Category: Zoo Adventures

Duffy, the monkey, was sitting quietly watching an army of ants work their way up a nearby log when he something caught his ears. It was a moan coming from a nearby clump of trees. Being a very curious monkey, Duffy went to go see what it is. He crept ever closer to the clump of trees trying to not make a sound. The moaning got louder and angrier with every step Duffy took.

When he finally got close to the trees he stopped and wondered if he really wanted to know what was making the angry noises in the trees. Sometimes, when he was too curious, he would find himself in a lot of trouble. He really wanted to know anyway so he gently pulled back the bushes just enough to see the hairy back of a gorilla. Duffy smiled and thought of all the fun tricks he could play on the sleeping gorilla. Until, that is, the gorilla rolled over and Duffy saw it was Mildred.

Now some gorillas can be nice, but most are a bit on the cantankerous side. Mildred was the most cantankerous of them all, especially when she was trying to sleep and she was always trying to sleep. Only the King of Kong himself would dare mess with her, especially when she was napping. Mildred looked like she was trying to sleep but she had a most peculiar way about her. Her eyes were closed and she was lying on some giant leaves but she was tossing, turning and flailing her arms in the air. Each time she flung an arm she moaned. It was the oddest sight Duffy had ever seen.

Duffy was a generally good monkey who happened to get into quite a bit of trouble when he got too curious or tried to play pranks, and, being a good monkey, he knew better than to mess with Mildred so he decided he would leave. Just as he was about to let go of the branches and go back to the ants he noticed a blue flicker around Mildred’s head. He pushed his face through the small opening in the brush to get a better look: it was a butterfly fluttering about. It was one of the most beautiful butterflies Duffy had ever seen. It had dark blue wings with bright blue spots on the tips.

Just then, Mildred’s hand went flying past Duffy’s nose and almost knocked it clean off. Duffy jumped back rubbing nose for the near miss. Creepy back to the brush, Duffy pulled the branches back again. Mildred’s fit made more sense: the butterfly was trying to land on her nose and Mildred was trying to keep it away. If she was successful, she would probably squash the poor thing. Duffy carefully reached through the trees and snatched butterfly just before Mildred’s hand swung again. Jumping back, Duffy cleared the branches and ran from the trees, just in case Mildred had awoken.

Slowly, Duffy opened his hand. The blue butterfly gave a few quick flutters of its wings before taking off. The poor monkey was sad as he watched the butterfly fly away. Before he could shed a tear, the butterfly came back and landed on his hand.

“Hello again,” Duffy said.

The butterfly slowly opened and closed its wings but said nothing.

“I bet,” Duffy continued, “I bet you are looking for your home, somewhere warm and comfortable.” The butterfly still did not respond. “Well, Mildred is no place for a delicate butterfly.”

Duffy started to walk and think. He was thinking of all the warm places a butterfly could live in. As he was walking and thinking he heard another sound in the bushes. This was less of a moaning sound and more of a rustling sound of something trying to hide; it was coming from the nearby tumboa plant.

Duffy sneaked around the tumboa and lifted some of the leaves, careful to not frighten the blue butterfly. Under the leaves was a small animal which was surprised to see Duffy staring at it. Slowly and sheepishly, the animal crawled back through the tumboa leaves until it was out in the open. It was a penguin, one of the last animals that Duffy ever expected to see in the Wu Kong jungle. The penguin’s eyes seemed fixed on the butterfly, and that made Duffy nervous.

The penguin looked closer at the butterfly and then suddenly burst into a series of excited quacks and squeals while wildly flapping its wings. “Oh my goodness!” she shouted in a shrill voice. “I am so happy I found you! I have been looking everywhere. I thought I lost you forever, and then where would that leave me? I will banned, that’s where I would be. Banned for life! They would have thought I had eaten him or something. I mean, I don’t even like bugs. Fish… I love fish, but not bugs and definitely not a cute little butterfly like you. How could I ever?!”

The little penguin kept going. Duffy wondered if she would ever stop even to breathe. The penguin did eventually pause for a moment, this time to look at Duffy who had just realized that the penguin had just barely realized that the butterfly was actually being carried.

“Ah, hello,” Duffy said. The penguin stopped and started rocking back and forth while looking at Duffy. Her face lit up.

“Hi!” she almost shouted, “I’m Pidg. Thank you so much for finding my little Dott. Now, we must get him back before they notice he’s gone. Oh, I am sure they would be so worried! But if we are quick then they won’t even notice and everything will be okay, right?”

Duffy was a little worried. It was one thing to get in trouble for a prank he played or for being too curious, but it sounded like he was in trouble for rescuing a butterfly from certain squashing. And that did not sound like fun.

“Do you have a name?” Pidg asked. “It’s okay if you don’t. I mean, not everyone has to have a name, although I find them terribly useful. How else do you call someone and have them know that you are trying to talk to them?”

“Duffy, my name is Duffy.”

