Gentle Giants

Slowly and silently gliding through the water, the majestic creatures hypnotized me.  My hands and face pressed up against the glass of the aquarium tank, and my gaze fixed on the gentle giants.  I was just three months old, when my mother and grandparents took me to the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium.  Swaddled in my mother’s baby bjorn, I kicked my legs with excitement as I watched the manatees swimming in their enclosure.  Every time my mother attempted to walk away, I would scream until I could see the manatees once again.  Little did they know, this would be the beginning of a life-long passion of mine.  My grandfather bought me a stuffed manatee from the zoo gift shop.  Once I got home from the zoo, my mother laid the manatee on the ground next to me, and I immediately rolled over, grabbed it, and fell asleep.  From that moment on, she has been by my side.  My parents thought I would lose interest in the manatee after a couple of hours, just like all of my other stuffed animals; however I did not. In fact, from that day, I haven’t gone to sleep without her.  Too many times in the washing machine caused her eye to fall out.  A little superglue did the trick, and it remains in tact to this day.  After two years, the manatee’s fur began to wear thin from too many hugs, and my parents feared that it would be destroyed, so they asked my grandfather to buy me a backup manatee, just in case.  My parents hid it in the closet, but one day, I bounded down the stairs beaming with excitement with one stuffed manatee in each arm and I shouted “TWO manatees!”   My parents sighed and shook their heads, but could only smile.  When I was old enough to walk, I would carry her around on my head, like a coonskin cap.  Ultimately, when it was time for me to start preschool, my parents convinced me that she was agoraphobic, so I wouldn’t insist on bringing her to school.  Since then, I have added twelve more stuffed manatees to my collection.  I have been fortunate enough to experience real-life encounters with the manatees.  When I was seven years old, I had the opportunity to swim with the manatees in the Crystal River.  Although it took almost two hours to find one, it was worth the wait because I swam with a mother and her calf-- a once-in-a-lifetime experience.  I returned to the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium when I was ten years old, and stood in the very spot I stood when I first saw a manatee.   When I was eleven years old I had the privilege of participating in a behind-the-scenes encounter at Tampa’s Lowry Park Zoo, and saw the manatee rescue and rehabilitation tanks.  I fed the manatees lettuce and cabbage and watched one of the employees feed a baby by a bottle.  Every year, I visit my grandfather in Florida, and I wait in anticipation for another opportunity to be reunited with my beloved manatees.