Zippy the Zebra

Zippy the Zebra: Zippy Earns His Stripes

In the wild of Africa lives a Zebra. This Zebra is graceful, beautiful, and has the most glorious stripes. Although, this Zebra is now a mother, because she just birthed a half dozen Zebra foals. They are cute, and cuddly, and their mother is very protective of them. The sun rises over them, and the babies squint, unable to open their little baby Zebra eyes, because the sun is so bright. As with most groups of newborn baby Zebras, they range in size. However, one of the babies is the smallest of them. This one baby Zebra is named Zippy. He is his mother’s favorite. Zippy is unique, as his mother noticed he was born without his stripes.

This is most unusual for a foal. As a result, Zippy’s siblings often made fun of him as they were growing up. “You aren’t a Zebra, Zebra’s have stripes! Your’e just a horse, and you’ll always be a horse!” his siblings taunted. “You’re just jealous because I am mother’s favorite!” Zippy yelled back. “Are not!” cried his siblings. “Are too!” cried Zippy. “Children!” their mother interjected, “Stop picking on Zippy! Just because he doesn’t have his stripes doesn’t make him any less of a Zebra than you or me. He will get his stripes.” “Yeah, right!” taunted his brothers and sisters, as they ran off to play by the watering hole.

As he was excluded by his brothers and sisters merriment, Zippy started to cry. “I’ll never get my stripes, will I mother?” Zippy worried. Comforting her baby, the mother Zebra assured him, “You will get your stripes sweetheart. Believe it or not, your own mother was also. born without stripes. But, I’ll tell you what.” “What?” interrupted Zippy, “That just makes us special!” Zippy’s mother said. Whenever Zippy’s brothers and sisters went outside to play, they told him not to follow them, as they did not want to play with him since he hadn’t been born with stripes. This made Zippy really sad, as he didn’t feel he fit in with his family. One day, his brothers and sisters went outside to play, and they didn’t tell him not to come.

So, he decided to join them. As they frolicked around the watering hole with their other animal friends, they noticed Zippy running towards them from a distance. “Oh great!” they muttered, “Here comes Zippy!” “Hi guys,” said Zippy, “What are you playing?” Not wanting their brother to spoil their fun, Zippy’s brothers and sisters decided to trick him. ‘We’re playing a new game, called Stampede! Do you want to play with us?” They asked him, knowing he was too young, and foolish to see that they were playing a trick on him.” “Sure!” uttered an excited Zippy. So, Zippy’s brothers and sisters explained him the object of the game. “So, I just run around all scared, and you trample me like a stampede?” Asked Zippy, making sure he understood.

“Yes, that’s right,” they all nodded in agreement. “Sounds like fun!” he replied. Everyone joined in on the fun, and things were going surprisingly well. Then, all of a sudden, Zippy’s siblings stopped, paralyzed with fear. They saw a pride of Lions show up by the watering hole. “We’re hungry,” growled the Lions, “What is this I see? I see a smorgasbord of delicious animals!” Scared out of their minds, Zippy, his siblings, and the other animals cowered in fear, as they worried they were on the menu, and soon to be a Lion’s lunch. Zippy was tired of being pushed around because of his size. He mustered up the courage and confronted the Lions. “You don’t want to eat us, we are just children, with little meat and mostly bone,” cried Zippy.

This made the Lion laugh in amusement at this outrageous little Zebra. “There are more than a dozen of you. That’s plenty to feed my pride and I.” “NO, REALLY!” cried Zippy, because at this point, he was really scared. “There’s a plump family of Warthogs behind that nearby rock!” After thinking about it a little more, the Lions realized how hungry they were for Warthog. “Fine, continue your game, and we will feast elsewhere.” Zippy let out a huge sigh of relief. “Wow!” exclaimed an Ostrich, “That was really brave, you all are so lucky to have such a brave brother,” she said to Zippy’s siblings. Upon realizing they were not very nice to their little brother, the siblings remarked, “Thank you for saving us, Zippy, you were very courageous!” “It was nothing,” he replied modestly. Suddenly, Zippy’s siblings and the other animals looked at him with looks of surprise. “What is it?” questioned Zippy. “You’ve gotten your stripes!” Zippy shrugged it off in disbelief. But, after he looked at his reflection of the shine of the watering hole, he smiled at what he saw. Zippy and all the animals cheered, as Zippy had now become the Zebra he always knew he was deep down.

The End