Leaving Madagascar Chapter 8

When we finally got toBefandefa Madagascar. I was so sore my feet were all banged up and scarred. I could not believe we had just came over 700 miles from Didy. My parents were excellent in the trees so I had to run most of the time to keep up with them. I became a very fast runner. My father and I  had a few good times as we were traveling. He learned that I had a few advantages running on my feet. I could jump over logs and over streams where he could not if there were no trees in site. You could see that my father was enjoying himself. I think he always wanted to go on an adventure. But had been so busy most of the time he never got there. We all bonded during that trip. We were in a new life together and we all counted on each other. My parents were tired  we were looking forward to boat ride that was ahead. We were headed for Africa. It seemed unreal that we were out of our element and headed to the Amazon for real. I wondered what I would see. What it looked like over there. Would it be any better where we were going? I had a weird thought that it may be the exact same as before. But for now we were all having a great adventure. Just getting out of Madagasscar was only the first step of many toward our new life. When I looked at the ship we were going to be taking across to Africa I got scared. I was a land monkey not a water monkey. The ship was very old I was surprised it was even floating. My dad had a plan as soon as the ship started to pull away from the harbor we would all jump onto the rope that tied it to the dock and stay there until we were out to sea. I was shivering from all the sea spray and my mother was soaked. I looked at  my father he was very strong and never showed any weakness. I was thinking back to him teaching me how to build nests. He was one tough monkey. No matter what was happening he seemed like he could always handle it. He never showed that he was hurting under any circumstance. I admired him for that and decided to try to be more like him. We were clinging to the rope swinging all over the place getting soaked with every wave  He would say just hold on a little bit longer and this will all be worth it soon.  We were out to sea almost 30 miles before my dad said to us to get on board now but be very quiet. It was now dark and my dad climbed up the rope first and peered over the edge to see a whole bunch of  people sitting there talking. He had a sad look on his face when he came back down the rope and said sorry we were going to have to wait a little longer to make sure we were not seen by the people on the ship. My toes were cramped and aching from holding on so long just then I thought of my mother and how tired she must be. She had not said too much as she was just holding on for dear life swinging in the wind wet and cold. In that moment I remembered why they were doing this. It was all for me. I could not let them take all the abuse. So me being the largest of us all I made a spot where I could hook my toes in the rope and be sure it was safe. Then I told my mother to come down some and rest on my shoulders to take some of the weight off of her. She protested and said that she was fine. But I saw it in her eyes that she was very tired and holding on with everything she had. I demanded  her this time to come down and put her weight on me for a while. She slowly did what I asked her. When she settled down on my shoulder I could see she was in pain from holding on so long. Tears came to her eyes as she tried to open her hands. She had been holding the rope tightly for almost four hours now. She let her tail down and put it around my waist and said thank you Leo. When she did this I had a warm feeling come over me and it felt wonderful. This was a turning point for my personality. I wanted to take some of the weight off people and make it easier for them. The more it hurt me from her weight on my shoulder the better I felt if that is even possible. I knew I had made it better for her if only for a moment. Finally everyone had left the deck to go to sleep. My father peered over the edge and said it was clear to come up. At that point I could not of thought of any better sound to hear. My father went up first then he out stretched a hand to my mother and pulled her aboard. Just then a huge wave came up and slammed me against the ship and it hit me so hard I think I passed out for a second. But only for a second when my head went under water I was very much awake. I heard my mother screaming and then saw my father was holding her back from falling over the edge trying to reach out for me he had to cover her mouth so they would not get caught.

Leaving Madagascar Chapter 7

I remember thinking back.  It was so clear.  I was a younger monkey and everybody looking at me strangely whispering to their friends why that monkey (me) walks funny and up on two feet. They would tease me and throw their stuff at me almost everyday. I would come home and have to jump in the river to wash my fur before my mother would let me in the house.  I just never fit in with all the other lemurs. I would tell them that I had a problem that I was deformed and I could only walk on my  feet standing up. They would laugh and chatter then race up in the trees and start throwing thier crap at me again.  Of course I was on the ground and such an easy target. My mother told me it doesn't matter if some monkey calls me a name their opinion means nothing and they are not worth being my friend. I always tried to think of what she said at these times. After years of this finally my father said that was enough. He sent me to a swinging school where I was to learn how to swing through the vines like a real monkey no matter what my issues were.  It did not work out. I tried, I tried with every fiber of my body to be like the others. The head monkey at the swinging school told my parents I was a lost cause and that swinging through the trees was never going to be my thing. Sure I could swing through the trees i practiced almost every day but I could not keep up with everybody else. I was much better on the ground I had big feet and could run fast plus i was a heavy monkey.  As I got a little older I found out I was growing  larger then the other lemurs. I was almost  the size of my father and I was still a young monkey.  If I went to my friend's house instead of sitting in the nest with my friends eating leaves and chattering they would make me sit outside on a bigger branch so I did not break their precious little nest. I was becoming a freak I thought. Now I had monkys and birds practicly the whole town hanging around my nest trying to get a peek a the huge lemur with the big feet. I grew used to it I guess I started just sitting at the bottom of the tree where my family nest was. I was getting so large that I could not even fit in my parents nest anymore. I remember it was raining hard one day and I just sat down at the bottom of the tree hating that I could not be like the other monkeys. I was drenched just sitting there cold not caring about anything anymore. My mother came down from the nest and sat beside me. She leaned into me and said that she understood what I was going through and that she wanted a better place for me to grow up. The next day my father and her had decided to leave Madagascar for my sake.  They wanted to take me to the amazon jungle where there were so many different animals I would fit in and have a better life. I looked back as I was leaving our small nest in the trees. I was not going to miss this place one bit. No more slinging stuff at Leo and that was the last thing I thought when I left Didy, Madagascar.  We were headed for Befandefa Madagascar on our trip to the amazon.

