Yes, I was having some dry humour towards you. I do know what it is to get in a room and panic though.
I truly enjoyed this dolphin video. My daughter and I are fond of dolphins because whe had special memories and encounters. Two small spotted dolphins worked with her 3 years in a row. They chose who they work with, one cannot force them. Both dolphins wanted to work with my daugher and were competing for her.
Daphne was chosen over by the staff on the first summer. My daughter got very attached to her. As she says, Daphne was my first friend. And it really was.
On the second year, Daphne chosed her to work with, and when we were there, the veterinarian tought Daphne was sick and would not let her work. Daphne had been with my daughter in the morning and was fine, then in the afternoon was getting sick..
I was looking at her and could see in her eyes that in fact she was depressed. Stopping her work with a child she had chosen would only make her get worst. I told the staff what I saw and told them to let her work with my daughter, that my daughter would be beneficial to the dolphin and vice versa. So we made an experiment, we changed the working hours, my daughter being with her in the afternoon. The whole thing reversed, Daphne was sick in the morning, alright in the afternoon.
Therefore, it was decided Daphne would keep working with my girl. They got very attached to each other. Dolphin are as intelligent as we are, like having fun, although spotted dolphins are much more shy than the others species, and they reason and analyse as we do plus they do have emotions, we can read it in their being.
The first time the dolphin ended up on my lap I really felt like encounter of the third kind, with another intelligent and emotional specie.
It was a shock, I looked at the speech therapist and she nodded, understanding what I felt and acknowledging, yes this is it.
The dolphin hesitated to come to me at first, she had worked all 2 weeks with my daughter, and I was beside her in the water. When I realised that the dolphin was examining me but not coming, the dolphin analysing the situation, I made gestures she should not have understood (not trained for them) but she did. I pointed my daugher, then me, a few times, and all of a sudden, the dolphin understood and came straight to me, the mom of the kid she worked with. Her eyers were full of intelligence and emotion.
Before we went back on the third year, right before christmas, my daughter woke up crying. She had dreamed that we were back in the center and Daphne was not there anylonger, she had died. I wrote to the center and inquired about Daphne's health. Everything was fine. But when we went back in July, we learned that Daphne had died late March that year, after my daughter's dream. They were both, my daughter and Daphne, connected. My daughter had lost her first real friend ever. Her first mourning. My daughter had many dreams with Daphne afterwards. Daphne would speak to her.
The last year, my daughter worked with Kiwi, the other spotted dolphin.
Both dophin had been rescued on the beach as infant, having been beached both mother and child. This is how they ended up in an aquarium and were trained to work with special needs children. Well treated dolphins do like this work. The problem is to make sure they do not overwork, which is not obvious with some aquarium owners.
We also worked a tiny little with the huge dolphins. My daughter had a painting done for her Specially by a dolphin. We have the video of it being painted with my daughter holding the cannevas. Will put a picture of the drawing up tomorrow, right now I have to go to work.
Have a good day everyone.
If anyone ever want to inquire about these therapies, where the speech therapist works with dysphasics and autism and down syndrome, her name is Dr Janet Flowers, in Panama City, Florida. She is now with the Panama City aquarium. Previously she was in Fort Walton Beach but changed aquarium two years after Daphne's unnatural death (it took time to train the new dolphins). Daphne had been overdosed with antibiotic for months from an uncaring care worker. I told my daughter few years ago when she was old enough to take it. For her, her friend had been killed by negligence and she knows whom did it. She did not take it well, but I thought she should know. The other workers were extremely pissed and good people.





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