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Thursday, August 4, 2011

A Thank You From Bow

Yesterday, Rex the Welder came to add support bars to the existing structure of Bow's pens. The pens are plenty strong, but Bow is a growing adolescent who likes to display his strength by hurling himself full force against the walls of the pen. Believe it or not, he has no intention of breaking out, but he can inadvertently damage the structure, and here at Project Bow we take safety very seriously. So yesterday,  Rex the Welder came by to add horizontal support bars, to make an already strong steel structure even stronger. The bars were added to both the internal and external structure of the pens.

Before any work could begin, Bow and Rex spent some time socializing. Bow loves Rex! Rex is a very athletic guy with a nice sense of fun, and so they spent about ten minutes before Rex got to work playing chase and hyperventilating at each other. Bow gave Rex quite a warm up exercise!


When Rex had done, Bow gave all the new bars a good testing out, before he was convinced they would withstand his strength. He even tried to bite them, to see if they were made of wood or metal. 

Today, Bow has been having great fun perching on the support bars, walking on his tiptoes on them like an acrobat, and hurling himself off them. I even tried the bars myself, and we had great fun playing together. Finally, Bow took me to the glass and spelled in Hebrew: "Thank you for giving me something new to play with."

And people think chimpanzees are incapable of gratitude!

4 comments:

  1. I don't know why people would think chimpanzees are incapable of gratitude! It's usually people who are incapable of gratitude! :D

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  2. Suzanne, human beings and chimpanzees are not all that different. Some of them are more grateful than others, but it seems to be an individual thing.

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  3. I believe many different creatures are grateful for things. I can tell Bow is grateful, and why did anyone imply chimpanzees are not. I used to know my cats were grateful when I got them a special treat, as they would sit in my lap afterward. Suzanne is right, it is usually people who are not grateful.

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  4. Thanks, Julia, for your comment. I know that Bow is grateful in this particular instance, and I was touched by his gratitude. I think almost every animal, including humans, is capable of gratitude. The thing that may surprise us is what they are most grateful for. It's not always what we thought it was going to be.

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