VIP pass Inside a wild place Chapter 6

I was walking into the hut on the south side of the animal compound. And this girl came running out franticaly holding her arm screaming HELLLP! She almost tripped over my tail. I ran after her and said let me help. She turned over her arm to me and showed me a huge gash it looked like she had been bitten by something badly. She screamed "the white snake the white snake bit me". I almost fainted just thinking about this 12 foot white colored albino snake with red eyes clamping down on my arm. Every time I walked by it in the past few weeks it just licked its lips at me. It gave me the willys.  She was bleeding pretty good. So I wrapped her up the best I could and I asked her what she had done to get bitten by the snake. She said she had just washed her hands getting ready to feed the snake and the water felt so good she kept running them under the hot water until she could not stand it any longer. Then she opened up the snake cage and the albino snake came lunging at her and bit down on her arm in a split second she did not even have a chance to see what was happening she looked at her hand where she had been  bit and saw all the blood running out and went screaming out the door and almost ran right over me. We found out that the snake was not poisonous and that she was comming up on her monthly feeding time. When the snake saw the girl's warm hands come across the room she already thought it was dinner time and the meal was walking right up to her. It made it easy for her when you opened the cage. It is amazing what we dont know. I learned from that day on that there is a reason animals are called wild. We don't live in their world or think their thoughts. The snake was just looking for lunch she thought the warm hands were on the menu.

VIP pass Inside a wild place Chapter 5

My first time out testing the new theory. It worked so good that i had plenty of time and extra bananas to build the elephant hut and pay my monkey debt too. I would go out there every day after work and every other day I could. I would work my tail off. It was a little harder then I planned the elephant being so tall compared to a monkey like me. I would catch animals  from all over the park watching me they would peek around the corner to see my progress. Here I was a sweat drenched monkey slaving away on this building with a smile on his snout a mile wide. I am sure they wondered why or thought I was crazy, I was so happy all the time. I was not even so sure why myself at first. Until one hot afternoon  I was taking a break just sitting on the top of the hut.  I looked out across the fields of animals  then I realized why, No pressure. I did not have to be here I could walk away at any time if I needed to, no contracts or slinging stuff at each other trying to get a cheaper price none of the usual monkey business. What was even crazier is that I was going faster then normal working harder and enjoying every minute of it. If I could work like this building tree houses I would be rich.
I remember the day when they brought the elephant in, it was before I was finished with her house. She was very big and she looked like she was in in really good shape for not being wanted. I  also noticed the men that brought her they were very friendly and concerned about her. I expected her to be all beat up and thin and men whipping her or something. Over the next few weeks the elephant and I became friends. It took a while at first. Every now and then she would trumpet and spray her slobber all over me.  She acted like she was doing me a favor I was just disgusted because I had to lick it off my fur for the next twenty miniutes.  Then she started to open up my lunch and take what ever she wanted when I was not looking.  Pretty soon I learned to pack two lunches, one for her and one for me. She liked taking my food when I was not looking. So I put the lunch I packed for her right where I used to keep mine. She thought she was still stealing it an she loved it. I used to catch her in the act and pretend I didn't see her. This lasted for weeks it was great. It also wasen't to bad having a 4000  pound friend on your side. I finished building the elephant hut.  I was standing back looking at my accomplishment with white beard the guy who owns all of this and he said " I am going to curse that elephant every day she is here." My stomach leaped in my throat and I said "what"? White beard said. "Oh I meant the building is so great I would love to have it for myself  he said jokingly. I thought that it was a strange thing to say. I shrugged it off like he was taunting me for fun.  I had proved myself to him, that I could be trusted I had earned the right to be close to all the animals. He told me to use my judgejment with the animals and he now was giving me full access to all of them. He even gave me keys to go inside with the animals up close. I was thinking nobody can get this close to these kinds of wild animals anymore.
This would be the beginning of what turned out to be the best and the worst times of my life all rolled up together .