Apples and Ostriches don't mix! (and the giveaway!)

Our family has a NC Zoo Society membership, and we like to take frequent trips to the NC Zoo in Asheboro,NC - if you haven't been yet, you should check it out! The Watani Grasslands Reserve has recently opened and that was our first stop this past weekend. We loved the way we could get pretty close to the animals, and they were all able to roam over such a large area. Visitors could actually get an idea of how the animals live in the wild.

One of their Ostriches was quite friendly and stayed close to the visitors for the entire time we were at that viewing area. We talked to it, and it showed off it's plumage, and munched on the grass close by. As we were walking to the next exhibit, we overheard one of the Rangers talking about needing to check on an ostrich who had an apple stuck in her throat. (All of the Ostriches in the Zoo are female) Apparently one of the other visitors thought this friendly ostrich would like an apple to try, and threw it into the exhibit. The ostrich ate it whole and unfortunately the apple got stuck in her throat. This was a very dangerous situation and the visitor should have known better as there are signs at nearly every exhibit stating not to throw anything into the animal's area
The Zoo makes sure the animals are on a healthy diet of foods that are normal for each animal. The zoo animals aren't smart enough to know when they're not supposed to eat certain things, and they might get very ill or die if they eat the wrong things. Whoever thought it would be a good idea to give the ostrich a 'treat' should be ashamed, and hopefully learned a lesson this weekend in respecting the wild animals.

Once my family heard about this dangerous situation, we kept a lookout for the imperiled ostrich. We spotted her, and sure enough, there was an apple-sized bulge in her throat, about 8 inches down. The ostrich was no longer strutting around showing off her plumage, she was walking rather aimlessly around, opening her beak as wide as it could go(pretty large mouth!) My Mom and I watched as the poor animal kept trying to get the apple out, and I got out my camera (actually my Mom's that day! - thanks Mom!) to see if I could get a better look with the zoom lens. I took some pictures of the poor girl. She started throwing her head forward and down, with her beak wide open. She did this several times, and once a lot of phlegm came out. About 3 tries later, the apple was finally dislodged and it came flying out of her mouth. We were so relieved. She was so lucky to get that out of her throat. I'm not sure what the rangers at the Zoo would have had to do, but I'm sure it was a tense situation for a while for them. A few minutes after the ostrich got rid of the apple, a Zoo ranger truck came by and checked her to make sure she was OK. She approached the truck and fluffed up her feathers, then proceeded to show off for them. She seemed to be OK.

Let this be a lesson to all of the visitors to ANY Zoo, please don't try to feed the animals!

The giveaway details: I will make for you either a blue/green batik Emmeline apron, a black/white patchwork purse, or a clothespin holder in your choice of colors (the fabrics would be my choice!). All you have to do is send traffic to my site before 10pm eastern time on May 31st. This gives you 10 days to tell all of your friends, leave a comment on THIS posting, post about this giveaway on your blog (and send me a link), and/or put a new link in your sidebar for my site. You will get an entry for doing each of these things. I will randomly select the winner on June 1st, and let you know who you are so you can chose your prize!

Who's game?