"Pebbles is a golden retriever masquerading in a penguin body."
-- Madeline Strauss
Pebbles is always the first up.
As the lights above his habitat begin to brighten, he shakes awake, toddles across the fake grass, slides into the pool.
Then he waddles past the other nine penguins at The Florida Aquarium to wait in front of the gate.
When Maegan Gentry appears, Pebbles flaps his wings, beats his beak against the screen, brays like a donkey.
“He’s just a dapper gentleman,” said Gentry, who has been caring for Pebbles for 15 years. “He’s flirty. And very dramatic.”
One of the aquarium’s oldest and best-behaved penguins, Pebbles has become an ambassador for his critically endangered South African, black-footed brethren.
Read more at the Tampa Bay Times