Page 13 - Gateways_Winter2016-17

You loved Cookie. Your parents loved Cookie. Cookie’s passing is like losing an old
Maybe your grandparents even loved Cookie friend of our family. My mom was
back in the 1930s. He touched the lives of a little girl when Brookfield Zoo
millions upon millions of Brookfield Zoo opened—just a year older than
guests who knew him by name and were Cookie—and she remembered
dazzled by his grandeur and antics. Cookie seeing him whenever her parents
Major Mitchell’s Cockatoo, our beloved took her there, as do my brother and
icon, passed away August 27 at age 83. I, when we would visit the zoo. Many,
“Sassy, intelligent, audacious, hilarious, many years later, she began bringing
mesmerizing” are just a few ways his caregivers, my son to the zoo every weekend,
who have numbered in the dozens over the years, have and Cookie was always one of her
described this exquisite Guinness World Record holder. favorite animals to visit. I know how
(He earned the title World’s Oldest Parrot in 2014.) sad the staff are now that Cookie has
For decades, he was Brookfield Zoo’s patriarch, our eldest left us. I send my sympathies to all of
resident, and the sole remaining member of the original 1934 them and to everyone who loves him.
collection that greeted the very first guests to walk through our Facebook Friend
gates. He was the life of the party with ready and enthusiastic
banter, quizzical expressions, and animated head bobbing. It’s no Left: Brookfield Zoo’s cockatoos
wonder that Cookie became legendary, attracting ardent admirers, have long been a draw for guests.
many of whom came to Brookfield Zoo specifically to see him.
(One such devotee was Dr. Sri Ganapathy Sachchidananda Our contributions to the Raw
Swamiji, a holy man, healer, and founder of a parrot sanctuary Material exhibition [an exhibition of
Chicago cultural institutions’ historic
artifacts] included a historic photo
of Cookie. If nose and finger prints
are an accurate census, the photo
was among the most popular—so
popular, in fact, that the Chicago Public
Library decided to feature Cookie as
part of educational programming
in its Children’s Department on
how to be a mini-curator.
Carla Owens, Manager of
Library Services and Archives

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