“Well then Duffy, shall we return Dott?” Pidg asked as she reached her flipper towards Duffy. Duffy paused for a moment and considered simply handing the butterfly over to the penguin and wishing her luck, but just then he heard a distant crashing of branches and he remembered the sleeping Mildred from whom he had rescued Dott. Pidg had probably wakened her up. Duffy knew that of all of the places he could be, the last place he wanted to be was wherever Mildred was when she was grouchy and he was sure the crashing branches meant she was grouchy. So, with a shrug of his shoulders, he grabbed Pidg’s flipper and tried to keep up with her as she took off through the forest.

When Samuel woke up that morning he didn’t expect anything unusual to happen. In fact, as he stepped out onto the welcome mat outside 4224 Rocky Overview drive he couldn’t even think of anything unusual that could happen. As he walked out onto the sandy beach just outside his door he stretched in the island sun. It was a good and quiet morning. Samuel looked up and down the street. Many of his neighbors were also standing on the beach looking as the ocean waves crashed on the shore. A few were even playing in the morning swells.

Samuel ducked back inside to grab his breakfast. Eating breakfast on the beach watching the waves come in and out was one of his favorite things to do. Had he known what would happen to him he might have had something different for breakfast. As it was he didn’t know so he stuck with his normal breakfast of thick algae water, it works wonders on the body. Had he known that something unusual would happen to him he might have waved to neighbors. As it was he didn’t know so he didn’t wave to them.

The sun rose and made the beach sand so hot that Samuel couldn’t stand on it anymore. He headed back into his house as did most of his neighbors. The tide rose all the morning and into the afternoon until it peaked at 3:35 in the afternoon. Samuel’s house was so close to the ocean and sometimes the tide was so high that some of the water spilled into his front door. Today was one of those days. When that happened Samuel simply took a nap and waited for the tide to go back. That is what he did today.

His nap was a prototypical nap. When he woke up he couldn’t remember his dream, but it didn’t matter much because he was hungry. Samuel headed back to his front door to see how much water the tide had left. It wasn’t much but Samuel mopped it up anyway.

Samuel once again stood on the beach outside his front door. He stretched as he wondered what he ought to do for the rest of the day. Had he known what was about to happen to him he might have packed up his house or at least some essential items. As he didn’t know he left everything where it was and prepared his lunch. Had he know what was to happen he might have called his mother. As he didn’t know he didn’t call her.

Instead of doing any number of things that would have prepared him for any number of unusual things that might have happened Samuel decided that he would eat lunch, take a swim in the ocean and then start his evening with a bath. Perhaps the only slightly helpful item on his list was eating lunch. It is much easier to handle a variety of unusual things that might happen when you’re not hungry.

Samuel began eating his lunch. It was the usual mixture of algae water and shell fish. Just after his third bite he was rudely interrupted by the thump at his door. He walked to the door and looked outside. No one was there. He went back to lunch. After a few more bites he was again rudely interrupted by a much louder thump at his door. Samuel again went to the door and looked outside. No one was there. Samuel went back to his lunch. He ate a few more bites before there was a third thump at his front door. This time it was so loud that it shook his whole house. When he reached the front door he ran onto the beach and looked around.

He was all alone on the beach, the warm sand beneath his feet and the deep blue sky overhead.
He turned around and saw the source of the thumping. Sitting on a ledge against the sand dunes was a full sized person. This was the beginning of the unusual things in Samuel’s life. It was unusual for a person to venture this far down the beach. It was unusual that the said person would stop and sit on the beach in this particular location. It was unusual that Samuel would be standing alone on the sand. All these things added together deserved further investigation.

Samuel took one more look around. He was alone on the beach, just him and the person. He started to walk toward the person. Samuel was a curious crab by nature and so the many unusual events all happening at once more him so interested that he almost forgot that it was dangerous for crabs to run to people. In fact he had already ran halfway between his home and the person before he thought that it was look a little suspicious to have a small crab running to greet a person.

Samuel stopped and grabbed a small shell lying nearby. He ran the shell through his mouth as if he was looking for food. He dropped the shell and ran some more only to stop again. This time he was feeling around a hole and noted that it could work for cover. These he had done just as a guise. His eyes remained locked with the person’s. They never blinked or veered but remained fixed.

The tiny crab kept running toward the person. He starred into the deep soulful eyes. They seemed surprised, as they should be. It was unusual for crabs for run to people and the eyes could hardly believe that a crab would run to them instead of running away. The eyes watched as the crab ran and stopped, ran and stopped. They began to realize that the crab was running to their feet and though it pretended to be looking for food it really wasn’t. It was coming to talk, it was coming to say ‘hi’, it was coming to deliver a message.

The crab stopped. The crab stopped a few feet away. The crab stopped a few feet away from the person.

The person smiled at crab. The crab smiled at the person.

The person lowered its head and Samuel looked away.

