One thing about that Oregon compared to NYC, there's a wider variety of small furry mammals to espy. Well, maybe comparing a state to a city isn't entirely fair, there'd be chipmunks and etc. out the ying-yang upstate, and two of these pictures were taken at the zoo... I did see what I believe was a marmot out in the wild that I didn't get a photo of, and I think maybe a raccoon, too. Anyway, even though I could see all of these mammals here in NYState and neighboring environs, I do not, so I enjoyed doing so during my vacation. On Sunday(?) we travelled out of Portland a short ways to see some of the Columbia River Gorge, stopping a couple places to view views and hike up in the forested mountains a bit. The little critter up top here was scurrying around down in the underbrush beside the trail when we took a break to catch our breath at one point, hopping to another spot just about the time I'd find him through my viewfinder, but I finally managed to get him in this shot. Below the chipmunk (which, I don't think I need to tell you but will anyway, is a member of the squirrel family) is a nappin' otter (actually 2, there's another behind him) curled up in his peer-into-able den at the Oregon Zoo. Earlier we'd watched them swimming and cavorting up above in their tank, which is probably pretty tiring. I kinda have ambivalent feelings whenever I go to a zoo; I love looking at the animals but also feel sad and bothered that they're all cooped up. I'd say the Oregon Zoo falls about in the middle of the zoo decency spectrum, the enclosures aren't really tiny and most of the animals seemed relatively contented, but it's not one of those with the really large, more natural-seeming environments for them to wander around in either. And the polar bears did just pace around in the same circle over and over and over and over and over... ANYhow, wrapping up this description before the internet here goes down again (as it's been doing most of today) at the bottom of the stack you will find a beaver, specifically beaver booty. Now if you'll excuse me, while this internet remains accessible I need to go check out what those crazy nudists over at Love Is... have been up to recently...