By Mike Johnson
It started with shopping online for a monkey.
Yes, you can still buy them.
There are many varieties.
Some as cheap as $200.
Legalities vary by state.
Then I searched for a giraffe.
Yep, available too.
These start at $35,000.
When I looked thirty years ago, they were only $1,500.
I imagine feeding a giraffe from my inside and outside barn balconies.
Twenty-seven-foot-tall ceiling inside, it would work perfect.
Legalities aside, the required feed, care and exercise would swallow my life.
But owning a giraffe? It might be worth it.
Then I discovered entire zoos for sale.
And looked deeper at a drive-thru animal park in Texas.
No price listed. This is always a warning of sticker shock.
But it’s fun to imagine.
“We Bought a Zoo” is a favorite movie.
It's the perfect mix of exotic and entrepreneur.
These whimsical searches never lead to a direct destination.
They wander. And whirlpool into unexpected variations, combinations and possibilities.
If fortunate, you come face to face with a decision point to launch a new adventure.
Yes or no, it’s a win just to enjoy swaying on the cliffside of a different life.
My keystroke journey then led to a tamer investigation, the tiger salamanders and mud turtles I used to find as a boy.
Yes, these are available to purchase too.
Only about fifty bucks each.
Intriguing.
Don’t even need a barn for those.
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