Frankie's Christmas

Our friend Frankie sent along some photos from his Christmas celebrations:

Citrus boxes are a comfortable way to travel. They're nicely padded and smell so good.

Hello, Holly! She's hanging around the Christmas tree to catch a glimpse of Santa on Christmas Eve.

The first thing to inspect on Christmas morning is the stockings. Will all my favorite candies be inside?

Dear Hippo Claus,

All of the hippos in the pod have been very good hippos this year (especially me!). We baked you some cookies and left some candy canes for the reindeer.  If they aren't hungry right away, they can always hang them on their antlers to save for later.  Have you ever considered having a hippo help pull your sleigh?  Some hippos are very big and strong, and could probably help you finish all the cookies when you aren't hungry. 

For Christmas, we would like some new hippo toys, some warm hippo sweaters, or whatever else you would like to bring.  Most of all, we want a hippopotamus for Christmas!

Merry Christmas, Santa! (and hippo fans!)

Love,

Hippo and the pod

It's beginning to look a lot like....

Christmas!

I think this tree might be big enough for all the presents to fit. 

...And there is the Big Guy, himself!  (that's me, peeking in the side)

By the time I made it downstairs, I was so excited to give Mr. Claus all the wish lists from the pod, find out what kinds of cookies he and the reindeer want for their Christmas Eve snack, give him a big hippo hug, and get his autograph, I forgot to take a picture. 

At least I have another two weeks to let him taste test the cookies, amend our lists, and take more pictures!

Free Zoolights!

It's that time of year again, and this time ZooLights is free! (except for souvenirs, junk food, and parking)

For anyone who goes, you can help some of the hungry people (and hippos) in Washington, DC by bringing canned goods to fill one of Uncle Happy's old hippo crates.  That's going to take a LOT of food. 

 

 This year, there are trains--big light up ones, little ones to see, and even one to ride!

Can you spot the hippo saying "hi" to Thomas?  Thomas is a little bit blurry because he wouldn't stop moving.

The gin-GRR-bread lion habitat contest made me really hungry; my stomach even started growling like a lion.  This one is my favorite because I also like to spend time at the National Gallery of Art Scultpture Garden

Those are just a few of the fun things to do and see.  I'll post more of my photos of the lights later!

Zoo Friends

Since I had some time off last weekend, I brought Opie and some of the other hippos to the zoo to visit some of our friends. 

The Otter Brothers invited us to play a game of tag,



Mr. Leo offered us lunch, but service was taking a long time, so he got a little grumpy,



The 'mingo party thought we would enjoy a dip in the jacuzzi and shrimp cocktail,



And the Donkey family invited us to join a game of football...or rugby...or something....



We stopped in to say hello to a lot of our other friends, too, but one of our new favorite things to see at the zoo is this nice statue of Uncle Happy!

Hippo Holiday Spirit

Now that Thanksgiving is done, it's time to finish shopping for presents for my little hippo pod.  To help me get into the holiday spirit, I did a few of my favorite holiday things. 

I went to see the skating rink at the National Gallery of Art Scultpture Garden.  

They didn't have any little hippo size skates, so I watched the other visitors, admired the scenery, and sipped a hot chocolate to keep my snout warm.  

After that, I decided to go see the fancy window displays at Macy's.  Yes, hippos, there is a Santa Claus!

This window reminded me that I needed to do my shopping!  I went to the bookstore to pick up a few more presents.  (Don't tell anyone what I bought for them--it's a surprise!)

Shopping works up quite an appetite!  I finished my day with dinner and visiting with some new friends!

CHEERS!

Pie!

Happy Hippo Thanksgiving to all;

I hope everyone celebrated with all the pie you can eat!

Dental Care for Hippos

Even hippopotamuses have to remember to brush their teeth. At this zoo in China, the hippos get some help from a zookeeper with a broom.

If they're lucky, they might get more help fighting those decay germs from a friendly beaver.

Happy Hippoween

It's almost Halloween, and everyone is decorating and dressing up.  This tree is dressed up in pretty pumpkin colors. 

Wow!  Look at this huge spiderweb!  I wonder who built it?

YIKES!

Not funny.  Next time, someone should tell me when there might be a giant hippo-eating spider looking over my shoulder.

Even the rose bushes are getting all dressed up for the big day, with a little help from "Mr. Legs." 

Now I just need to decide which costume I'm going to wear!

Urban Hippo

One of the best things about being a little hippo in the city is taking advantage of all the things to do outside, but close to home.  This time of year is especially busy!

Here I am at the Bethesda Metro station on my way to another festival.

Happy Punctuation Day!!!

Every well educated little hippo should know how to use punctuation correctly.  That's why National Punctuation Day is one of my favorite holidays!

You're probably wondering how to celebrate.  I recommend watching this video:



Question marks are my favorite; they sound funny, they're fun to draw, and using them usually gets information.

Heropotamus

click here for full size

After reading about the adventures of Heropotamus, Hippo wants a mask and cape of his own.

Meet Schnaubbles

Hippo was out shopping one day when he came across a distinguished-looking young hippopotamus. He saw that he was up for adoption and realized he had saved enough allowance to bring him home!

So he gave the check-out lady a picture of George Washington and she gave him back an Abraham Lincoln coin and let him take his new friend home.

Hippo presented the new hippo to his human who promptly named him "Schnaubbles".

Begemots

Hippo's friend Elena sent photos of a hippopotamus (begemot) she found grazing on snowflakes in Moscow, Russia.

Note from Hippo: It may be short-sleeve weather in America, but Russia is on the other side of the world so it's cold and snowy there.

He wonders if they'll migrate over here when the seasons change.

