Don't Drop Bongo Down There, Grandpa!

Earlier in December Matthew's Grandpa and I took Matthew to the Houston Zoo. I took the day off and it was a beautiful afternoon. Matthew took his beloved Bongo, his stuffed monkey, to the zoo with him. One of the first exhibits we visited was the elephant exhibit. Matthew was on my shoulders and Grandpa was trying to take a photo of us while holding Bongo for Matthew. While trying to take the photo Grandpa accidentally dropped Bongo into the outer elephant enclosure. This was the fenced in area around the elephant cage. Fortunately there was also an inner enclosure for the elephants. Neither Grandpa or myself had long enough arms to get Bongo. Our rescue mission involved lowering Matthew into the elephant enclosure by his ankles so that Matthew could grab Bongo. All went as planned and Bongo was safe in Matthew's arms again. It went so well that it seemed that Matthew thought nothing of this "added adventure".

However, later the same day we were looking at the bear exhibit. This enclosure had a 12 foot ditch on the other side of the fence. Matthew looked down the ditch and then said very clearly, "Grandpa, don't drop Bongo down there!" Feeding off the laughs that he got, Matthew then said the same thing at every new exhibit. Grandpa and I had a topic of discussion at each new exhibit: How would we get Bongo out of that exhibit?


On the same day of the Bongo rescue mission we visited the African Forest the new exhibit at the Houston Zoo. Matthew got to feed the giraffes.

Here is footage of the Bongo rescue. Pay no mind to the finger in the video.