I am a primatologist who spends twelve hours most days in the company of a thirteen year old chimpanzee named Bow. I am also an editor with Inverted-A Press.
Bow has a very clear sense of order -- a sense of how things should be. For instance, though the pen system uses an iron grid to keep us enclosed and safe from intruders, the pens also have their own heat and air, and there are glass doors that keep the air in the rest of the house and the air from the outdoors from coming into the inner pens. The other day, I left one of the glass doors, the one that leads to the house open. Bow pointed toward the door, but I though he was just pointing to the front yard, as he sometimes does when he wants me to go for a walk, But when I asked him to clarify, he spelled: "סגרי את הדלת" -- "Close the door!"
Yesterday, I decided to do some more work on the painting in progress of the Liberian chimpanzees. Bow lay on his blanket while I worked. I am having trouble with the lower jaw of the chimp on the left. I cannot seem to get it quite right. When Bow saw that I had paused in my work, he asked to see it.
Bow looked at the painting for a moment, and then set to work licking the parts that needed a re-do,
I was not upset. The painting actually looked better after he had smudged out the offending part.
I'll try to do better next time. With an art critic like Bow in the house, my painting is bound to improve.
Why would anybody choose to be cooped up indoors when he could roam free instead? Why would anybody go to work every day in a closed box, when they could be looking at butterflies and flowers all day? Why would a chimpanzee stay in an enclosure rather than go out into the world? Why would a kitten choose to go into a storage shed, when it knows once the door closes, it can't get out till I open it?
The world is full of mysteries.
Bow, for instance, has choices now and has had choices in the past. Each of us do. Millions of people go to work every day in a closed box where they cannot see the outdoors, and they don't come out until it is practically night, and then they go home to another closed box. Yes, they say they do it in order to make a living, but most of what their income pays for is a box to live in. If they did not want to live in a box -- if they wanted to live outdoors instead -- then they would not even need that income.
But I'm not here to tell you about the average employee or about Bow. I'm here to tell you about the kitten. Yesterday, I realized that the kitten likes to be put it in storage. It actually looks forward to its time in the storage shed.
We were walking along and came across another turtle.
The kitten pretended not to be interested.
However, in time its curiosity for the better of it, and it went to inspect the turtle.
It happened like this. The kitten keeps following me on all my walks, just as if it were a dog.
When we spotted the turtle by the lagoon, the kitten took a break, while the turtle tried to decide what to do.
While the turtle was considering, the kitten moved in to inspect it. So I decided to take action. I picked up the kitten by the scruff of its neck and took it to the storage shed. But... I had my phone in one hand and the kitten in the other, so I put the kitten down gently on the grass, while I opened the door to the shed. Now, since we have been through this several times before, you would think the kitten would take this time to escape and avoid incarceration. But, no! The kitten wanted to go in the shed. It waited patiently for me to open the door, and almost walked in by itself. But it hesitated a little, instead allowing me to pick it up again and put it in the shed and close the door.
Eventually, the turtle got up the courage to walk a little.
And then I went for the rest of my nature walk.
I saw two insects sharing a thistle flower.
I saw a hummingbird moth pretty close up in my pasture.
This is the closest I have gotten to a hummingbird moth, but it still looks tiny.
And then when the walk was over -- and it was a very long walk -- I opened the shed door. You would think the kitten would bound out, hungry for freedom, right? But no, it got up slowly, ambled up to the door, sniffed, and then, as if asking itself if leaving the shed was really worth the effort, it jumped out.
I am beginning to think this kitten really wants to be an indoor cat.
If you have ever raised a teen-aged boy, then you know they need alone time. It is no different with Bow. There was a time when he was a tiny baby, clinging to me for dear life and upset if I walked away for a moment. But that time is not now. He is thirteen, going on fourteen, and sometimes he tells me in no uncertain terms that I need to leave.
Now when I say that he tells me in no uncertain terms, I do not mean that he is not polite. Sometimes he even makes it sound as if it is about me. He will spell out that I should go outside, and if I ask him why, he says "because it is good", and he makes it sound as if he is thinking about my well-being, and it all seems so sweet. But certain clues on my return let me know why he needed that alone time.
Do chimpanzee get embarrassed? Yes, if they have been raised with humans. And even though Bow has less privacy than a normal human teenager in the arrangement that we have here, he does contrive to do some things in private.
Bow looking at models in the fall issue of Bazaar
Have I been thinking about his social needs? Of course. Do I want him to have chimpanzee friends and a girl friend? Yes. But his chimpanzee friends can't be savages, either. Bow is civilized. He needs civilized friends. Friends who knock on his door, respect his privacy and do not just come barging in. He also needs to be shielded from "inspectors" who think they can come and look at him any time they like. He needs the right to privacy, the right to refuse admission and all the other rights that he has come to take for granted. And if he works, he needs the right to negotiate over pay, and the right to set limits as to what he will or will not do. The people who talk about chimpanzees being "legal persons" actually don't intend to give the chimpanzees in their "sanctuaries" any of these rights. It's a sham.
