Koestler woke up at dawn feeling very fit, while Babbitt spent the morning in abject misery. He would retreat to the corner of the doctor’s office and hold his head in his hands; then he would approach Koestler (who was busy at his desk), pull on the doctor’s pant leg, and implore him for help. Koestler cheerfully abused the animal by uttering such clichés as “If you want to dance, Georgie, you have to pay the fiddler. Now stop pestering me,” and “You’ve sold your soul to the Devil, and there’s not a thing I can do for you! Are you happy with yourself now?”

When Koestler finished his paperwork, he showed the baboon some Polaroids he had taken of it vomiting in the night. “Look at you,” he said. “This is utterly disgraceful. What would your mother think of this? I’ve got a good mind to send them to her.”

Babbitt abruptly left the room to guzzle water from a rain puddle but quickly returned when some Africans outside, who had witnessed the folly of the previous afternoon, began laughing derisively. He fled to his corner and held his head and, to Koestler’s amazement, he was still there when the doctor came back to the room for a wash before dinner. The animal presented himself to Koestler like the prodigal son.

“I could fix it all with a shot, Georgie, but then you’ll never learn, will you? Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah and out drunk again.”

Babbitt buried his head in his hand and groaned mournfully.

Koestler finally took pity on him and gave him a B12 injection with five milligrams of amphetamine sulfate. In a half hour, Babbitt seemed as good as new, apart from a sore neck. The doctor took care of this by fixing Babbitt up with a small cervical collar cinched with Velcro. Koestler expected Babbitt to rip it off, but the animal was glad for the relief it provided. Koestler watched as Babbitt retreated to a hammock that hung in the gazebo under the baobab tree. In almost no time, he was sleeping peacefully. At the sight of Babbitt snoring in the absurd cervical collar, Koestler began to laugh, and he forgave his pet for most of the nonsense he had pulled during his drunken spree.