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It's Fiona the hippo's first birthday, she's eating cake, and I'm crying

Fiona turns one year old today.
 By 
Chloe Bryan
 on 

It's Fiona the hippo's first birthday. She did it! And she deserves a cake.

The baby hippo, born six weeks premature at the Cincinnati Zoo last January, has become a bonafide celebrity in her first year of life, making headlines with everything from her first steps to that time she crashed an engagement photo.

But Fiona is more than a cute baby animal (although she is certainly queen of that category). She's a success story that wasn't always a sure thing. And her survival is the result of intuitive, amazing round-the-clock care from her keepers -- as well as some kind of Fiona-specific tenacity that she probably stores in her ears.

So on her first birthday, there's a lot to celebrate. The official party was last weekend, but Fiona obviously still got another hippo-friendly birthday cake. Per Food and Wine, "hippo-friendly" means that it's made of fruit ice and covered in watermelon, honeydew, and Fiona's very first pineapple. Basically a huge popsicle! Hell yeah, Fiona!

And, of course, the occasion was worthy of a Facebook Live.

Is anyone else openly sobbing? I'm for sure not -- I just wanted to check on everyone else.

Happy birthday, Queen Fiona. We love you.

Topics Animals

Mashable Image
Chloe Bryan

Chloe was the shopping editor at Mashable. She was also previously a culture reporter. You can follow her on Twitter at @chloebryan.

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