So, yes, I go on these long walks chasing butterflies for my own amusement, but also to give Bow a breather from having to constantly behave like a gentleman around his mother. And sometimes he tells me in words, which are spelled, but at other times he very gently takes me by the shoulder, turns me around and points to the door. He is so sweet in the way he firmly, but with all due respect, lets me know when my presence is not needed.
A Monarch Butterfly in the neighbors' pasture across the fence
Lately, in my long walks, it has come to my attention that there are, in fact, Monarchs among us. I spot them in my pasture. I spot them in the neighbors' pasture. But they are always far away, and when they fly, they fly high, and I can never seem to get the same sorts of photos of them that I can of the Common Buckeye, the Pearl Crescent, the Red-spotted Purple or the Eastern Tailed-blue. Not to mention the Great Spangled Fritillary when the purple milkweed is blooming.
Yesterday afternoon, I spotted a lone Monarch in the neighbors' pasture across the fence, and as I was watching, it actually flew over the fence, almost straight at me, but in zigzags. over my head, right past my left eye, and through my orchard to my pasture. But I did not get one clear shot!
The Monarch in Flight Moving Closer
The best that I could do was see a very small portion of its wings as it flew right past my face.
Can you tell it's a Monarch from this snippet of its wings?
And even though it was my own pasture it disappeared into, I could not follow it there. Too much poison ivy!
The Monarch flying through my orchard
In the evening, when I went to feed the kitten in the barn, I saw a Monarch resting high in an oak tree at the edge of my woods.
A Monarch resting on an oak leaf
This is my chance, I thought. It is evening and the Monarch is resting, so I can come in for a better shot.
Monarch flitting away
But when the Monarch saw me, it just flitted away. I guess even butterflies need their privacy! They want to rest far from prying eyes.
The first living being I saw when I went out for my walk yesterday afternoon -- after being greeted by the kitten, of course -- was a three-toed box turtle on the grassy area in the middle of my internal road.
The turtle kept its head out, but it seemed a little traumatized, and it had white damaged areas on the top of its shell. The kitten pretended at first not to be interested at all, but it did walk by a couple of times.
"I am just minding my own business," the kitten seemed to be saying. "Do not pay any attention to me."
The turtle is alert and wary
The turtle looked alert, wary and concerned. The kitten affected ennui and rolled up in a ball on the road behind me.
The Kitten Pretending not to be Interested
However, every time I backed away from the turtle, the kitten went to examine it.
The Kitten Moves In
And when the turtle finally worked up the courage to walk away, the kitten followed it.
So I picked up the kitten by the scruff of its neck, as a mother cat would, and I let the turtle continue with its progress. But the turtle only tried to hide in the longer grass under the oak trees in the tear drop turn, and I realized it would not really go where it wanted to go until I was out of sight. And yet I could not go back in the house and leave the kitten out there, because there was no reason to suppose it would leave the turtle alone.
The Kitten in Storage
So again, as I had done once before, I deposited the kitten in the little storage shed, and after that I realized I could go for a long walk in the pasture without being followed by the kitten, while the turtle could do it its own thing.
I checked on the turtle on more time. It was still in the same spot, and then on my way to the pasture, I saw a Common Buckeye.
Even though I had seen a common buckeye up close before, this was the first time I was struck with how the markings on the back of its wings make a face, if you just look at it the right way.
Can you see the image of the face on the wings of the Buckeye?
You have to be facing it from just the right angle before it looks like a face. The big circles are like eyes, the medium-sized circles in the center are like nostrils, and the smaller circles on the sides are like ear holes. I don't know what animal the buckeye is pretending to be, but I have read that the circles are meant to confuse predators. So though butterflies predate vertebrates on the evolutionary scale, they must have evolved later to mimic their faces, so as to frighten other vertebrates away. And the intelligence that drives the design on the back of the butterfly is not that of the butterfly itself -- it's ours! Not necessarily humans, but any animal capable of making out that face drawing on the back of the wings, is the true author of the design. Now there is a twist on the theory of intelligent design: that later developed animals shape designs on the back of less evolved animals. It's our ability to recognize the gestalt that made it useful to the butterfly!
The butterfly does not need to think the design looks like a face. But if predators do and are scared, the design will be replicated. And then multiple copies will be available, just as in the case of a best selling book.
