Valentines From The Zoo

My friend has been feeling down lately. Do you have any Valentine’s Day surprise ideas to help cheer him up?

—Buddy in Bangalore

- Lissa Rovetch

Dear Buddy,

First, I have to say that your friend is really lucky to have you as a friend. I mean, seriously! I’m extremely grateful when someone looks out for my feelings like that. Second, I just might have a pretty good valentine idea. I’m not positive your friend will like it, but I know it helped my grandmother when she wasn’t feeling her best.

You see, Gran came down with a terrible cold when she was traveling from Colorado to my family’s house in California, and she wasn’t up to going out at all. That was sad because my grandparents had been planning to take my little brother and sister and me to the zoo for Valentine’s Day, and my grandmother had been especially looking forward to it.

“Can’t you pleeease come with us?” begged Indi.

“What if I gave my cold to the animals, and they all started sneezing?” Gran giggled.

“Well, an elephant sneezing would be a sight to see!” my grandfather said, making his arm into a trunk and blurting out a funny trumpeting sound that ended in a gigantic sneeze.

“Good one, Poppy!” Tex laughed. “That elephant would need a jumbo box of tissues.”