Animal Adoring Alyssa

By: Anna S

When passing Alyssa B. in the hallways, you may see her give a cheerful smile, or hear her on the intercom. If you have, you probably can see that she LOVES turtles. Like, a lot. She has a turtle backpack, a turtle water bottle, turtle shirts, turtle everything. But Alyssa doesn't just love turtles. She loves every animal, and has an amazing knowledge of all of them.

One of her favorite animals is a cheetah. “Ever since I was a little girl, I’ve loved them. I even have a little stuffed animal of one ever since I was six,” she says. When she was younger, she was always the “animal nerd,” and she used to watch the animal show Wild Kratts when she was young.

She has one horse named Kona, three dogs named Boomer, Jovie, and Sandy, a fish named Dude (who apparently is her “best friend”). She also once had a bird, named Turtle, but her dog ate it, and then threw it up in her room.

One of the things Alyssa likes to do is to hang out with her friends. One of her friends, Rachel Alford, says “Alyssa is funny, kind, loyal, and is a great friend.” Some of her hobbies are horse riding, ukulele, singing, minecraft, basketball and rollerblading. Her favorite quote is “kill em with kindness.” She enjoys country music and likes to wear hoodies and jeans.

One of her favorite animals, the cheetah, has some especially cool facts. Cheetahs are the fastest land animals on the planet, and they communicate through chirps and whistles. Cheetahs have black streaks under their eyes to help the sun stay out of their eyes.

Another one of her favorite animals is the peregrine falcon. “It is the fastest animal on the entire planet. When it dives, it goes over 200 miles an hour. Some of them have nests extremely high on tall skyscrapers,” she states.

“There are many animals that will be extinct by 2050, like elephants, pandas, and koalas. It’s important for us to take care of God’s creation,” Alyssa also says. She adds that some ways we can take care of animals are not to litter, not take land or trees away, not to kill them for products, and not testing them for products.

There are many interesting facts about Alyssa. Once, when she was all dressed up for her birthday, someone brought a huge turtle for her to hold, and it peed all over her. A man held a lizard up to her cheek, and it stuck it’s tongue out and kissed her! “A lot of people hate snakes and spiders, but I seem to be the only one who can’t flinch,” she said gleefully.

Alyssa loves animals because they’re engaging, and it's interesting to learn about how they're similar and different from humans. Alyssa could be a veterinarian, or a zookeeper, or just have a house full of critters. Who knows where the future could take Alyssa.