Portly astronauts doing a moon walk underwater

April 27, 2017 1:21 PM

Fiona the Hippo (previously) spending more time in deep water and occasionally napping in the shower. But she's not learning to swim; she is practicing her series of porpoise-like leaps and high prancing steps in service of an underwater gallop.
posted by ChuraChura (15 comments total)

FTA:

Except the swimming isn’t really swimming per se, she said. Rather, it’s a kind of gallop.

It's not for nothing that the Greeks called them "river-horses" (hippos-potamos).
posted by Strange Interlude at 1:31 PM on April 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

I've said it before, but it's a good thing I'm not rich, or I would make a lagoon in my back yard just for hippos (I'm guessing my neighbors would hate me). Of course I'd have to restock every year, since I doubt hippos are hardy enough to survive an Iowa winter.
posted by cjorgensen at 1:47 PM on April 27, 2017

This is truly an awful cat.
posted by The otter lady at 2:18 PM on April 27, 2017 [11 favorites]

That is a The Worst Cat, I think.
posted by GenjiandProust at 2:23 PM on April 27, 2017 [5 favorites]

I used to walk through the Washington DC zoo on my way to and from work every day.

One day I saw a hippo back up against a concrete wall and unleash a fantastic torrent of feces. Wave after wave of crap spread out in a semicircular brown fountain. This was gallons of thick, soupy liquid exiting a huge animal at maximum velocity.

Of course the kids who were up against the railing were coated in crap. It didn't smell too bad, probably in the neighborhood of cow manure. It did, however, go on for some time. The kids had time to laugh, then scream, then cry before the poopocalypse stopped.

I'm not going to lie, I laugh every time I think about it.
posted by poe at 3:49 PM on April 27, 2017 [16 favorites]

Oh man, from that last link: "They remind me of portly astronauts doing a moon walk underwater."

Brilliant.
posted by col_pogo at 4:15 PM on April 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

Oh, so brilliant that ChuraChura picked that line for the post title. Oops!
posted by col_pogo at 4:16 PM on April 27, 2017

"Of course I'd have to restock every year, since I doubt hippos are hardy enough to survive an Iowa winter."

Hey, if you're hippo rich you can afford a hippodome for the winter!
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 5:30 PM on April 27, 2017 [6 favorites]

I belive this is the first time I have seen a hippopotamus prance. I'll be durn.
posted by Trinity-Gehenna at 6:00 PM on April 27, 2017

Never saw fantasia?
posted by jenkinsEar at 7:49 PM on April 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

My team at work has a chat group basically just for cute animal pics and videos. The other day one coworker shared a photo of Fiona having her fan mail read to her and the result was essentially a five-minute productivity melt-down from the cuteness.
posted by lunasol at 7:56 PM on April 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

poe: Comme ça?
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 11:19 PM on April 27, 2017

Maybe it's just the sort of week I've had, but taking a nap in the shower sounds wonderful.

Well, at least it would be until the hot water runs out.
posted by darksong at 6:23 AM on April 28, 2017

YAY FIONA!!!! She is pretty much the only thing uniting people in Cincinnati right now. Left, Right, Green, WHATEVER: we all love Fiona!

Seriously, most of my facebook feed from my fellow locals is 24/7 Fiona.

It's glorious.
posted by cooker girl at 7:01 AM on April 28, 2017 [2 favorites]

My wife sent me a link to the Cincinati Zoo twitter this morning and if it hadn't been a picture of Fiona I would have been kind of pissed, even though it would still have been a cute animal probably.
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 10:34 AM on April 28, 2017