the human watch me.<\/p>\n

I must have slept. Slipping. I didn’t hear anything.<\/em> I opened my eyes. The human was not there to watch me, but I smelled it. Where was it?<\/em> I turned my head. There.<\/em><\/p>\n

“Good morning.”<\/p>\n

It spoke. I tipped my muzzle in it’s direction.<\/p>\n

“Welcome to Winnipeg. I hope you’re comfortable.”<\/p>\n

Winnipeg, eh?<\/em> I stretched.<\/p>\n

“Yoga? Downward facing dog. Good idea.”<\/p>\n

Stretching is yoga?<\/em> The human was on the other side of those hard, porous things with space between them.<\/p>\n

“By the way, my name is Mindy. You’re probably wondering why you’re here.”<\/p>\n

She paused as if she expected a response.<\/p>\n

“You’re the major subject in a research project I’m conducting. I want to see if a polar bear can live among humans.”<\/p>\n

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Thank you for visiting for the April A-Z Blogging Challenge. Today’s entry is a work of fiction. I’d love to hear your thoughts on it in comments — what you liked or didn’t like. Each day will be a little different, so if you don’t want to miss an entry, please enter your email address below, press sign-up, then check your inbox to click the validation link to get these blog posts in your inbox.<\/p>\n