When Samuel woke up that morning he didn’t expect anything unusual to happen. He hadn’t eaten something different for breakfast, he hadn’t waved to his neighbors, he hadn’t packed up his house, he hadn’t even called his mother. Samuel now knew that today was an unusual day and he wasn’t sure how to finish the day. He could go back to his house, back to his neighbors, back to his algae breakfast or he could move on.

He looked again at the person as he tried to decide what to do. Then his mind was made up. He ran past the person and carried on down the beach. He left 4224 Rocky Overview drive behind and never looked back. He would find another house.

When Samuel woke up the next morning he expected unusual things to happen.

Perhaps one of the most interesting animals in the entire zoo is Eli. He is not interesting because he is a rare exotic creature, which he is not. He is in fact a common donkey. No, he is interesting in the way he came to the zoo. Most animals at the zoo are either born here or are brought in by crate. Eli is the only animal to have arrived by falling out of the sky. No one is quite sure why he was in the sky or how he fell, just that he did. The old goose seems content to think that a stork was delivering Eli to his parents but got so tired of listening to him talk that he let go early and dropped the donkey in the zebra area at the zoo. While the zebras were at first quite impressed with Eli’s ability to talk they quickly found out that he really never stopped. Sometimes what he had to say was actually useful but more often it was rubbish about other animals, things that Eli really didn’t know and often just made up.

Eli’s favorite animal to talk about was the old goose, the one who led the little goslings. He would spend hours without end teasing the old goose with such stories that the goose would chase him around and around until he got too tired to chase any more. It got so bad that the other animals would shoo Eli away if the old goose was around just so they wouldn’t get caught in the middle of the chase.

One day Eli was being chased by the old goose for telling a story how the old goose had never set foot outside the zoo and made up all the things he told the goslings about the outside world. The two were running through Colletto’s pin when Eli noticed the goose wasn’t chasing him anymore. He hardly had time to think about it when suddenly he found himself stopped. William had been watching him run and pounced on him as he ran past his hiding spot.

“Don’t eat me, don’t eat me” Eli cried. “Donkeys are no good to eat.”

William looked at him curiously, “have you ever eaten a donkey?”

“Well no, but…”

“Then keep talking and I will tell you what they taste like.” Eli could tell that William was not at all happy. He could finally see why the goose had stopped chasing him. Colletto had stopped the goose as they ran through his pin. Colletto talked a little bit with the old goose before letting him go then he walked over the William who was still holding Eli to the ground.

“What is this nonsense you were spreading about the old goose?” Colletto asked.

Eli shifted on the ground casually trying to break free. He didn’t want to tell William what he had been saying about the goose. You see, the story he had been telling the other animals was about how the old goose had drained the penguin pool last night and flooded the beach the night before. Neither story was true of course, but Eli wanted so bad to tell people something that he made the stories up.

“I’ve had enough,” said William. He and Colletto took Eli and headed to the open plains outside the zoo. Eli had never been to the open plains before, very few animals had. It was beyond the Baob Plains on the other side of the zoo wall. Eli was nervous and daren’t ask where they were going. He tried to make small talk but William and Colletto would shush him every time he started to speak. Finally they stopped walking.
Eli was about to ask where they were but he quite forgot to. Instead of talking he just starred in front of himself. Two horns rose out of the grass. The horns were very, very far apart, and Eli began to think it must be attached to a huge animal. He was right. The wide horns sat squarely on a large head which was attached to a body that Eli had thought was a rock. Once the animal had risen Eli was shaking with fear. It was a bull, but with horn longer than any Eli had ever seen.

“William,” the bull said. He spoke slowly and with great purpose, quite the opposite of Eli and had quick rolling words.

“William, what brings you here to visit the Great Open Plains?”

“Harrison, it is good to see you,” William said nearly as slowly as the bull. The slowness of their speech was killing Eli. He wished he could fast forward through it. But he was glad that he paid attention to the incredibly slow conversation.

“My friend Eli needs your help, if you are willing,” William said. They all looked at Eli.

“I think I am all better now, really I do,” Eli said nervously. In all honesty he wasn’t even sure what help he had needed but the thought of the giant Harrison helping him scared him so much that he was sure he could get over whatever it was that was wrong. “I know I have not been well, but I’m better now. Honest.” He looked to William, then Harrison and finally Colletto. None of them believed him.

Harrison spoke, “I see what you mean.” He paused for a moment. “I think we can help him learn a lesson or two.”

“Please, please, I will learn my lesson. I promise,” Eli said. He was now scared that William and Colletto would leave him alone with the longhorn bull and Eli would have no one to talk too.

Colletto smiled, and then looked to Harrison, “I think he is finally ready. Be gentle, and help him learn his lesson.”

Colletto and William started to walk away. Eli jumped to catch up with them but Harrison used one of his long horns to block Eli. Eli knew he had to stay and he almost began to cry as he watched William and Colletto walk out of sight.

“Don’t worry,” Harrison spoke slowly, “your friends will come back in time.”