Eye to eye with a Buffalo

So we took it upon ourselves to go to a birthday party at what is known as Lazy 5 Ranch, a farm of sorts with animals you would not expect to see up close and personal. Needless to say my daughter got to have a new experience and I got to see what the inside of a buffalo's mouth really looks like.
Yes ladies and gentlemen, as many of you probably didn't know a buffalo only has teeth on the bottom. I must admit, when the tour guide told us to only DROP food into their mouth's otherwise they may bite off one of your limbs, I did get a little concerned. Not that they don't already smell bad enough, I guess they feel like they need a whiff of something new of sorts to clean their palats.
So they decided to go sniff the hineys of the caraige next to ours. I could not resist taking that picture.
Next it was off to see the giraffe. Once we were comfortably seated in front of these tall odd, but beautiful creatures, the guide says "I need two brave souls to raise their hands." The words had not been uttered for more than one second and my 2 year old raises her hand. He picks her, like she's a 20 year old lady that actually understands what he just said, to feed the giraffe's. Now I know most of you are probably thinking big deal, however you must understand, the whole hay ride we had heard nothing from him except for "don't feed this animal, it will bite your fingers off, don't feed that animal, it will bite your limbs off, don't get off the wagon, the animals will see you as food etc., etc." So I am imagining one of those awful videos you see where the kid is in the lion cage at the zoo somewhere in Japan and the lion is ripping it's clothes off. I hesitated you see because I, her mother, the lady that carried her in my womb, was to pick her up and feed her, I mean let her feed leaves to the giraffe. So, as visions of Michael Jackson hanging his child over a balcony go through my mind, I lift her up, she stretches out her arm, as I am closing my eye, and the next thing I hear is laughter.
She was being licked by the giraffe.
After I realized that she would live, and I would not go down in shame as the "worst mother of the year", I breathed a sigh of relief. And even though the rest of the ride was still smelly and cold, I hugged my baby girl and breathed her scent deep into my soul and realized, sometimes you gotta just take the plunge and go for it.