When What Did My Wondering Eyes Did Appear

It was freezing cold outside-- about 5 degrees farenheit -- and the wind was blowing brutally. Snow from the recent record breaking storm was still on the ground. We were on vacation in Virginia, about 30 minutes west of Charlottesville, very near to the Blue Ridge mountains edge. The folks we were visiting had the normal random collection of animals in the ring adjacent to their barn. Some horses, a goat or two... and wait-- that one eating SNOW -- is it? It IS! It's a CAMEL.

Eating snow. Not in the desert crossing miles of sand. A camel in the wintry snow, having fun munching the white stuff. I whipped out my little digital camera, switched it to movie mode and pressed play... just in time to miss it. I had gotten said camel's attention and she came walking, then running, over.

Have you ever seen a camel run? I know, you really haven't now either because she was partially blocked, but it was still a fun sentence to write.

The lady who owns Chloe has had her since she was two weeks old. I asked if she ever spat, as I have seen them do it (I was in Lebanon stopping for coffee with Bedouins in the deserted land between Beiruit and Zahale in the mountains, and they had one who did. She said hers never does. Guess they do that when they are mad, and how could a well loved, well fed Camel be mad? Chloe's owner passed me a banana and told me to feed her a favorite treat. Below is my reaction to feeling her slobbery tongue grab a piece from my hand. And I say slobbery in only the most polite way.

I am of Arabic descent and I remember calling my brother camel breath as a teasing insult. I asked her, do camels have camel breath... the expression on their faces told me that indeed they do. But check out this beauty! She's quite a looker.

And just like when I interacted with my first baby goat, I will again exclaim, "I WANT ONE!" Don't you?