Saturday, March 22, 2014

Giraffe's gesture

When I was a child, I woke up from a dream complaining that a giraffe was licking my toes and tickling them. What you see here is a giraffe nuzzling a dying man. Mario, a 54-year-old mentally disabled maintenance man, had worked at the Diergaarde Blijdorp Zoo in Rotterdam for almost 25 years. Volunteers at the Ambulance Wish Foundation transport terminally ill patients in specially designed ambulances to allow them to carry out their last wishes. While many choose to go to the beach for the last time (VIDEO HERE), Mario wanted to say goodbye to his colleagues and the animals he had cared for at the zoo. At his request, he was wheeled into the giraffe enclosure and within minutes was being approached and kissed by the animals. AWF founder Kees Veldboer and staff noted Mario's difficulty speaking: "However, his face spoke volumes....You saw him beaming."

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