The Zebra, The Tiger, and a Very Naughty Monkey

The Tiger

The leopards had obviously decided that being on show for the public for the entire day was a little beyond the terms and conditions of their contract, so after five minutes of Charlotte peering unsuccessfully trying to find the leopards who had taken up a position out of human gaze, both father and daughter gave up and decided ice-cream a far better option than leopards.

As Charlotte sat with her oversized cone licking the ice-cream which had already started dripping onto her fingers in the couple of minutes she had been handed it, Jason could only sit and watch in awe at his daughter's refined skill of managing to get more of the ice-cream on her face than actually in her mouth. She sat in silence, single-minded in her mission as her concentration was needed for the devourment of her treat, but every so often she would look back at her father and beam with satisfying happiness.

"What would you like to see next Charlotte?" He asked just before a large drip fell from her cone onto her summer dress, at which point she glanced at him with wide-eyed surprise.

"Its fine, Charlotte, wet wipes will clean you up." He responded to her guilty glance, to which she then giggled at being able to get away with such mess and continued to tuck into her treat taking big long sweeps with her tongue around the entire cone.

"Charlotte, can I just say your tongue is as nearly as long as that giraffe's!" Jason observed teasingly and she giggled once again looking back at her father with an air of satisfaction which only ice-cream could bring to a four-year-old.

"Don't be silly daddy, I can't get my tongue up my nose!" She said and to demonstrate the point with half her mouth full and drips of ice cream falling from her chin she attempted to poke her tongue unsuccessfully up one of her nostrils which only had the effect of making her face even messier than it already was.

"So, what shall we go and see next?" Jason repeated, shaking his head in mock disappointment and bringing the conversation back to his original question. She pondered the question as the last of the ice-cream was successfully negotiated into her mouth.

"Hmm... what would you like to see daddy?" She returned his question with another, which Jason interpreted immediately as a clever ploy of his daughter's. It usually meant she already had something on her mind and was trying to butter him up for later on. In this case, no doubt for when they arrived at the exit and gift shop which she had already eyed with beady keenness as they had entered the zoo.

"Well...," Jason responded, "I really like tigers. Shall we go and see them?"

Charlotte stared back at him as her face changed instantly from happiness to one of concern.

"I'm not sure if I want to see Shere Khan," she stated referring to the Jungle Book character, he is very nasty."

"You are right, Shere Khan is very nasty, but they don't have Shere Khan here. They only have nice tigers. Anyway, if you wish I will be your Baloo and protect you."

With this, she laughed at the thought of her father 'looking under rocks and plants' to 'glance at 'fancy ants' and nodded her head in approval at her father's suggestion.

It took Charlotte only another five minutes to consume the remainder of the cone leaving only sticky fingers and a large mess for Jason to clear up using an abundance of wet wipes in order to return his daughter to at least some resemblance of respectability. Once he was satisfied that he had got the majority of the mess they started to make their way to the tigers' enclosure.

∞

It was only a short walk from the café to the enclosure, but even before their arrival one of the tigers was making its presence known by every so often letting out a roar that managed to drown out all the efforts of all the other animals about.