first zoo story

Mayhem ensued at the Durham Zoo this morning when zoo workers discovered that Fluffy, the spotted leopard, was missing from her cage.
Officials immediately closed the zoo, and removed all the visitors. A few minutes after zookeepers realized Fluffy was missing, police officers arrived at the zoo to help with the search.
Kitty Smith, the zoo’s chief biologist, said that Fluffy is “extremely dangerous,” and that whoever finds her should be very careful.
Police Chief William Blair said that the officers would work with the zookeepers to find Fluffy as quickly as possible to prevent any harm to come either to her or to people in the nearby residential neighborhood.
“We will first search every inch of this zoo,” Blair said. “We are concerned because this is a residential neighborhood with an elementary school and we don’t want Fluffy wandering around after the kids get out of school.”
Gerry Durrell, the director of the zoo said that Fluffy’s cage looked normal this morning when workers began feeding the animals.
“The door was shut and did not appear to have been tampered with, and the fencing was unbroken,” he said.
The first sign that something was wrong came at about 7:30 when James Petronkis, a visitor to the zoo, went to see Fluffy in her cage.
“Everything seemed normal, until I got to the cage,” Petronkis said. “Then I knew something was wrong right away.
Petronkis said that he told a guard Fluffy was missing, but none of the zoo workers did anything for about half an hour.
As soon as zoo workers realized Fluffy was missing, they cleared the zoo of visitors and started a search with the help of police officers. Some officers and zoo workers brought out their high-powered rifles, while others simply carried pistols.
The search covered all corners of the zoo. Searchers looked behind buildings, in trees, in trash cans.
Blair said that the National Guard offered five helicopters with infrared sensors to help with the search for Fluffy. The police department asked both the New Hampshire State Police and the New Hampshire State Wildlife Department to send people to help.
Both zoo officials and police officers explained that the search was so urgent because Fluffy could become dangerous, even deadly.
“We have got to find her before 3 pm,” said Blair. “If we don’t, it could be a very messy night.”