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A few years back, my family went on a cruise for my college Spring Break. My family was amazing and gave up a family excursion in Nassau so I could participate in a dolphin encounter. Only me.
If you know me, then you know that I am NOT an animal person. In addition, a couple of years ago I discovered that I am slightly allergic to cats and dogs. So what does my family do? Get a dog, of course. Do I love him? Of course, I'm Albus' second favorite person. Do I love other dogs? Not so much. No offense. But anyway, back to the point. I may not be an animal person, but for most of my life, I have loved dolphins. Their agility and ability to swim freely constantly has me in awe.
The fact that my dolphin encounter had been one of the happiest moments of my life opened my eyes. Although I was in such an elated state of mind, that doesn't mean the dolphin, Cacique, was. It's not like we had some mystical connection a la "A Ring of Endless Light" (aka one of the greatest books ever written). For all I knew, Cacique hated being forced to do what he did, but unfortunately dolphins couldn't look angry even if they tried.
The next eye-opener occurred when I finally watched Blackfish. Think what you want, but technically Orcas are dolphins. Hence the dorsal fins, THAT SHOULD NOT BE BENT *cough cough Sea World cough cough*.
I looked it up, and supposedly the facility where my dolphin encounter took place originally acquired their dolphins because those beautiful creatures were injured and needed to be rehabilitated. Can I ever know this for sure? No. Which is why the memories of my experience make me feel about fifty different emotions.
Last night I had a dream where I was in a giant pool with a whale and a dolphin. After destroying a prop pirate ship, the whale transformed into a man with a gun and threatened the life of me and the dolphin. The man shot at the dolphin, missed, then came over to threaten me. Guess what? The dolphin saved my life. Obviously that means that any wrongdoing from captured sea creatures came from human interference.
It's not often I remember my dreams the next day, but I'm sure you can see why this one stuck with me. EMPTY THE TANKS, SEA WORLD.
