17 August 2023
A milestone birthday can really make you think.
As 13 approached, Grady Holton thought about a giraffe.
Grady has a lot in common with this giraffe. Well, mostly one thing: The boy and the giraffe are both named Grady.
“My giraffe twin,” Grady says.
But could these “twins” reunite before the milestone?
It was a birthday wish.
This interspecies friendship began in Jacksonville, Florida.
“My husband was in the military, and we were stationed down in Jacksonville,” says Grady’s mom, Lisa Holton. “We would go to the Jacksonville Zoo all the time.”
Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens welcomed a baby giraffe in February 2013.
“We found out when we were visiting that his name was Grady,” Holton says.
This was big news for Grady the boy, who turned three that year.
Grady Holton, then 4 years old, with Grady the giraffe, then 2 years old, at the Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens in Jacksonville, Florida, in June 2015. (Courtesy of Lisa Holton.)
“He got such a kick out of it,” Holton remembers. “He’d say, ‘I want to go see my giraffe.’”
It was the start of a beautiful friendship.
“I just remember it being fun to go to a zoo and see a giraffe with the same name as me,” Grady says.
But then …
“One day we went, and he wasn’t there,” Holton says. “The staff on the feeding deck told us he had been moved to Missouri.”
The Gradys were now separated by more than 1,000 miles.
“I kind of got a little sad,” Grady remembers.
After that, the family lost track of the giraffe. But Grady didn’t forget about Grady.
“Over the years, once in awhile, Grady would say, ‘Where do you think Grady is?’” Holton says.
They’d wonder, but then the moment would pass.
Grady the boy, now 12 and living in Wyoming, Minn., asked about Grady the giraffe again this spring.
“Let’s see if we can find out,” his mom said.
With the help of Google, they found a report about a giraffe named Grady who donated blood to a giraffe blood bank.
This blood donor was also featured in a promotional video about feeding the giraffes at Dickerson Park Zoo in Springfield, Missouri.
Missouri! Could Grady still be there, so many years later?
In their online sleuthing, there was another clue on top of this giraffe’s head: Just like the Grady they remembered, this one was crowned with distinctive occisones (horn-like protuberances).
“The ossicones on his head are turned in and kind of bumpy,” Holton says. “Very identifiable.”
Holton emailed the Missouri zoo, asking if their Grady was the giraffe from Jacksonville.
“They got back to me and said, ‘Yep, sure is,’” Holton says.
Grady had found Grady! Too bad Grady was 625 miles away from Grady.
Still …
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“I said to my mom one night, ‘I kinda want to go somewhere for my birthday,’” Grady said. “We talked a little bit and I said, ‘Hey, remember Grady the giraffe?’”
Road trip?
Road trip!
The family — Lisa and her husband, James, and their sons, Grady (who turns 13 in September) and Charlie, 11 — loaded up the minivan and headed south on Interstate 35 on Friday.
After stopping off at the Iowa State Fair on Friday night, the family arrived at the Dickerson Park Zoo on Saturday afternoon.
“It’s a long way for a giraffe,” Holton says. “I was worried he wouldn’t be out.”
She shouldn’t have worried.
“We walked up and recognized him immediately,” she says.
“He has pretty wonky ossicones,” Grady explained.
How did it feel for Grady to finally see Grady again?
“I was excited,” Grady says.
The family purchased a zoo-approved snack in hopes of drawing Grady even closer to Grady.
It worked.
“He was the first giraffe to come over,” Grady says. “I got to feed him lettuce.”
Grady and Grady used the time to catch up: Both Grady and Grady have grown a lot since they first met. And Grady the giraffe is a father of four now.
There wasn’t much small talk on Saturday.
“I said hello,” Grady says.
The other Grady didn’t say much.
“The only noise I heard was chewing lettuce,” Grady says.
After taking photos of Grady and Grady and visiting the other animals, it was time to buy a T-shirt (“I fed the giraffes at DPZ”) and say goodbye.
Although zoo officials did not know about the Grady reunion at the time, the Pioneer Press alerted them later.
They were charmed.
“Dickerson Park Zoo’s mission is to connect people with animals,” said Joey Powell, public relations and marketing director for Dickerson Park Zoo, in an email. “This story is literally bringing DPZ’s mission to life and is one of the reasons zoos are so important.”
(You can follow Grady and friends at Facebook.com/DPZoo.)
After exploring more of Springfield on Sunday — they went mini golfing and out to eat at the epic Bass Pro Shops — the family drove back home to Minnesota on Monday.
It was a trip to remember, and not just for the birthday boy.
If you have ever had a teenager, you know how fast things can change. You blink and they’re waving goodbye; they really do grow up fast.
Grady’s mom explained it this way in a Facebook post about their trip:
“When your almost 13-year-old asks to reconnect with something sweet and special from his youth, you find a way to make it work,” she wrote. “And so, we drove 625 miles to visit a giraffe.”
There and back, it was a drive of 1,250 miles or about 19 hours on the road.
“It was worth it,” Grady says. “I got to see my giraffe twin!”
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