Let me set the scene for you. It was a warm morning in mid-June 2006. The sun was shining and the birds were chirping. It was the perfect day for a trip to Brookfield Zoo with my family. At the time, I was six years old. My favorite things in the world consisted of cute animals, sugar, being outside, and reading books about meerkats. I'll flat out say it when I was a kid; I was the biggest spaz. Not only did I lose everything, but I also broke a lot of things (including many bones). At the end of May, my parents gifted me a 101 Dalmatians hat for my birthday as well as for becoming more organized. Needless to say, this hat meant a lot to me, and I hadn't taken if off since I first gotten it. Little did I know that this hat would mean the difference between me having the best or possibly the worst day for me, the small spazzy six-year-old.
I tightened the velcro on my light-up sketchers and sprinted out the front door to my mom's blue minivan (RIP Big Blue). I sat in the car anxiously awaiting for my younger brother and sister to join me in the back. A few minutes later, I saw the rest of my family walk out the front door and approach the car with the speed of four tortoises. After about 5 minutes of arguing about what radio station to play, we were finally on the road. 45 minute later, we finally arrived. As soon as we parked, I flew out of the car and smoothed out the wrinkles on my sky blue tank top, readjusted my 101 Dalmatians hat, and placed my hands on my hips like I had just told somebody off; I was so ready for the day ahead of me.
The exhibit I was most excited to see was the meerkats. For my birthday, my mom, who also loved animals, gave me a book about meerkats for my birthday. Ever since then, I had been obsessed with them. I constantly was telling people random unsolicited meerkat facts. Before we hit the meerkat exhibit, we went to see the bears, monkeys, and seals. Lunch was next, but I was so excited that I could barely touch my dad's world famous peanut butter and jelly sandwich he made for my siblings and me on this special day, which says a lot.
Finally, the time had come to go see the meerkats. I hopped on my dad's shoulders, impulsively readjusted my hat, and we walked over to the meerkat exhibit. When the entrance was in sight, I slid off my dad's back and sprinted to the door, holding my hands on my head so my hat wouldn't fall off. The rest of my family was about 25 feet behind me, so I started frantically motioning for them to hurry up. Once they reached the door, I grabbed my mom and dad's hands and dragged them with what probably felt like the strength of a thousand men over to the area the meerkats were in. I was face to face with the meerkats now, and the only thing separating the meerkats and me was the glass barrier. To get a better look, I took off my hat because if we're being honest, it was way too big for me. Taking it off was my first mistake. I started to get excited and began to throw my hands in the air and I was pointing out the different meerkats to my mom and dad. At this point, I began to recite facts to them about the animals because I had read my meerkat book at least a hundred times. My brother and sister were intensively listening to everything I was saying; I felt like I was an expert tour guide. I started to get carried away and began to toss around my hat with my sister, while my brother watched and made a game about it. My mom started to get annoyed and told me, "Hannah, if you're not careful, your hat is going to fall in!" I laughed and fake threw it in. Despite my mother's request, I threw the hat in the air one more time. This time, though, it was different. When I threw the hat up, I threw it too far forward which caused the hat to fall into the exhibit amongst the meerkats. I will never forget watching the hat drop in the middle of four meerkats. My brother gasped loudly, my sister put her hands over her mouth, everyone around me gathered around the exhibit waiting to see how this was going to unfold, and I watched in pure agony as all the other meerkats started to gather around the hat. The meerkats were so confused; they were sniffing and staring at the hat because it was unlike anything they had ever seen before. I looked around frantically, hoping someone would know what to do. My parents looked at me with their jaws on the floor. My dad quickly found a worker and explained what just happened. The worker laughed for a good minute and then went to go grab something to go save my poor hat. I was crying, and my hands and face were pressed against the glass as the meerkats were studying my hat. My brother and sister were on the floor dying of laughter, and everyone else was waiting to see what he was going to come back with. The worker came back with I kid you not, a giant net that looked like the fishing one from Finding Nemo to scoop out my hat. With one swift motion, he scooped up my hat and placed it carefully in a plastic bag. Everyone that was there started clapping and cheering; I was cheering the loudest of course. He then instructed me to wash the hat very thoroughly before I put it back on or touched it. I clutched the plastic bag to my chest like I was holding a precious newborn baby.
After the hat fiasco, we decided to call it a day. My whole family was pretty annoyed with me, but at the same time, they thought it was the funniest thing ever. On the way home, my mom told me I fell asleep with the plastic bag clutched to my chest. As soon as we got back to my house, we threw the hat in the washer and wrote a thank you email to Brookfield Zoo. The subject line was, "Kid whose hat you rescued from the meerkat exhibit expresses her gratitude." Still, to this day, I have the 101 Dalmatians hat that's been touched by meerkats, and that's pretty remarkable because I lose just about everything. One good thing to come out of this whole situation is that I'm famous amongst the meerkats. Instead of being the small spazzy 6 year old, I'm now the short spazzy 18 year old.
