Monday, January 14, 2008

G is for Giraffe

At last, there is a giraffe in my bathroom.

One wouldn’t think it would fit. I have, after all, a very small bathroom—one that barely fits me, let alone me and a giraffe.

Me, a bunny, and a giraffe.

I met the giraffe at an art party last summer. Sioux and Aidan painted it together. I had to bring it home. It stands on one of those circus stands that elephants often stand on. I don’t think this is normal behavior for a giraffe.

Normal or not, I wanted that giraffe in my bathroom, black tongue and all.

You can’t see the black tongue.

Sunday we finally got it in there. There was a hammer involved. Sometimes one has to be firm with a giraffe.

There are other giraffes in my house, but not many. They are not usually obvious, but they will come out for a party. One lives on a coaster. Two are camouflaged in glassware: one on a beer mug, one on a shot glass. (Those two traveled all the way from Kenya with Alison just to be with me.) They do not like to come out when there is a hammer in sight. Even hammered people make them jittery.

The giraffe in my bathroom is learning to nose the faucets on and off. I’m happy for this show of independence, as it’s all I can do to keep up with feeding it 140 pounds of leaves and twigs each day. I have to keep up, though, to keep it out of the cotton balls, Q-tips, and tampons. Replacing those items can get really expensive.

8 comments:

Helen said...

Oh, I love it. Everyone bathroom needs some wildlife.

I used to housesit for people who had a bit of a fish fetish. My favourite piece was a plaque on which the heads of 5 large-mouth bass were mounted. Out of each mouth hung a piece of paper admonishing you to "Sit up straight!" or "Take out the garbage!"

Bridgett said...

FABULOUS.

Unknown said...

:) marvelous post, never really thought of giraffes quite this way!

Helen said...

By the way, my mom used to have a hare in her bathroom too. But hers was real. They had it as a pet at the daycare where she worked, but as it turns out, hares are quite different from bunnies. They're not cute and cuddly, and are more like ornery llamas in temperment (except they don't spit at you). It used to be very difficult to use the bathroom, because you never knew when the hare was liable to attack. I know being attacked by a hare doesn't sound that scary, but when they stand on their hind legs they're taller than you might think.

Indigo Bunting said...

DG: I'm finally getting around to checking out your blogs! Hope to have more time to do so soon.

Helen: You sure have been in some interesting bathrooms. And hares are, in fact, huge. The Holy Grail probably did nothing to alleviate your fears.

Anonymous said...

I love love love this post, black tongue and all. What a wonderful color you have painted your bathroom.

And the giraffe - perfect. The best I've ever seen. (and I'm partial to giraffes)

Mali said...

You're always worth waiting for.

Deloney said...

I'm sure you would never sell your giraffes to a circus.