Snowena

My story is called “Snowena” which is the name given to the snow leopard by a girl called Rihanna who loves watching wildlife documentaries and getting as many facts about big cats as she can. When she grows up she wants to be a wildlife vet, preferably working in a wildlife sanctuary. Ideally all wild animals would be able to live in their natural habitat but for some that’s not possible.

She struggles over choosing a name because she believes she can’t think up a good enough one. She rejects her own name Rihanna, rejects her friend’s name, Ciara, because it’s Italian and the snow leopard’s not Italian, but doesn’t know any names from the snow leopard’s home. Rihanna’s going to ask her mum to adopt a snow leopard for her on her birthday.

After much thinking she settles on Snowena as a name.

Later Rihanna has to do a show and tell at school and wishes she had a laptop so she could simply show everyone the documentary about Snowena. Instead she does her show and tell about a panther as she has a toy panther called Ebony. Panthers are leopards with a condition, melanism, which turns the underlying fur black so they appear to have completely black fur. Jaguars can also develop melanism.