Zoobilation and the Lemur Tee!!

The Lemur has arrived!!! Im so excited about this new tee. Why?? Because it helps support our local zoo~ The Louisiana Purchase Gardens and Zoo....and more specifically, it goes to help build a new Structure for the Lemurs to climb on and for "Enrichment" for the little guys. HAHA What is Primate Enrichment?? Well... these Lemurs are smart and can get bored easily. They need things to keep their little brains thinking. So, an example of enrichment for them may be a bag full of fruit that is hard to get into..so, the lemurs have to really work at it to get their prize out. 15% of every tee sold is going back to the non profit-The Louisiana Zoological Society (www.monroezoo.org) that helps make the zoo better. Big thank you to Heather Morris shown below. She is the La Purchase Zoological Society Manager and helped get me a meeting at the zoo to learn more about the lemurs.

   Our kids LOVE the Zoo and It has always had a special place in my heart. I remember when Shirley the Elephant was there, and I remember taking art lessons from Kathy Amman at the zoo when I was in Elementary School and being a Junior Zoo Keeper when I was in Middle School.

I'll be the first to admit that our little zoo has had its share of ups and downs, but it is now on its way UP, UP, UP!!
 The biggest positive that has happened at the Zoo most recently is the new Splash Park...

It is so much fun for Pearson and Phoebe.

I have seen children of all ages enjoying it and the new playground equipment that has been installed.

So, not only can you walk around and see all of the cool animals like Monreaux the Hippo

View of Monreaux and Penelope below. 

, but you get to get wet and slide too. The zoo also has a very nice grill to eat at too. You can sit outside at a picnic table and enjoy everything from hamburgers, to chicken strips, to slush puppies, to nachos. Yum!!

P with a big ole snow cone the other day.

 One complaint that I hear about the zoo is seeing an empty cage. Why is this?? Good question- Accredited Zoos (like ours), do a lot of trading and loaning. There are quite a few zoos up North who send their animals down to us to take care of during their harsh winters. Once spring/summer hits, these animals go back up North to their home base, thus, leaving an empty cage for a few months at our zoo.
 Now, back to the Lemurs----here is a little Lemur info for you.

I had the privilege of getting to visit with Lisa Taylor (general Curator) and Gary Miers (Public Relations Specialist) one afternoon about the lemurs. You can see their old climbing structure in the background of the above photo. Our lemurs are located near the boat ride.

They live on islands at the zoo which mimic their island home of Madagascar off the coast of Africa.

 Our climate is a sub tropical climate like Madagascar and the Lemurs seem to thrive here because the conditions are so similar..

This is something my friend and fellow zoo lover Kourtney Lewis shared with me and she was actually the first person to suggest that we do a Lemur design. Thanks Kourt!! Anyway- There are 3 groups of Lemurs at the zoo with a total of 8 in all. 7 ringtail and 1 brown. The Ringtail Lemur has 13 black rings on its tail. They love all kinds of fruit like bananas, apples, sweet potatoes, etc.

(bag of grapes)

They are excellent climbers, but they refuse to swim.  They have a gland on their front arm (kind of like a dew claw on a dog) that is a scent gland. They use this to mark their territories and have "Stink Fights" with each other. Basically, its an all out "Who stinks the worst!!" and the one that can't stand the stench looses the territory.

Gary and Lisa told me how the Lemurs like to sunbathe and warm their bellies. They are called "Praying Lemurs" when they do this. IT literally looks like they are doing YOGA!!

SO cool!! They normally do this in the morning and afternoon. Kelly Hill, (from Blue Sky Loga) told me this is called "easy pose" or "sukhasana" and that many yoga poses are derived from animal poses. After learning all of this, I knew this was the pose that our Lemur had to be in. We named it "Bam Bam the Lemur Tee" after one of the actual lemurs at the zoo. I was so pumped when they let me give BamBam some fruit from my hand. WOW!! Thanks y'all!!

Check out his neat little hands!! 

   When I first started to draw the Yoga Lemur design

, I had a full frontal view. It was cute, but I kept thinking that maybe a full frontal crotch shot wasn't appropriate

..hahahah Also, the scale bothered me at first. He was a little small and couldn't be any bigger because his tail was stretched out so long. So, I went back to the drawing board and ended up turning him to the side and closing his eyes like he is in deep meditation.

And, I curved his tail so we could make him larger on the shirts.  Voila~ Very Zen!! We also positioned him off center to be a little more interesting.  We printed it in a Tri Lemon (looks light green) colored loose fit tank and and gray tank.

As well as an adult brown short sleeve tee

and youth tee.

I picked this little outfit out for Phoebe to wear to school today. You can't beat lacy blue jean shorts and a lemur tee-right?!?! hahha

So... come on out to Zoobilation on Sat. Aug 1st from 10am-5pm.

There will be tons of food trucks like Iron Cactus, Slider Riders, Sage, Coney Island, Foys Fat Burger, etc and other vendors selling popcorn,Snow cones,  ice cream, etc. There will be bands playing all day like the Nightshift Kings, WaterBoys, and String Theory. Plus, Dirty South Running is putting on a 5k and 1 mile fun run that morning at 8am (www.eventbrite.com)

that will literally run through the zoo amongst the animals. Centric and Macaroni Kids will have a bunch of kid crafts going that the little ones will love to participate in. Arrow Art will be doing face painting, as well as a Burger Cook Off going on. PLUS, the kids can have fun at the new splash park and seeing all of the animals. We will be there with 2 booths set up near the Lemurs and the Boat ride. We will be selling our new tee and tank, plus a bunch of our other new youth and adult designs like the Monruex the Hippo Tee

and Shirley the Elephant Tee.

Come see us!!!

Thanks for reading and see ya Aug 1st!!

Love
Lissy

www.mrpstees.com