Easy, Moses, Bisket and Pintus Help Foley Find a Dog Among Apes

One morning this week I came upon my good friend Easy the Weimaraner.   He was on the dock doing one of his DIY projects. He loves these endeavors.  It is a tribute to his parents who gloriously undertook many such projects and spectacularly failed at most of them.

“What you are planning to do once you have it built?” I asked Easy.

“I don’t know, maybe just float around.”

We heard barking and saw our buddy Bisket running down the hill.  “Is that a boat?” he asked. We informed him it was. “Have you heard about the dog who went the wrong way off the Bridge and is now living in the jungle?”  We said we hadn’t. Bisket told us he knew someone who did and ran off. I looked at Easy and shrugged.

He came back with  Moses. He has been at the Bridge longer than any other friend.  “Yes,” Moses said. “I have heard of the dog Bisket mentioned. We have never had a boat that could take us that far down river, but this boat,” he put a paw on Easy’s shoulder, “just might get us there.”  It was hard to tell, but I think Easy was blushing.
We had not noticed that Bisket had run off again.  When he came back, he brought Pintus. “We are getting in Easy’s boat and going south to find the dog that lives with the apes,” Bisket explained to  Pintus. “And since you lived south of the border we thought you could be our guide.”

“Well,” Pintus spoke carefully.  “I do think this is a bit of racial profiling but if it Iets me go on the boat and it moves the story along I will be happy to do it.”

We headed down the river.   Being an Easy DIY project, the boat leaked and we had to bail which made us not see the waterfall.  We fell over it but luckily the boat landed upright, and we were able to land on it.

Then we floated ashore.  Pintus said the waterfall dropped us into the jungle.  We could hear the animals screeching around us. Moses and Pintus went first to blaze the trail.  Easy and Bisket were next. They were big dogs and quickly went through the brush, but I kept having it snapped back in my face so Easy said I could ride him.  I felt like an important jungle leader or a monkey on an elephant; I couldn’t tell which.

We came upon a family of apes, and we were passing through respectfully when we heard barking.  In the middle of the pack of apes was a collie, sitting up on its back legs like an ape. We stopped.

I rode Easy over to the pack and introduced myself.  “What is your name?” I asked the collie.

“I am Mali,” the collies said.  “I am a prince in the ape family.”

“You look like a dog,” Bisket, who had followed us over with our three friends, said.  
Mali growled at us.  “I was born a dog, but I never felt like one.  I was given families to live with, but I always ran off.  I was born free and will always be free.”

Behind the pack, some lions began to assemble.  You have to be careful with them. They are like kitties who can kick your ass.  

“Maybe you would like to come back with us and try living like a dog,” Pintus said.
“No, I am not a dog, I am an ape,” Mali insisted.

We started barking, and the apes started screeching and then Moses, who is the wisest amongst us, quieted everyone and looked at Mali.  “Are you an ape?” Moses asked.
Mali said he was.

“Then we must respect his decision,” Moses said.  “If he says he is an ape then he is an ape.” He then hugged Mali.

We realized that Moses was right  We joined in the hug and then spent the day with the apes as we watched Mali swing through the trees and then he taught us how to do it.  I didn’t do well because I have short arms but Biskit and Easy were great at it.

At the end of the day, we left Mali and told him he could visit us anytime.  We went back up the river and had to fly up the waterfall. We got home and slept on the river bank.  Before I fell asleep, I thanked Moses for teaching me if a soul doesn’t want to be a dog they don’t have to be a dog.


It is a lesson for us all.