Debbie Doolittle's Animal Experience

Over the past few years mom has been obsessed with sloths.  She really wanted to see them in South America the few times we've been there but we weren't in the correct part of the country to see them.  Mom has been doing research to see if we could see them locally and she found a place that could do it in Oregon but it costs a lot of money and you couldn't easily get a hold of them for an appointment.  A few weeks ago mom found another place that had sloths and it was in the Spanaway area which wasn't that far away.  I asked her what it was called so I could look it up.  She said Debbie Doolittle's Animal Experience so I looked it up.  You could see the general animals that you pay admission for and then if you want an otter or sloth experience that is a separate amount.  You can bet we were going to see sloths.  We paid about $40 each for all of it.

I drove into Rainier, picked up mom and headed into Spanaway for our date with the sloths.  Our encounter was at 4 but we had admission to the rest of the animals including the farm.  So we left at 1ish from mom and dad's house.  We knew it wouldn't take us that long to get to Spanaway.  We found the street we needed to turn on and found a place to park.  We had no idea how popular this place was going to be.  As of last week I have never heard of this place and have driven past it hundreds of times.

We walked in and mom talked to the employee at the window about our reservations.  They told us about our encounter at 4, the bus ride to the farm and handed us our veggie cups full of lettuce and carrots.  Mom and I went into the petting portion of the mini zoo.  There, we were bombarded by a bunch of goats wanting our veggie cups.  I gave them a few of them and then we spent some time looking at the other animals such as the capybara's, the Indian Zebu calf (he was adorable), the reptiles, African sand cat and the wallabies.

We heard that the last bus for the evening was leaving soon and it was so close to our sloth encounter at 4.  Mom asked the person if we could go to the farm and come back for our sloth encounter after 4.  She said we sure could do that if it was okay with the other two people we'd be doing the sloth encounter with.  They were okay with pushing it back until we all came back from the farm.  Everyone wanted to make sure we got the whole experience.

They announced that the bus was on its way back and everyone who wanted to go to start making their way to the door.  We didn't have to wait very long.  Mom and I climbed into the back of the short bus.  A lady sat across the aisle from us and she struck up conversation with the people who sat around her.  Mom asked her a few questions and we found out that Debbie, the lady who owned the place, died from cancer 2 years after the zoo opened.  They decided to keep it going in her honor.  The place is mostly ran by family members and really good friends of the family.  The outdoor zoo wasn't that far away from the main building of animals.  It took probably 10 minutes or so to get there.

We got off the bus and we were told what we could and could not do, to keep ourselves and the animal safe.  We grabbed our new veggie cups and walked over to the animal pens.  We spent some time in the main pen with the alpacas, the camels, kangaroos, wallabies, more goats, the camels and the lemur they had in there for a while, but he had to be put away because he was getting rambunctious.

We walked behind the building and looked at the capybara's and buffalos.  We finished off our outdoor zoo exhibit with the baby giraffe.  You could not turn your back on him within his range or he will start chewing on your sweatshirt.  I let my guard down while we were taking to one of the workers and the giraffe started to chew on my sweatshirt. He really wanted some of the lettuce I had in my cup.  I gave him some and at that point it was time to get back on the bus to head back to the main building for our sloth encounter.

On the way back the same woman we talked to, told us about the sloths because she heard we were having an encounter with them when we got back.  She said that she was the handler of the sloths and even was able and lucky enough to get a baby sloth.  She added that it was back at the main building and if the sloth wasn't sleeping she would bring it in so we could see it.

We arrived at the main building and they ushered us into the sloth room with two other ladies.  The guy, who came in to give us the sloth encounter, started off by telling us about the sloths.  He told us their names, Bonny and Clyde, how they acquired them, where sloths usually come from, these ones in particular came from the Costa Rica area, the climate in which they thrive, how much they eat, sleep, poop and their movements.  We each got to go up to touch them, feed them and take a picture with them.  It was pretty cool and I'm glad mom found this place.

The lady followed up on her word by bringing in the baby sloth.  Mom was so happy she could hardly contain her smiling.  She smiled the entire time the baby sloth was out.  She got her pictures and her pets and she was pretty content.  She thanked the lady for bringing the sloth out.

We headed out and got into the Escape.  I asked mom if we could find a few geocaches on the way home but it was going to be towards Elk Plain which was past the 507 junction.  She said that was fine.  I pulled up the geocaching app and found two that we could easily get along Hwy 7.  The first one, On the Rocks (GC77NYY) was just past the Walmart at the Jiffy Lube.  I originally thought it was going to be at the post office so I pulled into there and parked.  I noticed it was another 200+ feet away from where we parked.  Mom sat in the Escape while I walked over to it.  It took me a few minutes to zero in on it plus I wasn't sure what I was looking for.  I eventually figured it out and made the grab.

I signed our names on it and put it away. I walked back over to the post office and got in.  I told mom it took a bit to find it.

I pulled up the app and found the next one, One Fish, Two Fish (GC888D7) this one was further down Hwy 7 towards Graham.  I had been here once before for a former cache that used to be here.  I remember the animals out here.  We followed the directions and I told mom about the last time I was here.  She had no idea this area was out here.  We would have to come back and explore it when we had more time.  I got out and grabbed the cache, it was a fake rock next to some real rocks.  An easy park and grab.

We headed back to Rainier from Hwy 161 to Hwy 702 into McKenna.

I dropped mom off at the house and headed back into Lacey to get cleaned up and relax a bit.  I worked on my blog as I watched some TV.  I talked to Ben who was on shift that day.  He said it was pretty uneventful but got a lot of stuff done.  I told him about our day and how we went to the petting zoo in Spanaway and shared stories about the animals and whatnot.

It was a fun outing and onto the next one!

Next Adventure:  Grandpa's Birthday