This story was reported by The San Francisco Globe on July 20, 2015. What can make a little girl’s dream come true more than an encounter with a dolphin? Two sisters, Jorja and Nataja Howse, found out.
On June 27, 2012, the girls and their mother Aja, who had been living in Germany, flew to the Chicago area for a wedding. While at the Brookfield Zoo’s Seven Seas Dolphinarium, the staff selected the sisters down to come to the edge of the water to meet the zoo’s 29-year-old male common bottlenose dolphin.
The girls were delighted to see the animal up close and touch the top of its head. As the encounter concluded, the announcer told the girls that there was one last surprise. Their father, Army Sergeant Keith Howse, had flown in from Afghanistan and was in the arena. The girls quickly forgot about the dolphin and raced into the arms of their uniformed father. The audience burst into applause.
Throughout the remainder of the show the girls exchanged hugs with their father. After the show, several members of the crowd shook Sergeant Howse’s hand and thanked him for his service. The family remained in the U.S. for two weeks before the mother and daughters returned to Germany and their father returned to service in Afghanistan.