Hi again,
Sorry I haven't posted in a while - I'm going to make up for it, I promise.
It seems Dad couldn't resist writing a story for my Tapir of long-ago. And I couldn't resist posting it. I like it a lot better than the story I'd planned for it.
Next I will have to get something of my sister's up here but like most teenagers, I think her art is a closely guarded secret. Anyway, thanks for being the sole dedicated reader of my blog - yes, I'm talking to you Jen! You can't hide forever!
Tommy was usually an unusually happy
Tapir. Except today his friend Sammy the Orang-utan told him
something he didn’t understand.
“We’re in danger of becoming
stinked?” said Tommy.
“Not stinked, Ex-tinct.” said
Sammy, casually unpeeling a banana.
“You already stink Sammy” teased
Tommy. He flicked some muddy water at Sammy playfully. The Orang-utan
batted it away with his big hands and peered back at Tommy seriously.
“Do you know what Extinct means
Tommy?”
“Nope” said Tommy munching on
some leaves and wiggling an ear. Sammy sighed.
“It means after you die there
might not be any more Tapirs.”
Tommy thought about this for a
moment. It didn’t seem to be a big deal. Mum and Dad will always
be here even if he didn’t have any brothers or sisters, and in any
case all my friends are other animals like Sammy. But Sammy looked a
bit sad and as Sammy was older and wiser than him he thought he’d
better try listening a bit harder.
“Men
keep cutting down the forest and soon there will be nowhere for you
to go” said Sammy scratching his chest.
“But you live in the forest too,
where will Orang-utans go?”
“Oh we’ll be just fine, were
cousins of Man they are going to look after us, keep a bit of forest
just for us or put us in a nice zoo”
“What’s a zoo?” asked Tommy
“It’s a special place where Men
take their cubs to look at animals and you get fed by men called
keepers”
“That sounds nice, can I go to a
zoo?”
“Hmmm doubt it. Tapirs are not very
interesting are they?” said Sammy looking Tommy up and down
“I mean what does a Tapir do?”
“Men-cubs like animals that do
stuff or look fierce like Lions, not stand around all day in muddy
hollows snuffling about” Sammy said a little unkindly
“But we are quite cuddly aren’t
we?” said Tommy feeling a little hurt
Tommy thought it might be nice being
cuddled by a man cub.
He also thought it might be nice to
go to a Zoo and wondered what all the other animals would be like?
Would they be kind to him or mean?
