Anna Wombat

Hello, my name is Anna Wombat! I live at the zoo with my mama and daddy wombat. My best friends are Timmy Tortoise and Katie Koala. There was a time when I loved being here but I don’t anymore, since Luna Kangaroo came to live here. Ever since she moved in, nothing has been the same. I remember the first day she arrived here; I was so excited meeting someone new; someone who was a little bit like me. You see, kangaroos and wombats are both marsupials, so we are known for carrying babies in our pouches. Some of the other animals here think that is strange. Anyway, I tried to introduce myself to her, so I said, “Hi, I am Anna. It is very nice to meet you. What is your name?” and she said to me, “Do not talk to me, wombat. Do you not see that I am a kangaroo? Surely, you know kangaroos are the best of all marsupials and we do not like to be seen with anyone who is not as special as us and wombats certainly are not. Please go away now.” Can you believe that? Who did she think she was on her two legs she could only hop on? I tried not to show how angry I was so I just walked away. I thought that would be the end of it but of course it wasn’t. As soon as she got here she started making friends easily, telling them about all of her adventures and when she had the animals hooked, she would tell them they could be cool too by only hanging out with kangaroos, because they are the best, and it worked! Soon, all my friends like Mike Monkey, Tilly Tiger, and Lily Lion stopped talking to me and would give me very mean looks when they would pass by me. One day Mike Monkey’s cousin Mitch got very sick and there was nothing that could be done, but not even that tragedy stopped Luna’s madness. Even when the monkey died, they never invited me around! I didn’t even get to go to his funeral. I was very lonely and I didn’t understand why my friends were being so mean to me. Then, one day when I was sitting alone, Timmy Tortoise crept up to me and asked what was wrong. I was surprised because Timmy had never spoken to me before, but he said “Well, I am a tortoise and everyone is faster than me, so it’s hard for me to speak to anyone. They are always moving too fast. It is rather lonely, actually.” I told him, “I had no idea you were trying to. I am so sorry; I will slow down from now on and listen to you.” Timmy was very grateful and soon we were going everywhere very slowly together. A few days later Timmy and I were walking along when we noticed Katie Koala and it looked like she was crying. I asked her what was wrong and she said, “Because I sleep so much of the day, no one notices me. I know I am only awake 2 hours but it would be nice to have a friend to play with during that time!” I said, “Well, why don’t you come and play with us? Timmy didn’t have friends because no one had enough time to stop and wait for him to talk and I didn’t have any friends because Luna Kangaroo made all the other animals believe I was a bad marsupial, so they weren’t really my friends anyway. You can join us and we can wait for you to wake up so we can all play together!” Katie was very happy to join us and soon we were all the best of friends. Sometimes, you have to slow down and wait or you will be missing out on the best friends of all and I love living at the zoo again!

Erica Birchmore
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