I first saw Guy the Gorilla with my parents at London Zoo in about 1953. I recall nothing of the journey or any other animals I just remember people being in front of us and my dad lifting me up so that I could see Guy clearly - and his eyes looked into mine...
The next time I went back to the Zoo was in 1978 when we took our son about 6 months after he came out of hospital following his first brain tumour surgery. Matthew wasn't really interested in the animals and gave more attention to the chains and padlocks surrounding each enclosure.
I hated the zoo and was particularly disturbed by the polar bears who were pacing and behaving in a bizarre manner in their tiny enclosure.
I wanted Matthew to see Guy - but also dreaded it... When we arrived at his (small) cage I felt overwhelmingly sad... Those same expressive eyes and an awareness of his resignation of being in captivity. It was a very hot day and people were throwing him ice lollies to eat.
Sitting in the corner of his cage he carefully and delicately took the wrappers off with his immense hands and with obvious relish enjoyed every one of them.
The hopelessness of his situation was awful - a crowd puller he may have been - but at what price?
Probably it was people's kindness that hastened his end though, as a few weeks later, he died of a heart attack during an operation to tackle his infected teeth.
Probably animals in captivity are cared for far better these days, but I have never been to a zoo again.
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