Last spring, a curious thing began to happen around Tlell. Small hippos were showing up in people’s yards, a new previously unknown species of wild House Hippos (real thing – check YouTube). Where did they come from? It is now time to tell the story.
My father collected an impressive amount of small hippos throughout his later life; hardwood, softwood, stone, metal, and even one small plastic one.
These hippos joined our family at a steady pace, subsequently populating the bathroom counter. It was an undeniable House Hippo Infestation, albeit an orderly one as they all stayed in their herd on the bathroom counter.
It became the task of each visitor to the washroom to rearrange the hippos in any way that they pleased.
Some told a story, and some were simply a pleasing pattern. It was easy to imagine that the hippos moved themselves.
When my dad left this world ten years ago, the hippos remained behind and continued to move about their business as usual. However, eventually the family property was sold. My sister asked what we should do with the hippos, and my only response was;
“Keep them, of course!”
So in due time, I was confronted by numerous small hippos and a bathroom counter of my own that was simply too small for such a large herd. What was I to do?
My dad always had a mischievous streak. Our neighbours had a small deciduous tree they had paved around in their driveway, and in the days leading up to Christmas, dad would stealthily decorate it to enhance it’s small stature in that sea of asphalt.
He also used to glue a rubber ducky to the top of a fence post that was cut shorter than the rest (the exact height of a standard rubber ducky, it turned out.) Those neighbours had less of a sense of humour, and would remove the ducks, prompting the gluing of another one, until said neighbour cut all the posts to the same size, in petty protest, I imagine.
And so it came to me – Tlellian Garden Hippos.