Bow's Friends

Most of us tend to have friends who are people we happen to have met along life's path and who keep in touch with us. Bow has many friends, too, that he has met over the years and with whom he has established relationships.

This year, for instance, Bow has two women friends that he looks forward to seeing once a week, each of them on a different day, who deliver food to us. He knows when each of them is expected, and he waits, and when they come, he has a somewhat different, but similar routine of greeting each of them and interacting. In the case of the one lady, he always hides at first, then shyly comes out to greet her. In the case of the other, he likes to do warm ups before jumping a great distance toward the front door of the pen. Each of these friends is very patient with Bow and allows him to take his time to warm up to them anew, which is one of the reasons he likes them. They accept him for who he is. They don't expect him to conform to any preconceived notion as to what is a socially appropriate way of greeting people.

This year, one of the ladies gave him a picture of herself and her family before Christmas break. The other brought us a platter of Christmas cookies. Bow was actually more interested in interacting with her in the usual way, rather than looking at the cookies, when  she came over yesterday. But he did have one of the cookies she brought for dessert last night at dinner.

It gets really dark very early in the evening at this time of year, and despite all the lights we have on in the pens, the video and pictures of Bow's Christmas tree cookie are kind of dim.

It is nice to have friends. Bow appreciates his friends and looks forward to their visits. No matter how isolated we may seem to be, there are always opportunities to meet new people and make friends.

Enjoying the Little Moments

Day by day, there is enough going on here to keep Bow engaged and interested in things that happen all around us. If there is no actual snake to show up, there are always Leo's zany antics to keep us all amused. Leo is still very much a puppy, though fully grown now. His imagination sometimes creates drama where there is none. For instance, he barks at phantom occupants of an empty garbage bin.

There was nothing in that bin --  I checked! That was on Tuesday. Other things that happened on Tuesday: Bow went into the outer pen, but refused to step on the wet concrete. He has infinite patience and a gymnast's agility -- plus the absolute determination not to get his feet wet.

Eventually, he got on the swing and used it as a platform from which to vocalize.

These are fun things to do, whether or not you have companions of your own kind to keep you company. But in any case, Bow is not alone. I am there with him twelve hours a day, every day, except on my day off, which is usually Wednesday. That's when Lawrence comes in. 

Bow enjoys Lawrence's company immensely, but Lawrence does not get to go in with Bow until Bow decides it is all right. Bow sometimes spends as long as fifteen minutes displaying at him, before he calms down and allows Lawrence to go in. Their day together then proceeds along leisurely lines, sometimes playing and wrestling, sometimes grooming, and often just sitting around together as two buddies will, watching the world go by.

Meanwhile, I am off running important errands, such as purchasing bananas at the local grocery store. Yesterday, I bought twice as many of the green bananas there as I usually do, because last week I didn't buy many. Last week I had my day off on a Tuesday, on account of the talk at the Dent County Historical Society, and the new shipment of bananas always comes on a Wednesday. So even though I dropped by the store on my day off, all that was left were overripe bananas with brown spots.

When the lady at the counter saw how many bananas I was getting yesterday, she asked: "Is Bow having company over?" At first, I thought she meant Lawrence, and I was going to say yes. But then I realized she meant another chimpanzee. She thought I might be getting extra bananas for a guest chimp.  I had to admit that alas, no, although it would have been great for Bow to have a guest of his own kind, I was just making up for the week before.

We are surrounded by a beautiful natural setting. The pens are big enough to accommodate two. But though he is not yet acquainted with any other chimpanzees, Bow is not alone. And day by day, life is good.

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Shortcuts in spelling

After Megan's departure, things settled down to their regular routine. Bow was satisfied. I was spending my regular twelve hours in the pen with him, and he gave no trouble, offered no resistance, but behaved like a perfect little gentleman.

There was a carnival in the small town closest to us, and Sword and I went there, two nights in a row. Each night, without making any appointment in advance, Sword spotted a friend, and the two of them would go on all the rides together, chattering away to each other as they spun around or were tossed about on a miniature roller coaster. Each time, I made conversation with the mother of Sword's friend, but the small talk we exchanged could not include: I have a little chimp boy at home who can spell and speak in complete sentences, but I just can't get him to behave. In both cases, the other mothers knew about Bow and even inquired about him, but the sorts of answers I gave were about the small stuff, and not about the fact that he has language.

Something really enormous has happened here, but because the breakthrough occurred three years ago, and got no acknowledgment, we tend to talk about other things. Somebody learns to talk or to spell only once in a lifetime, and after a while those things become routine, and we take no notice of them anymore.

On Sunday, we had a visit from a fellow primatologist. She was one of the professors who had recommended Megan, and she knew all about Megan's progress with Bow. Megan had emailed her telling of how at first Bow was reluctant to speak to her, then used single words, and finally ended up using full sentences with her. She even related how Bow had told her he was "lucky".  And then, of course, she also told of how Bow had been mean to her, and why she decided not to stay.

Bow liked the primatologist, and played chase with her through the glass. After she left, he said that she was good and that he hoped she would come again.

Then on Monday, Lawrence came, and there was a sort of mini-breakthrough on the touchscreen. For the  longest time, Bow hasn't said a single thing using his computer, preferring to break the chopsticks rather than point at letters. But yesterday, Lawrence was just sitting there with Bow, and he decided to play with the touchscreen himself. There was no plan or intent, involved. He just spelled "b-o-w", and the computer pronounced it wrong, as if it were a command to bow down to someone. (I've known for a long time that it mispronounces Bow's name, but there's not much I can do about it.) However, Lawrence wanted it to pronounce Bow's name correctly, so he spelled "b-o", and the computer said it right this time.

Bow had been watching lazily from the sidelines. But now he came over, took the chopstick from Lawrence and spelled "b-o". Again, the computer pronounced his name.

At this point, Bow lost interest in the computer and began playing roughly with the chopstick. Lawrence, concerned that he would break it, said:  "Bow, give me the chopstick!"

Bow looked at him in the manner of an impudent child, then he took the chopstick and pointed at a single letter: "y". The computer said: "Why?"

Lawrence is convinced that this is exactly what Bow meant to do: to challenge Lawrence verbally over his command to relinquish the chopstick.

Two issues spring to mind: if the computer allows for creative spelling, how do we prove what Bow meant? Secondly, do we really want a computer program that encourages Bow to spell things wrong? On the glass, he would never have thought to say "y". He would have spelled it out: "w-h-y".