“We need to figure out what to do for his birthday!”
“I don’t know Mom! It’s a month away. How about bowling or a small family birthday party at our house? It does not have to even be big; he’s only turning four.”
My mother, Mia, believes that every birthday that my son has, has to be grand and magnificent. She loves to plan anything, but I think she just loves her first grandson too much. While there’s me, I don’t like planning huge parties or anything extravagant. I just think my son is too young to start remembering things.
“The whole reason I came to your house today was to start planning.”
I gave my mom the biggest eye roll. I started folding the laundry while mindlessly listening to my mother’s babbling. Ethan was happily playing with his figurine tiger, hippo, and giraffe in the next room. A great thought came into my head.
“What if we go to the zoo?” I ask my mom.
“Yes! That’s perfect!” Her eyes lit up and she brought out her planning book and started researching the best zoos near my house.
“We have to keep it a secret though. Ethan cannot find out!”
~
A month later, my mom planned for the most perfect zoo day. I decided, since she loved the planning so much, I would let her control the whole day. She told me she planned for everything: picked the route that we should go throughout the zoo, picked certain shows to see, and what places to eat at for lunch, and she marked out all the restrooms. She could have had a thirty-minute interval schedule with her and I would not be surprised.
The day of our adventures, my husband, Will, packed our backpack full of our jackets, snacks for Ethan and water for all of us. I admire him so much because he also helped me keep this important secret. He wanted to tell Ethan several times because he knew that Ethan would be over-excited. Will even bought him a gorilla toy as a hint, which I did not find amusing. However, I couldn’t stay mad because Will just wanted to see his boy happy. Will kissed me on the cheek as I walked by him to get Ethan. I strapped Ethan into his car seat and allowed him to bring his favorite toys, the animal figurines. I smiled because he did not know that he would have the best day of his life at the zoo.
“It was a great day for the zoo,” I thought to myself. The sun beamed down onto our car. Nothing could ruin this great day. Once we got closer to the zoo, Ethan started to look around. Will followed the zoo signs filled with several animals, directing us to the parking lots. Ethan noticed all the animals that looked like his toys and started to wiggle excitedly in his seat. The joy on his face when we drove into the parking lot already made my whole day. I took out my phone and captured the moment.
We met up with my mother, who was also very happy to see Ethan’s smile. She also had a large backpack full of Ethan’s favorite snacks even though I told her multiple times that Will already had that covered. We got to the front gates and started to follow my mother’s plan of action.
Ethan was very excited to see all of his favorite toys come alive. We went to see the gorillas, giraffes, monkeys and the reptiles. He pointed at every animal he saw to make sure we were also seeing what he was admiring. My mom wanted a photo of Ethan next to every single animal that we visited, even the squirrels running around the zoo.
“Mom, we don’t need to take a photo of Ethan next to every animal.” I said.
“He’s just very happy! I want to keep these moments forever.” She answered.
“You can’t argue with that!” Will laughed. We both smiled at each other because it was great seeing Ethan very happy on his birthday.
~
We got to the kangaroo exhibit. Ethan laughed at the kangaroos jumping around in their habitat. He pointed out the babies. When looking over to make sure we saw the kangaroos, he saw the artwork for his favorite animal, the tigers. He ran. With my motherly instincts, I ran after him.
“Mommy! Tigers!” Ethan excitedly states. Will and my mother caught up to where Ethan stopped running. I made sure that Ethan did not run in the zoo. I noticed Will looking around the exhibit.
“Where are the tigers?” Will questioned.
I looked up, I saw no tigers in the exhibit. “Maybe they’re behind the rocks sleeping?”
I started to notice that no one was near this exhibit. I wondered if it was a vacant habitat. Then I saw people walking fast towards our family. The zoo visitors seemed scared and on edge. Suddenly, I started to hear some alarms. My mother started to panic, hearing alarms on our perfect day was not on her schedule.
“ATTENTION EVERYONE. THE BENGAL TIGERS HAVE GOTTEN LOOSE. DO NOT PANIC WE ARE TRYING TO SECURE THEM RIGHT NOW.”
I looked at my mom and Will with a panicked look in which they exchanged the same expression. We did not heed the warning of staying calm. Will grabbed Ethan by the hand to make sure he would not run. Ethan looked very confused about why he could not see his favorite animal. I saw a couple of officials running towards where they thought the tigers were. They were all mumbling on walkie talkies. An official zoo lady walks past us and exclaims that all the people near the tiger exhibit should seek shelter. While trying to follow the lady to safety, we see the tigers that the officials were trying to catch.
“Mommy! Tigers!” He got out of Will’s grip and started running towards the tigers that were loose. Will, my mother and I all run after him and notice that the tigers were very close to Ethan. The lady corralling everyone told us not to go near Ethan. I realized that they probably did not want to be accounted for more people’s injuries.
“Ethan! Get back here! Don’t go close!” I scream.
Zoo officials hustled to the scene and noticed that a young child was near the tigers. In which they stayed calm, but hurriedly got towards the tigers with different meats to tempt them. They used different tricks to get the tigers away from Ethan but did not succeed. The tigers were not bothered by the zoo officials trying to grab their attention. The tigers stopped walking, but Ethan did not. One of the tigers growled and bared its teeth. I looked towards my mother and noticed that tears were falling from her face. Ethan extended his hand while still walking towards the large tigers. My heart was pounding so much I could not hear my own thoughts. One zoo official made a quick decision to run in between Ethan and the tigers. He had a large piece of meat to tempt the tigers to move away from Ethan. He looked back and noticed that we were Ethan’s family. He promptly gestured to get Ethan so Will ran and got Ethan’s hand and took him over to me. The zoo official gave meats to the tigers and his coworkers helped with corralling them back to their exhibit. The tigers’ mouths started watering and opened their mouths to eat the meat before the other zoo officials lead them back to their habitat. We stood in silence until we were notified that the tigers were back.
“ATTENTION EVERYONE: THE TIGER CRISIS HAS BEEN SUCCESSFULLY HANDLED.”
I sigh of relief and look over to Will taking Ethan off of his shoulders.
“What did we tell you about running? Do not run when we are in public places.” Will scolded Ethan.
“I am glad you are safe but do not ever do that again!” I say to Ethan and getting to his height to hug him.
“But I wanted to see the tigers!” Ethan pouted. He had no sense of what just happened.
We strolled back over to the tiger exhibit since we knew it was safe again. I looked around for Ethan’s savior to tell him thank you but I could not find him. Ethan pointed out the same tigers he was near like we could not see them back in their exhibit. My mother took his hand but also took a photo of him watching the animals like she did earlier.
My mom, Will, and I all took turns holding Ethan’s hand for the rest of the time we were at the zoo so he would not run off again. Our family decided to finish our zoo day off with a couple shows, food and walking around the gift shop.
~
When walking back to the car, I saw Ethan asleep on Will’s shoulder. I smiled and told Will that I am glad that Ethan did not get hurt, and besides the stressful encounters of the tigers, we had a good day. Will agreed. We strapped Ethan in his car seat together. I put our souvenir bag next to him, which was filled with another animal figure and a tiger shirt, to remember Ethan’s fourth birthday. Although Ethan will only have a shirt to tell him he went face to face with tigers, I will always remember the panic of Ethan meeting his favorite animal.