“Sir, would you like to buy a cookie? It’s only a dollar each. Every single dollar will be donated to the zoo in its efforts to save endangered animals.” I said politely to the tourist. It was the school holiday and my school had selected a few pupils, including me to take part in the animal fund raising programme. The first few days went pretty well, so I predicted that everything would go well that day. But I was wrong. It was a disaster.
After what seemed like an eternity, I almost finished my share of work. Putting a bright smile on my face, I continued selling the remaining cookies. “Sir, would you………” before I could finish my sentence, a high-pitched screams echoed the Zoo. It sent shivers down my spine. Suddenly, I felt a pat on my shoulder, I turned around only finding my friend, Fredrick, panting with exhaustion. He opened his mouth and in between heavy pants, he said,” A jaguar has escaped from its enclosure. It’s heading this way”.
I stood rooted to the ground, utterly shocked. My jaw hanged from my skull. After I regained control over my body, many tourists and visitors were running away as quickly as possible towards the exit. Before I knew it, the jaguar was in sight. The zookeepers were already putting up blockades to block the jaguar from going any further and some carried rifles and surrounded the blockades before shooting at the jaguar with tranquilizer darts.
Although the jaguar had a very slender body with biceps bulging from it front arms, the hail of darts were too much for it to take. No longer than a minute, the jaguar lay onto the floor motionless, in deep sleep.
The jaguar was placed on a truck in a cage. I wanted to continue watching the truck thinking where they might send the jaguar to. But it had turned around the bend and was no longer in sight.
The next day, the incident had already made headlines” Jaguar escapes at S’pore Zoo, visitors evacuated”. I started to ponder, how it came out. The incident remained a mystery but still if there was anyone who caused such trouble, the person ought to pay the price.
However, the news stated that the jaguar was being provoked by some visitors. It got angry and broke through the glass enclosure. This created havoc to the other tourists and visitors. The enclosure had been cordoned off to all visitors and tourists and the jaguar was put in a special cage and under close watch.
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by Bryan Jun08
