mail har kommit men inte från zooet, däremot från Uncle Eddie som var och är mannen som tog med sig Cheeta och Herman till USA. Något jag normalt inte gör skall jag göra nu och det är att jag klistrar in det han skrev till mig. Det skall skrivas in på Afrika sidan men det gör jag senare.
Inga tröstande ord vill jag ha heller i min gästbok för det är inte därför jag skriver detta. År av frågor och äntligen får jag veta och det känns i hela mig. Mailet är på engelska och vill någon veta något så fråga gärna i gästboken eller via mail så svarar jag, alla har inte haft engelska sedan barnsben.
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Skickat: den 23 april 2004 04:41
Ämne: Hey Du
Well Carina you can see I still remember the Swedesh greeting.
Thank you very much for the four pictures, the reason I seen then was that my son Roger, in his travels came through Tampa yesterday and stayed with me for a few hours. From his instructions I may be able to download pictures myself, if I havent forgetten how to do that. Now the picture with your mother holding the two chinps, Herman on the left and Gita on the right Is just great. Now the little girl on the left is no other than my daughter Sandy. Its great that you are writing to the Zoo, let me know what answeres they give you.
Now Carina, if they dont answere your questions, then address your letter to the president of the Zoo. His name is Lex Sallesbery. He is from Austrailia, and has been with the Zoo for about 17 years. He started in charge of the Aviary and worked his way up to the presidency. In fact Lex is the one who introduced me to Jane Goodall when she was here for a while. In fact Jane was in love with Herman, he was so differint from all the other chimps she has met and asked about his history and that is how I got to meet her. Believe me she is a nice sweet lady. Have some pictures with Jane and I and Kicki will see them when she comes.
Yes, now I see your mother holding the chimps in one picture, and I remember her very well. And your Dad too. We used to drink together now and then and had some good times together. Does Your dad have an email address? If so please send it to me. And be sure to tell him we are in contact. Am sending this email to about eight other people, am learning more each day about this computor business. Gita died in the late 80s about 2-3 weeks before we opened up the great addition to the zoo which included the chimp island. (thats when Jane Goodall came) anyway Herman is by far the oldest resident of the Zoo animals and people too.
Am sorry to say Carina that no one (outside of Lex) knew Gita. Gita usually came out of the nightbox and layed on top of it in the morning. Now I will tell you what was told to me by the chimp keeper who was a good man. For about two days she lost her appetite, and ate very little. Now this is a fact, Herman would take a handfull of food to her and put it in her lap, then she ate a small amount. then Herman took a handfull of grapes, which as you know the chimps are wild about. and put them again in her lap. She ate a few but not much. The management then called the vet that afternoon. Well the next morning the keeper seen her lying on her nightbox, which was not unusual as she looked like she was sleeping. but after an hour they realized that something was wrong. So they had to give herman a sleeping pill (this is put in an apple or bannana) and when he went to sleep they took Gitta out and found out that she had passed away..
Later in the day they called me and I went to the vets hospital and they brought her to me. I just kept looking at her for a long time, remembering all the fun times we all had together. Its hard to remember all the things we had together in life, she was a full grown chimpanzee, and looked nothing like she was when she was young. When I donated them to the Zoo we had a written agreement signed by the mayor of tampa that the city of tampa would keep them forever ( I was offered $5000.00 for the pair from a medical firm and I told them to get lost)
From the first day in the zoo to the end never has a zoo employee ever gone in the cage with them. I went every week with apples fruit and cookies in my pockets, and of course had my own key to the cage and went in and played with them till about 1980, then after that common sense must prevail, ……..and no more. but however always fed them through the bars. There is a sharp line of definition between bravado and stupidity and common sense should prevail. Regardless of how much I played with the chimps I still have my ten fingers.
Well Carina one day we will meet and talk some more about chimps. Tell your Mother and Dad I said hello. And by the way tell your Dad that I still remember the way to make a scandinavian toast the way that he taught me to take a drink. (wonder if he remembers……I do) Will be looking forward to picking up Kicki at the airport at 5:35 May 7. Love, Uncle Eddy Forgive any spelling errors, I dont use that computor benefit.
