A Dream and a Giraffe

Two years ago, Animal Adventure Park near Harpursville, New York had a pregnant giraffe by the name of April.  Wanting to keep their fans updated as to the progress of her pregnancy, they installed a web cam in her stall.

Internet lightning struck.  April, as they like to say, went viral, and hundreds of thousands of people watched April give birth in - of course - April, of 2017.

It was a bit of a rocky road, this event that took everyone by surprise.  There are many people who oppose the concept of zoos.  But millions of others took April, Oliver, and the eventual baby - Tajiri - into their hearts.

Putting things in perspective - yes, April is that big

 I, so fortunate because I live only about 20 minutes away from Harpursville, was one of them. 

I even visited April, Oliver and Tajiri later that year.  But then, other things took precedence in my life.  April became a distant memory.

Life went on at Animal Adventure Park, though, and, with about 304,000 other people yesterday, April gave birth to a baby boy yesterday.  The labor was uneventful and mother and little baby giraffe boy bonded quickly.

So why should this matter?

Because the owner of Animal Adventure, Jordan Patch, was not an overnight success.  He started out with a dream and a camel by the name of Maxx.  This isn't Maxx, by the way - he died (from old age) a couple of weeks before my spouse and I visited.

When the Internet chose April to go viral, Jordan Patch saw an opportunity to help save the world's giraffes.  Giraffes are vulnerable to extinction.  Several species (yes, there is more than one giraffe species) have already gone extinct.  He used the publicity to raise money and awareness.

He has also raised awareness of the world of special needs (as my regular readers know, I have an autistic brother in law) through his young daughter, Ava.and their charity, Ava's Little Heroes.

In a perfect world, no animal should have to live in captivity and have their births live streamed on You Tube.  The animals at Animal Adventure, yes, should be roaming wild in a world where they never have to worry about climate change, or poachers or encroachment of humans on their territories.  But that is not our world.

I hope that one day, it can be.