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Owen

by Ripley

Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Owen_and_Mzee)
Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Owen_and_Mzee)

Owen is my hero because he shows how even though they are different there can still be friends between Owen the hippo and Mzee the 130 year old tortoise. Here's the story. In Kenya when Owen was a baby his pod lived in the village of Malindi. The villagers were furious but the villagers could not do anything about it because of the hippos' strong jaws and massive size. The morning of December 26, 2004 a powerful tsunami pounded on the shore. Hippos washed into the river. But leaving one survivor, Owen.

Owen was only a baby, about 2 feet tall and 600 pounds. Lots of villagers tried to help Owen but he was heavy and slippery and since he was a baby he was very scared. Then a courageous visitor named Owen Sobien tackled Owen (the hippo). They named the hippo Owen honoring the brave man. Once the village got Owen on the beach Stephen Tuei from Haller  Park helped the people put Owen in the back of a truck to go to Haller Park. When they got to Haller Park, the Park men worried where Owen should go because the hippos might not like Owen because he was from a different pod, so they put Owen in a enclosure called a boma.

In the boma lived monkeys and Aldabra tortoises,and one was Mzee. Owen immediately liked Mzee so he followed him but Mzee just walked away. The next morning Owen and Mzee were cuddled up together. No one knew they would become friends especially that quickly. People thought Owen would realize Mzee was a tortoise not his mother. During the first days caretakers worried Owen wasn't eating the leaves Stephen Tuei left out. Owen was still a baby so he could not eat the leaves. Luckily Mzee taught Owen how to eat leaves. Soon Owen was eating leaves like it was nothing. 

Owen followed Mzee everywhere. If Owen wanted Mzee to go right, Owen gently bit Mzee's right leg. And if Owen wanted Mzee to go left he gently bit Mzee's left leg. The longest time Owen was away from Mzee was when Mzee had a gigantic crack in his shell, Mzee was out of the boma for a week because they thought Owen would accidentally break it more. In the meantime Owen found another younger Aldabra tortoise Toto.

As things went on in the boma Owen grew bigger, and bigger. Soon the managers became scared Owen would get more rough on Mzee so they sent him to a different cage with another hippo. In fact it was also an orphan she was rescued as an orphaned baby. Her name was Cleopatra and for short Cleo. At first Cleo and Owen stayed away from each other. The managers thought Owen was going to miss Mzee because he was with him most of his life. Owen was mostly mixed up because  he was living with a tortoise for most of his life. But soon Cleo and Owen were friends and Owen was on a hippo schedule. The two hippos lived happily.

Owen is my hero because he shows a language of friendship, and he shows that even though you are different you can still be friends. Owen was not always perfect. He always got up to play while the other hippos usually went to rest. I think there are so many stories about Owen because people want to remember the friendship between two very different animals.

Owen is my hero.

Page created on 6/6/2017 12:00:00 AM

Last edited 6/6/2017 12:00:00 AM

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