Special thanks to my peers and instructors in Project

Dragonfly and the amazing staff at the Cheetah

Conservation Fund for inspiring this work! ~ S.C.

Tia peered out the window and watched for her Papa to pull in the driveway. Today, he was taking her to the zoo! She was so excited that she ran out to the car as he pulled in the driveway. “Excited to go to the zoo, I see?” Papa chuckled.

“Where do you want to go first?” Papa asked her. “I want to go to the Africa section,” Tia squealed. “I want to see the elephants, and the rhinos, and the giraffes, and the cheetahs, and... just everything!”

African Elephant

Loxodonta africana

“Papa, where are all the animals?” Tia asked.

“Well, sweetie, some of the animals that you wanted to see were endangered, and people didn’t do enough to save them, so they went extinct. We just have to learn about them other ways,” said Papa.

She was so sad that many animals had disappeared, and people hadn’t helped. 

When they got to the zoo, she pulled her Papa toward the elephant exhibit and peered over the fence. But, nothing was there except a sign talking about elephants. And, it was the same at each exhibit they went to. No elephants. No rhinos. No giraffes. And no cheetahs. Just signs. It was like a museum instead of a zoo.

That night, Tia wished with all her might for a way to help the animals.

The next morning when she looked at her phone, a strange new app appeared. She clicked on the Time Travel icon, and it asked her to type in a year.

“Let’s try 2019,” she said, and

suddenly she vanished from her room.

Tia looked around. This was very different than what she was used to. Dry and dusty with thornbushes all around and not a cloud in the sky. “Where am I?” she whispered. There was a rustling in the bushes nearby, and she took a deep breath. She had no idea what was on the other side of that noise.

A baby cheetah peeked out through the thick bush. "You're in Namibia!" he said. "And my name's, Iggy. Welcome to my home!"

Tia was glad to see such a friendly face. Iggy seemed nice, and she was hoping maybe he could help her understand how the animals disappeared. “Iggy, what is happening to all of the animals?”

“Well, it’s really hard to be an animal now days,” said Iggy. “Let me show you!”

"We have less and less land to live on. Humans keep building more things, so all the space we used to have is being taken away."

"Some animals have to move to find water and food, but there are so many fences and towns that we don’t have a clear path to move around. So sometimes we get closer to humans than we should. People get mad if we drink their water, knock down fences, or eat from their farms. But instead of learning to share the land, sometimes they just hurt us."

"Some animals get poached because of their horns and tusks. Humans sell them illegally for lots of money."

"Some animals get taken and turned into pets even though they are wild and don’t make good pets."

"And there are changes to the water and air because of litter and pollution. It’s making our climate change. One way we see that is in our weather. We haven’t had rain here in more than a year, so the drought makes it even harder to live," said Iggy.