MIAMI — Nine-year-old Emmy Egan has spent more than two years battling leukemia. On a recent day at Zoo Miami, she got to forget about treatment and fulfill her biggest wish: meeting a sloth up close.
Her guide for the special Make-A-Wish tour was Zoo Miami’s Ron Magill, whose boundless enthusiasm set the tone from the moment he greeted Emmy and her family.
Magill led them from pygmy hippos to giraffes, elephants and chimpanzees, using every stop as a chance to teach and entertain.
“You know why the males have horns?” he asked at the Nyala habitat. “They’re constantly fighting with each other for the privilege to be with the girls.”
Emmy responded with a confident, “Yeah, I know.”
But the moment she had been waiting for came when a zoo keeper brought out the sloth — the animal that helped her get through long chemo sessions and the inspiration behind her wish.
Emmy grew quiet as she gently touched its back, a look of pure joy spreading across her face.
Her parents, Greg and Nancy, watched through tears.
“I’m so thankful to the staff, Make-A-Wish and the zoo for making my baby girl’s dream come true,” Nancy said.
“She told them from the beginning: I want to meet a sloth — and that happened today,” Greg said.
Magill called the experience priceless. “Seeing tears in a mother’s eyes while her daughter enjoys something like this — you couldn’t pay me enough to not do this job,” he said.
With Emmy nearing the end of her treatment, her family says this day will stay with them forever.
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