Taco Supreme
Here a short origin story of Taco Supreme.
Tasha Kain, the snow leopard, was brash and impulsive. She was impulsive when she decided to get transformed into a non-feral Snow Leopard. She was impulsive when she adopted a baby possum. She was so unprepared that it hadn't even occurred to her to name the boy until her boss asked his name for the petting zoo's new employee file. That's how he ended up being named Taco Supreme.
Trying her best everyday, Tasha was a decent mom. Taco was a half breed. He didn't know much of anything about his parents besides that the first person he called mom abandoned him on the doorsteps of a animal shelter. Unfortunately, Taco was an undocumented non-feral animal at the time. NFA's like him happened sometimes, much to the embarrassment of the parent. His mother was filled with too much shame at regularly screwing a wild possum to take him to get registered. She tried to raise him in secret but couldn't cut it as a parent.
It wasn't too bad for Taco at the shelter. He was placed in a cage and with nothing else to do, was forced to watch TV all day through the bars of his cage. He was taken out every day and they tried to teach him the basics of getting along with human society. After a few weeks Taco started to get the gist of things and they didn't even bother to lock his cage anymore. He knew he should stay in his room because he was a very small creature in a very large world. The day Tasha came along, Taco climbed out of his cage and onto her. She was large and grey just like his mom was. Taco has seen enough from the inside of his cage to know that the humans that take care of him, just wanted to find someone to love and take care of him.
Taco was happy enough to go home with the first thing that reminded him of his mom. Tasha fell in love with him instantly when he hugged the back of her neck and wouldn't let go. The little possum was finally injected with a microchip and declared an official person. At the petting zoo where his new mom works, he was given the name Taco Supreme by her boss. Taco didn't know what a taco supreme was, so he accepted it as his new name without question.
Everyone always wanted to pick him up and touch him at the petting zoo. His mom was very protective and when Taco wouldn't let go of her fur she just told people to only pet him. Taco grew to love his new mom. He loved the thrill of holding on while she ran and climbed. He vaguely remembers his first mom didn't walk very fast and always yelled at him when he rode her back. It just felt natural to ride his new mom and Tasha was encouraged when Taco exclaimed how much fun he was having.
After a few weeks, Taco was comfortable enough to let go of his mom and climb on his Mom's friends. Taco always enjoyed the different feelings of motion the other animals at the petting zoo made when they carried him. There was the large green one named Shelly that lived inside a shell she carried around. Taco tried to climb inside too, but it was very cramped when she closed the doors.
There was the one with pointy sticks on his head named, Bucky. Taco had fun climbing around on the antlers. but it was very cold and he kept having to climb down to the fluffy parts to warm up. Taco was always learning about the other animals at the petting zoo by just watching them from his vantage point.
One morning, Taco was walking around the breakfast table trying different foods from everyone's bowls, when he noticed the biggest animal ever. It was white with black lines all over his head, chest, and front legs. When he asked who that was, his mother said he was filthy, but the big white bear looked clean enough to Taco. Climbing onto the nearest animal, Taco works his way down to the floor. With confidence, he walks over to the massive polar bear and climbs up it's body to get to the bears black scars. The scars don't have fur to grab onto so Taco works his way around them and makes his way to the head.
Philthy the Polar Bear watches the little possum impassively as the little guy climbs over his back. The possum gets to his head and sits down to survey bear's point of view. Taco says, "Hi, I'm Taco Supreme." Philthy replies, "I'm Philthy and you don't have to talk so loud. You're on my ear." Taco asks, "Why are you so big?" Philthy flicks his ear and sarcastically answers, "Because I drank all my milk when I was young." Taco exclaims, "I love milk!"
Tasha watches Taco talk to Philthy and is unsure how the bear will react. Rumors fly around a lot at a place where the employee's job is to just hang around a park all day. Philthy worked at the petting zoo but spent his time helping the maintenance crew. He usually wore a special harness and carried around supplies, tools, and sometimes a ladder for them. He was the ultimate eco friendly work truck.
Taco climbs on the sparse fur on Philthy's head and look down into the big bear's eye. Taco says, "You're awesome!" Philthy gives a smile. It was been a long time since anyone actually gave him a genuine compliment. Tasha comes walking up and says, "Hi Philthy. He's not bothering you is he?" Philthy looks at the little possum looking into his eye and replies, "No. We were just making friends." Tasha holds her front leg out and says, "Come along now Taco. Breakfast is over with." Taco says, "I want to hang out with Philthy."