As a writer, this idea is very discouraging to me, since it means that it's not the story I wrote that is important, but only what readers are able to understand from the story I wrote. It is not my intelligence that limits the effect of my efforts: it is the intelligence of readers.
Later in my walk I came across a much plainer butterfly. It seemed to be trying to look like a dead leaf. I think it might be called a Clover Looper. Looking like a leaf is a good strategy right now, as fall is almost upon us.
It's thistle season again, and though many of the flowers are still closed, a few have already opened for business and are attended by very busy bees.
My property is like a park, a nature preserve of sorts.
I go for a walk here the way some city dwellers go to the park. And I get to decide what exotics will share this paradise with me, even if they are not native to the area and do pose a threat to the wildlife.
Letting the Kitten out of Storage
After I got back from my walk, I let the kitten back out of storage. The turtle was long gone by then. Some people say cats belong indoors all day. Some people say humans should not own animals. No matter what you do, there is going to be somebody to criticize it. But I did not ask for this cat. I found a kitten in a stroller in my barn, and I did not want it to die, so I fed it. This does not mean I am a cat lover, but I am not a cat hater, either. I am trying to find some kind of balance between what is right for the kitten and what is best for me and all the rest of the animals on my property.
Bow happily engages Leo
When I returned to the pens, Bow asked to go outside, and immediately went to engage Leo in play. He looked happy.
Early in the morning after breakfast, Bow is sleepy.
Later as he wakens, he will ask to go outside. There Bow gets to strut his stuff.
He flexes his muscles and is king of all he surveys.
Meanwhile, I looks at the dayflowers while they are still open.
I have been spending a lot more time in the backyard, lately, because that is the only part of my outdoor property where the kitten cannot go.
The backyard is guarded by ferocious dogs -- Leo and Brownie -- and no cat may enter there. But late in the afternoon, Bow expects me to go for a walk, and if I do not go of my own accord, he tells me to go in no uncertain terms. He likes his alone time.
There are many more opportunities to meet butterflies in the front yard than in the back.
There are crescent pearls on sunflowers, silver-spotted skippers on wildflowers in the pasture.
Bumblebees share the blossoms with the skippers.
But just as I am most immersed in nature, I suddenly here that familiar meowing.
And I see that the kitten is right there at my heels.
I would probably never even venture out of the house, anymore, if it were not that Bow needs his alone time.
I have found that if I do a little mowing in the backyard every day, it does not have to become an overwhelming chore.
Leo is very invested in my mowing
I can take lots of little breaks to smell the flowers.
The Asian dayflowers bloom early each day and then wilt
Leo and Brownie and Bow are all there to participate, each in his own way.
Bow watches me as I mow from inside the outer pen
Sometimes I will take a break on the trampoline, and can view everything that is happening in the yard from a nice vantage point.
Of course, I am not as high up as, say, a kitten on the roof, but that is okay.
Even though I have only mowed about half the yard today, I can take time off when lunch comes around. Later Bow suggests that I go out for a walk in the front yard. I ask him why, and he says because it is good. But he adds: "רק אל תדברי עם החתול". "Just don't talk to the cat."
I don't talk to the kitten, but there is no way I can keep it from talking to me, as it meows at me from the roof as I go out the front door for my walk.
In the pasture there are many new flowers I have not seen before.
Because the path through the pasture passes right by the barn, I have been avoiding it, thinking this would get the kitten to following me.
But now that I know that the kitten does not spend any time in the barn at all, and that it is on the roof all the time, I feel better about venturing into this unspoiled wilderness without an exotic carnivore at my heals.
I can observe the bumblebee on the blossom without fear of disturbance from a feline follower.
"This blossom is occupied," said the beetle to the bumblebee.
On my way back down the path after completing a circuit of the pasture, I encounter a couple of turtles. They are going single file, one after the other.
Could it be mating season? Is this a male pursuing a female? (My turtle expert, Pam Keyes later confirms this.)
Just then I hear a meowing in the background.
The kitten suddenly appears and moves in to investigate.
Just let me check what it smells like!
This is a bit disturbing. What would a kitten do with a turtle, if left to its own devices? It backs away from the turtles when I am watching, but I do not trust it alone with them.
Eventually, as the kitten will not go far so long as the turtles are still there and I am still there, and I am concerned about what might happen if I leave first, I pick up the kitten by the scruff of its neck -- which it allows, as I am like a mother cat when I do this -- and I lock it momentarily in a storage building where we keep discarded toys.When I return moments later to check on the turtles, they are nowhere in sight. They move fast when you are not looking! So I go back and let the kitten out of storage. It follows me all the way home, and once I am inside it probably goes back up on the roof.
I meant to do as Bow asked and not talk to the cat, but that is more easily said than done.
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