Giraffes Make Me Happy

And they always have.  I don't know why, exactly.  Maybe they make everybody smile.  I can't imagine anybody looking at one and being afraid or sad.  There is something somehow...comforting...about a giraffe. 

When I was a baby, one of my favorite toys was a small yellow plastic giraffe with bright blue eyes.  It squeaked when it was squeezed.  I called it, originally enough, Raffy. No, I had not started naming everything after literary or mythological characters, you see.  Anyway, I carried it everywhere.  In fact, I still have Raffy tucked up on a shelf in my office.  He's right there alongside my complete works of Shakespeare and my teachers' editions. 

One day, I want to see giraffes in their native habitat.  I've seen them in zoos, but that always just makes me sad.  I don't, as a general rule, like zoos very much.  I know they can be nice, and I know they can be a place where endangered animals can survive, but I can't ever escape the feeling that all the animals in them are in mourning for something lost.  I'd like to see a bunch of tall giraffes, impossibly graceful for all their neck and legs, galloping across the plains someday.  I think it would be a sight to feed the soul.

In honor of the general joy of giraffes, here are a couple of iPhone wallpapers I found recently.  I hope you enjoy them as much as I did.  Click them to see them large enough to see all the details at their original sources.  Don't they make you smile?