Hippo Halloween

more eCards at HDgreetings.com

World Animal Day 2009

October 4th was World Animal Day. If you missed it, you can celebrate it today. And tomorrow. And the next day....


Start out by enjoying this wonderful gallery from The Boston Globe's The Big Picture.

Hipp'o'Lantern

Opie modeled for me while I created my hipp'o'lantern masterpiece. He isn't sure googly eyes were the way to go, but you can never go wrong with googly eyes!

Beach Hippo

I finished my summer by taking a trip to the beach in Ocean City, Maryland.


Of course I had to walk along the boardwalk and visit the kite shop.


And play mini-golf.


I won, of course.


The water was kind of cold for a hippo, but I liked flying kites, walking on the beach, and picking up shells and other keepsakes.


That's a funny looking shell. I wonder what it is?


As it turns out, it wasn't a shell. Meet my new friend Frankie, a little sphere'o'potamus who needed a good home. He came home with me to live with my other tiny potamus pals.

Squeaky

Hippo's friend Squeaky wrote to tell him about how she spends autumn in Michigan:

Squeaky enjoys reading about Hippo's adventures – they make her laugh and squeak.

She likes to garden and harvest grapes at the end of the season.

She turns apples into apple butter.

To send to all her friends.

When Squeaky makes cookies, she makes some little hippo sized ones.

She enjoys playing beautiful music.

And she likes to pet big kitties.

She's very handy, especially at fixing little parts.

Squeaky likes to go for drives through the countryside.

But she doesn't like having car problems. Where did we put the gas?

Have some apple pie, it'll make everything better.

Squeaky Loves Hippo.

Hail to the Victors

To all the football fans, Hippos says:

Dress Warm!

Mountain Hippo

I try to take my staff on fun outings as often as possible, so one day we drove to the Catoctin Mountains for a nature walk. Instead of the national park, we decided to go to the Cunningham Falls State Park where we walked on a nature trail up to the falls...

...and down to the lake.


We also went to the Cactoctin Wildlife Preserve and Zoo!


It is a very small zoo, so no hippos here except me (and any other visiting small companion hippos). They do have a very interesting educational poster, though.


My name in Swahili is "Kiboko."


There are some real zoo animals like monkeys, tigers, and these tangoing tortoises.


And a lot of friendlier animals that you can skritch and feed!




We even went to one of the animal encounters. Unlike the big zoos, the show let us get really close to some of the unusual and non-dangerous animals. I even got to touch a prickly hedgehog!

Star Spangled Hippo

I'm a smart little hippo, and I really like to take my loyal staff on educational field trips. We recently went to Ft. McHenry in Baltimore, MD.





We learned all about the history of the flag while we helped to fold a big, giant, huge one!

Hmmmm. I think I'll follow this guy and see what he's up to.

Watch out for the water taxi!

Yup. The flag is still there.

Harbor Hippo

What trip to Baltimore's Inner Harbor would be complete without a ride on the water taxi?


Oooooooooh, look! The Domino Sugar plant! Can we stop for just a little taste?!?!


I was a little wound up after eating a couple of sugar packets, so we walked around some of Baltimore's neighborhoods. Somebody must have been expecting me because they left a giant "H" for Hippo on the sidewalk.


A whole theater named just for me!


After our walk, it was time to finish the day with dinner and a nice view of the harbor at sundown.

Hippopotamoose

What's everybody laughing at?!? I don't get it.

For Amusement Only