Yippee and Dino Series- Part 10

Going to the Zoo

It was vacation time in Giant Land .Yippee just simply loved vacations. One could get up late in the morning and have a late breakfast and could take a bath anytime of the day. “Why can’t life be always a vacation?”, thought Yippee. 

Yippee simply hated waking up early every morning and he yearned for the weekends for sleeping till late in the day.

But now there was no need to wait. Vacations were here and every single day he could do just as he pleased. Life could not be more perfect he thought.

So that  morning, a still sleepy eyed Yippee ventured to the kitchen to see if Mamma could give him some breakfast.

“Mom, could you give me some breakfast? All this sleeping has made me very hungry”, said Yippee

Mamma looked at Yippee with a smile and said, “So finally, we get to see you. Your Papa says that during vacations he hardly gets to see you. You are so busy sleeping”

Yippee gave a rather sheepish smile and said, “I know I do get up late every morning since vacation has started but I like it”

“But tomorrow you need to wake up early because we are planning to take you all to the zoo”, said Mamma

“The zoo!  Really? Are we going to go to the zoo?” asked a very excited Dino who had just walked into the kitchen.

“Would I get to see  the T Rex there? Oh! I am already feeling very scared”, cried out Dino.

“Ya Dino you would definitely see T Rex and many more Dinosaurs”, said Mamma

“But we went to the zoo last year too”, said Yippee in a whiny tone

“I want to sleep”

“Okay, fine, all those who want to go to the zoo tomorrow raise your hands”, said Mamma

Dino and Bruno quite promptly raised their hands

Yippee did not have much choice but to raise his as well

Next day was a bright and sunny day. Mamma had a big struggle trying to get Yippee out of his bed. Bruno helped by licking every possible place on Yippee’s face and Dino helped by literally lifting Yippee out of his bed.

Illustration by: Gauri Ghosal 

Finally everyone was ready .Papa was in a very cheerful mood. He loved taking the family to the zoo. Mamma enjoyed making a special picnic basket for the family. Dino was excited at the prospect of seeing a T Rex and Bruno was just plain happy to go out and sniff new and interesting scents and smells.

Yippee seemed to be the odd one out. He was in a very grumpy mood. He had not got his 12 hours of sleep today and he looked accusing at everyone, as they were responsible for breaking his sleep. Especially because at the point that Bruno had woken him up by licking his eyelids, he was actually dreaming of eating a huge bar of chocolate all by himself.

They reached the zoo. Papa bought the tickets and everyone trooped in.

Dino wanted to go and check out the T Rex first. So everyone decided to first move to the T Rex enclosure. Dino went ahead excitedly but suddenly stopped and froze. In front of her was a gigantic creature, which had teeth, which were larger than her!

She quickly moved back and hid behind Yippee. “Yippee you need to save me”, she screamed in terror

Yippee too felt scared. And both of them decided to go and hide behind Papa.

Papa and Mamma found the whole situation quite funny and they could not help laugh at the situation. But they realised how scared both Yippee and Dino were and decided instead to go the Giraffe’s enclosure.

Illustration by :Gauri Ghosal

Bruno just loved looking at the Giraffe. She could not get over how long the Giraffe’s neck was. As for Dino, she immediately felt in love with the baby in the family. Yippee felt that the Giraffe family was okay. He wanted to check out the wilder beasts (as long as they were not a T Rex)

They checked out the lion and the bear and by the time they came to the leopard’s enclosure they all felt hungry and tired.

Papa said, “Lets have a break now.”

Bruno hearing this ran across to the other side excitedly and started barking. “Oh! he has found the perfect spot”, said Dino.

It was indeed a great spot. The grass was thick and soft. A tree gave some shade from the sun and just next to the spot was an ice cream seller with popsicles of all possible flavors.

The family settled in for a leisurely picnic. By the time they had finished it was already evening and time to go.

It was a tired but happy family, which went back home that day. Yippee realised that something’s were worth getting up early in the morning for and he went back home with a smile!