Ode To A Gentle Giant

Even though I moved almost a year ago, I still keep up with some of the happenings around the Q. Every few days I'll check the news websites and whatnot, just to see what's up. It's pretty interesting to me to see the contrast between the types of news that gets reported in NM versus SLC.

I was perusing the usual channels when I came upon this story.

http://www.kob.com/article/stories/S1481058.shtml?cat=516

To say the very least, I was appalled. I can't even imagine how desensitized a person has to be at their job to do such a thing to any animal, let alone magnificent creature like a GIRAFFE!!

The reason I bring this up is that, just before Em and I moved our little family up to Utah, My family took a nice outing to the zoo. I took a couple hundred pictures (literally), and a good 40 to 50 of those were of Kashka and her 2 DAY old calf. She was calm but protective of her little one, and at the same time she seemed proud to show off her progeny. She was captivating.

There was something that seemed to connect me to her, as I had witnessed the birth of Henry only 3 weeks earlier. Something inside me seemed to feel like she knew I was in the same boat, looking out for my little one as he was learning the ways of this new existence.

When I read the article this morning I knew right away that it was her. I looked up my photos to check, and yes, those were the same markings. I wanted to cry. She was one of the most beautiful creatures on the planet and someone was so wrapped up in taking the short route to get done with his day that he desecrated her body for the sake of saving himself a bit of time.

I know she was already gone, but what does this say about how this person cares for the living animals in his charge? I know this is an isolated incident. I've met many of the zookeepers there and they are almost as passionate about the animals as they are about their own children.

Kashka was a great being and I know this world was made better by her being in it.