Ludwig's Summer Vacation

It's just about time to head back to school (or work). So Hippo's friend Ludwig von Flusspferd wrote to tell more about how he spent his summer vacation.

After some time spent seeing doctors, his vacation became more fun.

Supervising the van-packing. It's amazing how much stuff a little hippo can possibly need.

Smiling for the camera on his new little hippo-sized Nintendo DSi XL.

Rolling in a bed of his favorite flowers: snapdragons! They sound scary, but their mouths are so soft that it just tickles when they bite.

Thanks for sharing, Ludwig! From the rest of you, Hippo A. Potamus would like to know:

How did you and your hippo spend summer vacation?

Meet D.H.

Contrary to popular belief, I am NOT afraid of the vacuum cleaner.  When my staff was cleaning the other day, the only reason I ran under the couch was to pick up some change that rolled underneath. 

(Maybe it wouldn't do that if I had pockets.) 

I guess it had been a while since we cleaned under there, since I made a new friend. 

Meet D.H. (short for Dust Hippo).

He's so tiny, it is kind of hard to see him.  Here's a close-up.

And here he is trying to run off with part of my allowance!

 *Note from Hippo's Handlers--D.H. didn't really grow up under the couch.  He moved here from a nice place called Moss Mountain (mossmountain.blogspot.com) when he got a job offer from our pod to be Undersecretary of Couch Stuff.  And he wasn't stealing Hippo's allowance, either. 

Dr. Hippo's Practice

Since I've spent so much time taking care of sick hippos in my little pod,

I decided I should practice medicine.

I'm going to practice, and practice, and practice on Opie until I get really good at it.

Messy, gross things make me kind of woozy,

But I'm really good at prescribing Band-aids and Tylenol.

Get well, hippos!

Hippos (sort of) at Work

Another FOH (Friend of Hippo) discovered she gets to work with hippos (sort of) every day. Not the cute little kind like me, or the cute rotund kind like Jessica or Owen or Uncle Happy.

 

This is the cute, little kind of hippo.

These hippos are lucky enough to live in a big, fancy library! This library is so fancy, they use old card catalog cards for scrap paper.

This kind of hippo is the patron saint of brewers (I knew there was a reason I like root beer!), printers, theologians, and sore eyes.

Cameras weren't invented yet when he was alive, but he looked kind of like this.

This is another kind of sort-of a hippo.

Saint Augustine of Hippo.

Injury

Ludwig von Flusspferd is on summer vacation in Michigan. It's considerably cooler there than his hometown of Washington, DC. Since he's too absorbent to wade in a pool, he prefers to lounge in the shade with a mild breeze and a cool drink.

But yesterday his human escort injured his leg and had to go see a doctor for X-rays. So they ventured out into the hot weather. It was kind of scary looking at all the instruments while they waited for the doctor. And in the X-ray room there was a hard table and some kind of apparatus hanging from the ceiling that looked like it'd be good at bonking you on the head.

His human was okay – nothing broken. And Ludwig got to pick a cool sticker on his way out.

Too hot for hippos

My apologies to all hippo-fans and Friends of Hippo for taking so long between posts.  I've been so busy, and  it has been too hot to go on my usual outings and adventures. 

Between bouts of sitting in front of the air conditioner sipping lemonade and eating popsicles, I've been trying to look after an unwell member of our little hippo-pod.  Hopefully, he is on the mend and we will start taking field trips again, soon. 

Dressing in my doctor duds probably helps him heal faster.

In the meantime, think cool thoughts!

Hippo of Mystery

Much like other superheroes, I have an alter ego.  My loyal hippo-fans know me as a mild-mannered executive hippo by day...

...but I become Ninja-hippo by night!

Sometimes the quick changes confuse me. 

Misery Bear

Hippo has been feeling a bit blue lately. But misery loves company so he was excited to find another diminutive fuzzy animal who's been having a rough time too.

Hippo Zombie

Hippo's special birthday cartoon

Hippo Fiesta

Hippo Cinco de Mayo!

(I'm doing my Hippo Hat Dance)

And Hippo Birthday!

But after all the fiesta, this hippo needs a siesta.

Hippo B. Potamus

Have you ever Googled yourself? Typed your name into a search engine and seen what information about you is on the web?

Well, a little Mr. Hippo B. Potamus entered his name into a Google search, and Google said, "Did you mean Hippo A. Potamus?".

"Intriguing. Another hippo with a similar name?", Mr. B. Potamus thought as he perched in a tree among the blossoms. "Let's find out more about this fellow."

So he clicked a link and discovered our own little Hippo A. Potamus.

What a joyful reunion! Hippo was thrilled to meet a possible relative – maybe a cousin? There is a family resemblance, despite the difference in color and extra legs. Hippo A. Potamus has only two legs, but he's equipped with a special boogie pouch that helps him dance and pose with dexterity. And Hippo B. Potamus has an eye patch to cover a swashbuckling injury.

Two more hippos brought together by the power of the World Wide Web. Isn't that wonderful?

Hippo Ennumeration

A Friend of Hippo (FOH) pointed out that if I don't take a thorough snout-count of my hippo household, I might miss out on civic hippo representation and civic hippo dollars!

But do I count just us fuzzy ones? Do the House Hippos have their own count? Does Tiny count as a fraction of a hippo? Does Frankie count as a hippo-and-a-half? How do you count Flatopotamus? Does anyone have enough fingers to count us all?

We'll just let FOH's and ennumerators count for themselves.

Click to enlarge

That reminds me – Have all you humans sent your census forms in?!?

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Twenty-five hippopotamuses! Hippos truly are social animals. How many hippos are in your household?