Have you ever had an encounter with an animal that was unforgettable? Maybe you crossed paths with an animal in the wild or perhaps met an animal you were captivated by. Whatever the case, these creatures can leave lasting impacts on us. I have never had any pets, but I have had some experiences with a variety of animals I will never forget!
My earliest memory was actually feeding giraffes with my sisters at a zoo. Though it is fuzzy in terms of how young I was, I still vividly remember the giraffes’ purple tongues. I may have been too small to directly reach their food to them, but every time my sisters fed them, the giraffes stuck their purple tongues out to scoop up the food before chewing it. I thought they were so cool!
When I was in first grade, I went to an aquarium for a field trip. While there, I came across a stingray that was black with white polka-dots. I’d never seen a stingray that looked like that before, and it amazed me. This species is officially called the Xingu River Ray, because their home habitat is the Xingu River in Brazil. I adored the stingray, which I eventually nicknamed Oreo from its black and white colors. Afterward, I even made up and recorded a song about Oreo my sister happened to save on her phone which still makes me laugh whenever it is played. Anytime we’ve worn clothes that are black with white, spotted polka dots, we still call it the “Oreo pattern”. Throughout my childhood, I loved seeing all the stingrays at aquariums and they were one of my favorite animals. When I was 10, my family and I swam with stingrays in the wild during some cruise excursions in Grand Cayman and The Bahamas.
While still in elementary school, I attended a reunion up in Eden, UT with my mom’s side of the family. We all went to Pineview Reservoir for a day with all my cousins. While there, one of my cousins noticed lots of dead fish in the water and was grossed out by it. I can’t remember where exactly we got it, but my cousin and I found a net, kayaked around the lake, and scooped up all the dead fish with the net. Then we paddled back to the beach and dug a hole in the sand, where we dumped the fish and buried them. A little while later when we left Pineview with our extended family, I rinsed out the sand on my feet at a station next to the parking lot. Without noticing, I was stung by a bee underneath my toe. It was a strange day!
Winston was the dog my family almost bought. Five years ago, a friend of our neighbors was looking for a new home for him, and he was a golden doodle. My sister and I took him for a walk around our neighborhood, and we both loved him. All of us were either at school or work for the bulk of the day, so we decided we shouldn’t keep him because we realized how lonely he would always be.
Last summer, my family and I went on vacation to Florida. One of the days there, we went to Everglades National Park. We participated in an activity where a trainer allowed us and other visitors to hold baby alligators. I held one, and while waiting for the rest of my family to finish, I sat down on a bench. Some time had passed, and I gradually started to zone out. At one point, the trainer approached and told me, “Ma’am, you are staring into the abyss!” And as he said it, he draped a baby alligator named Jellybean over my chest. It surprised me, and my family and I laughed about the sudden moment.
When all is said and done, I have made memories with animals I will always remember. Whether it was feeding giraffes at the zoo, spotting a Brazilian stingray at an aquarium, creating a graveyard for dead fish, walking a dog my family almost bought, and cuddling a baby alligator in Florida! What kinds of animal encounters do you think you may possibly experience in the future?
Sources
https://www.tfhmagazine.com/articles/freshwater/exploring-south-americas-xingu-river