Concern crosses Tasha's face. Taco doesn't leave her side very often. He was very clingy as a child and being a possum made that literally true as well. Tasha says, "Philthy probably has important things to do and doesn't have time to watch you." Philthy says, "I'm not doing anything too important today. I could watch the little fella for a bit." Tasha is surprised the big bear was being so nice. People always say such bad things about him. She looks at the Philthy and says, "Okay, I'll be by the pond if he gets too much to handle."
Philthy quickly wolfs down his breakfast and exits the cafeteria. The possum get comfortable on his neck and Philthy heads to the maintenance building to double check the schedule. The morning schedule is still free so he makes a lap around the zoo to do a visual inspection. The few guests that see the polar bear quickly step to the side. A few children run their hands across his side as he lumbers by while ignoring them.
Taco says, "Where are we going?" Philthy replies, "To look for small problems before they become large problems." Taco says, "Okay, I'll look too." With all his concentration, Taco looks around at the park.
Philthy stops in front of the gift shop to talk with one of his few friends, Sugar the White Wolf. Sugar was a conman at heart and the bear knew the wolf was only friends with him for his own gains. Philthy didn't mind because Sugar usually bought the bear dinner and drinks with the profits of their schemes.
With a smile Sugar says, "You're getting in the babysitting game too?" Philthy shakes his head and replies, "He's more like my sidekick." Taco sees Sugar and climbs up to sit on Philthy's head. He says, "Sugar! Do a trick!" Sugar looks at the possum and replies, "What did I tell you? You got to ask the right way and people will give you the shirt off their back."
Taco thinks for a second and then says, "I bet you don't know any tricks." Sugar feins shock and says, "I know lots of tricks." Taco exclaims, "Prove it!" Sugar bounds over to the gift shop's giant glass window and jumps up on it to push off into a backflip through the air. Philthy furrows his brow at the dirty paw prints on the pristine glass surface. Taco squeals with joy. Philthy lowers his ears as the kid yell in them for the second time today.
Looking around, Sugar says, "I use my best trick and no one else was around to see it." Philthy says, "It was very nice. Seen anything that need maintenance around the park?" With a smirk Sugar says, "I saw some fatty leaning on the fence of the limited touching section. I think he bent the fence." Philthy looks at Sugar and knows there is more to the story so he asks, "Why was he leaning on the fence?" Sugar nonchalantly says, "I was playing keep away with the phone he dropped in there when he was trying to take pictures of me." Taco laughs at the story and Philthy rolls his eyes.
Philthy walks off to go check the fences. Taco looks at the other animals and tries to remember what species they were. The spot in the fence is apparent as they walk the perimeter. Philthy takes his front paws and bends the metal back into place. Taco exclaims, "Wow, You're so strong!" Tacos wonderment is lifting Philthy's mood from the usual depression. They continue along the fence and Philthy occasionally pauses to rattle it to test stability.
The limited touching area is a safe space for animals that need a timeout from constantly being touched by kids. The guests can still see them, talk to them, and take pictures, but the animals are in control of the whether to walk up to the fence to get touched. Philthy is glad that the zoo has a good place to take a nap without being molested by curious kids. He makes his way to the pond to check in with Tasha.
The pond is another great place to relax. The shade tree next to it always has someone laying under it. He spot the Roy the Alligator and Alex the Crocodile floating around. Those two practically lived in the pond. They seemed happy enough when no one bothered them. Seeing Tasha under the shade tree at the other side of the pond, Philthy gets a bad idea. He walks right up to the pond and asks Taco, "Want to go for a swim with me?" Taco quickly says, "Mom said not to swim in the pond." Philthy laughs and says, "Climb on my head and you won't get wet then."
The little possum climbs up and hold on to Philthy's ear as the bear starts wading into the pond. Tasha see Philthy climb into the pond and gapes as only his head, with her little baby on it, is poking out. Alex and Roy float along side Philthy eyeballing the little grey fuzz ball on his head. Taco waves at the crocogators as the bear glides through the water. Philthy reaches the other side and meets Tasha's gazes. He smiles and says, "It's such a long way around the pond. I wanted to take a shortcut." He climbs out of the pond and lower his head to the ground to announce, "This is your stop little buddy."
Taco climbs off and quickly scrambles up on his Mom's back. Philthy gives Tasha a salute with his paw and drips water down the path as he goes to find a spot to take a nap. Tasha looks back at Taco and asks, "Did you learn anything today?" Taco says, "Fat people are funny!" Tasha doesn't know what to make of that and just sits down to watch the pond.