When we took our son to swim with dolphins, he hugged them, laughed, and my husband and I were touched by the sight, until one of the center’s employees approached us and quietly said, “You need to show your son to a doctor immediately.” 😱😢

For several months, our son had been begging us to take him to the dolphinarium. It had been his dream for a long time. He watched videos, read about dolphins, fell asleep hugging a toy dolphin, and kept asking, “When are we going?”

On his birthday, we decided to surprise him. We didn’t say anything in advance—just put him in the car that morning and drove off. When he realized where we were heading, he literally started jumping with excitement in the back seat.

— I love you so much. I’m finally going to see dolphins. Thank you, Dad. Thank you, Mom.

A second later:

— Can I tell everyone afterward? Will you take a picture of me? How many will there be? Will I be allowed to pet them? Can I hug them?

The questions didn’t stop the entire way. We just smiled and exchanged glances.

When we arrived, he changed faster than all the other children in the locker room and ran to the pool first. We stood a little aside and watched. Our son carefully stretched out his hand, the dolphin swam up, lifted its snout out of the water, and let him pet it. It was as if they instantly understood each other. The dolphin circled around him, jumped, swam closer again, splashed the water with its tail, and didn’t move away for even a second.

It was so touching that I could barely hold back my tears. My husband filmed everything on his phone. Our son was laughing in a way he hadn’t laughed in a long time.

Suddenly, one of the trainers approached us. A young woman, about thirty years old, serious, without a smile.

— I need to talk to you. It’s about your son.

Everything inside me tightened.

— What happened? Did he hurt the dolphin? Did he do something wrong? I’m sorry, he’s just a child.

— No. It’s something else. You need to have your son examined by a doctor urgently.

I felt a cold chill run down my spine.

— Why? Is the dolphin sick? Could it have infected him?

The woman shook her head. And at that moment, she said something that filled us with absolute terror 😲😢 The continuation can be found in the first comment 👇👇

— Our dolphins are trained to work with children. They are very sensitive to changes in the human body. Usually, they behave calmly. But today the dolphin reacted unusually. It was jumping in place, circling around him, and wouldn’t leave his side. This kind of behavior happens when the animal senses a health problem.

I looked at her and couldn’t believe it.

— Are you sure?

— We’ve encountered this before. Please, just have the child checked. Just in case.

We didn’t wait. That same day, we made an appointment with a doctor. We did tests and went through examinations. Until the very last moment, I hoped it was just a coincidence.

A few days later, we were given the diagnosis. Our son had cancer. Stage one. The earliest stage. The one that can still be treated.

I was sitting in the doctor’s office, remembering how the dolphin hadn’t left my son’s side. As if it had been trying to warn us.

Now we are undergoing treatment. A long road lies ahead, but the doctors say the prognosis is good.

And every time I think about that day, I feel afraid. If it hadn’t been for that dolphin. If it hadn’t been for its strange behavior. If we had simply gone home thinking it had just been an ordinary happy day.

I’m afraid to even imagine how it all could have ended.