My cousin is a professional hippo keeper and has advanced far enough in the field of professional hippo keeping that she’s head of..idk, hippos? all giant herbivores? at Disney and has been consulting with the Cincinnati zoo about Fiona.
And being her facebook friend has really introduced me to the subculture of hippo keepers, who apparently all know each other and also can recognize most zoo hippos on sight.
And man, if you thought cat ladies were bad about the “my precious panther children just bit the shit out of my arm and then vomited on my rug” shit then I need to tell you that it is NOTHING compared to how hippo people talk about hippos with each other. For example, my cousin will post a cute video of Fiona and her mother and all her hippo friends will comment things like, “Aww, look at Bibi. She’s beautiful. Remember that time she bit down while I was brushing her teeth and she broke every bone in my hand?” and all the other people are like, “Aw, precious Nile princess! I remember riding with you in the ambulance!”
Or she’ll post a picture of baby Fiona gnawing gently on her caregiver’s leg and someone will respond with a picture of a massive bruise she got when a teenage hippo did that and everyone will be like, “hahaha, these nightmare murder beasts sure are wonderful.”
Can confirm that all people who work with potentially dangerous animals are like this. At the raptor center we all have scars from the peregrine falcon, and we show them off as our badges of bird handling honor. A coworker loves working with the vulture, partially because he once reached over and ripped her neck open (we still give her crap about that, “hey, be careful you don’t bleed on the bird again ya nerd”). A different coworker got a tattoo of the vulture to cover a scar on her leg where he bit her. The great horned owl is entirely capable of bruising or breaking the skin through our protective falconry gloves, and frequently the handler will respond by cooing about how strong she is.
My favorite bird has been officially my bff since he bit me hard enough to draw blood during a restraint. Once they taste your blood the pair of you are irrevocably bonded, it is law (not that the birds know this, they will continue to act like wild animals and we love them for it).
konekorambles 