Taiwan - Taipei Zoo, Single Flamingo / Poor Robbie

Because there are usually so many of them it's difficult to capture a single flamingo, but managed in this case.  The reds and pinks were saturated in this photo to make him stand out more.

Another very interesting thing to see in flamingo enclosures is time lapse.  Took one with my iPhone back at the Houston Zoo...pretty neat.
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Not long ago I wrote about my first encounter with Robbie, the family dog up in Wilmington, Delaware.  A golden retriever with a nice personality, innocent of malice or bad habits, Robbie was the picture of unconditional love for everyone in the household.  However, unfortunately for her, this demeanor made it irresistible to play the occasional prank, to test her patience if nothing else.  One of my favorites was to throw snowballs for her to fetch.

Another time I went up to Delaware from college to do chores around the house while my father recovered from one of his cancer-related surgeries.  During this visit I was tasked with insulating the basement water pipes.  Not a hard job but a tedious one that required climbing through a crawl space under every part of the house.

And this is how I found myself under the kitchen floor, when I heard something above me.  Recognizing it as the tag on Robbie's collar hitting the floor as she moved around in her favorite spot under the kitchen table, I thought, "Wow, what luck is this!"  I waited until it got quiet, then, when I was sure she wasn't distracted by anything else, I knocked on the underside of the floor right where she was, calling out her name.  It was greatly satisfying to hear my dad, who was sitting at the table, describe how she jumped up, startled and bewildered as she looked down at the floor.  After about a minute of this I had mercy and shut up, continuing the job at hand...