The Early Hippo Gets the Doughnut

I'm not a morning person kind of hippo, but this weekend I just had to get up early to go to Cockadoodle Zoo. It's a special event at the National Zoo where visitors can see how the animals get ready for work in the morning. I wanted to see what they ate for breakfast, how big a toothbrush they needed, and what they looked like before they put their fur coats on.

I was so excited, I had trouble falling asleep. So I stayed up late playing games with my friends.


Eventually, we did manage to fall asleep.


But as soon as the sun came up I changed into a warm sweater and headed out the door. Here I am with my ticket to get in. HURRY UP!!!! I CAN'T WAIT!


It was a rather rainy day, but I still saw some really cool things – like the baby gorilla swinging in a hammock, the lions and tigers private quarters, and flamingos at feeding time (they get very noisy when they're hungry!).


I also saw a breakfast delivery for the pandas: fresh, crunchy bamboo!


My friends the hippos got a fresh polish and the elephants did their morning exercises. I worked up an appetite watching all the animals eating breakfast, so I was quite relieved when we got to my favorite part of the morning: a free doughnut and coffee.