Yipes! My Stripes!

The Washington Zoo is one of the oldest zoos in the United States and is home to many birds and animals such as big cats, elephants, reptiles, and bears; most notably are the Panda Bears. It was also the home of the original “Smokey the Bear”. It’s a nice place to visit because it doesn’t cost anything to get in and it is open every day of the year except Christmas. Usually nothing very exciting happens there, especially at night when most of the animals are asleep, but here’s a story about a night when something really exciting did happen. At least it seemed pretty exciting to the animals involved and it was extremely distressful for one of the animals there. That would be Benji the Bengal tiger. Now Beji was full grown but not real old. He was really BIG! He weighed nearly 500 pounds and was about 10 feet long. He came to the zoo about 2 years ago, just about the time when Bengal Tigers were put on the endangered species list. This all started on a mild, nearly moonless summer night. Everything seemed peaceful enough. Most of the animals were already asleep, getting ready to strut their stuff the next day when all of the children and grown-up come to see them. Benji himself was all stretched out on his favorite tree limb in a deep, relaxed sleep. But wait. What was that movement over in the shadows? It was barely noticeable because it was very slow and very deliberate. It was impossible to tell just what it was, but it was making its way towards Benji’s tree! The next morning as the sun was coming up, Benji woke up, yawned a big yawn and stretched his long muscular body. The sun felt good on his back and he began to lick himself clean to get ready for the children. But as he began to lick his huge paws, he made a startling discovery. The stripes on his paws were missing! Gone! Frantically Benji began to examine the rest of his body and he soon discovered that ALL of his stripes were gone. How could this happen? Benji was furious and he let out a tremendous roar as only angry tigers can do. It was so loud that it woke all of the other animals who were not awake yet. Sitting high up in a tree sat Coco the Monkey, who, by his very nature, was a very curious creature. When he heard the roar, he recognized it immediately as Benji’s and scampered to Benji’s tree to investigate. When he got there, he was shocked to see an animal that looked a lot like Benji, but it had no stripes at all. “Benji?” he asked. “Is that you?” Benji turned quickly and gave another big roar. Coco knew right away that it was indeed Benji. “Somebody took my stripes while I was asleep”, Benji exclaimed. How can I go out in front of all those kids without my stripes and who would dare take my stripes in the first place?