cars

The next morning I began my slow journey, moving through the tall, wet grass, my limbs stiff from the cold.

Now and then, I’d drink from a mud puddle or gnaw on some grass. By evening I was wobbly with hunger and thirst.

I followed the highway. Every time a four-wheeled creature roared by, I froze in fear. And yet—and this is what slays me—I knew that cars meant humans, and humans meant the possibility of living, just as much as they meant the possibility of dying.

the owl

Darkness had fallen when it came out of nowhere, the owl.

A shadow in a shadow.

They don’t make a sound, you know. Not a sound.

It’s quite impressive, when you think about it.

luck

Just as her talons, those marvelous weapons, raked my fur, I caught my right front foot in a small hole and stumbled.

If she’d gotten hold of my body, I wouldn’t be here. But all she managed to do was grab my tail.

Only time in my life I’ve regretted my handsome hindquarters.

I was airborne, hanging upside down, dizzy and dazed. And just crazy enough to think, Hey, I’m actually flying, before the terror hit full force.

I caught a whiff of other animals below. Later I found out they were pocket gophers, but back then I just knew I was smelling something completely foreign.

The owl must have decided the gophers would make a more satisfying meal. She let loose her grip, and I plummeted to the earth.

more luck

Maybe it was my puppy fat, or my soft bones, or my incredible good fortune.

But I didn’t die.

Didn’t even break anything.

I’d flown twice in my short life and lived to tell the tale.

will

I found a small hollow at the base of a fallen tree. Poked my nose in and got a swat and hiss from a grouchy raccoon.

Kept going. Waddling, whimpering.

Lights ahead. New, strange smells.

Kept going.

It’s amazing how much the sheer will not to die can keep you moving.

exit 8

I finally came to a small road curving off the main highway. Exit 8, turned out to be. A big billboard overhead had a picture of a terrifying animal on it.

Course I didn’t know what a billboard was. Didn’t know that the scary animal was a gorilla, let alone that he would become my dearest friend.

But something told me to follow the off-ramp.

And eventually I ended up at the Exit 8 Big Top Mall and Video Arcade, Home of the One and Only Ivan.

history

I made it to the mall. Slept in dirty hay by some garbage bins. The next night, I found that hole in Ivan’s cage. Stole his banana. Slept on his belly. And the rest, as they say, is history.