Ever meet an elephant in the woods?

Happily walking on the path in the woods with Anya and her two young ones and Hector, the Wheaten terrier, what should we see? A circus had set up all its tents and paraphernalia on the soccer stadium of Anya's old elementary school. And lo and behold - as we walked the path home, a large elephant and five camels were on a grassy area next to where we strolled.

What a fun experience to see exotic animals in our woods. Even though Anya and I were thrilled to get up close to the animals, who only had a "string" fencing them in - I believe that Anya's two year old was mostly excited about a few small dogs running around between circus tents and caravans.

My parents took my older brother to the circus when he was really young. Afterwards they asked him what he liked best. "The turtle!" he answered.

It's not always the big and exotic that catches the attention of little ones, most of the time something small and sweet does the trick.

And how did Hector behave? Surprisingly pretty well, but I held him firmly on a leash.