Page 16 - Animal Kin

trusted me and wasn’t upset. Then I held him out away from any branches and dropped him down to some bushes below. I slid and climbed down so fast and one of the men handed me the bandana. I untied the knots and opened it up and there was Gimlet’s bright eye looking right at me! He was fine and the men were amazed and I walked back up to tell my friend what had happened.
You would think I had learned my lesson about him being able to fly but I guess I didn’t because I had another scary incident with him. I was older, 18, and was taking a trip to Mexico. I had just finished high school and wanted to see
a little of the world and thought that Gimlet would be a nice travel companion and that I wouldn’t feel homesick or lonely if he was with me. My mother pointed out that travel could be hard on him, that he could get sick or something bad could happen, but I still thought that it would be ok. I had to get him a special health certificate from a vet and have an identification band put on his leg and then we were set to go.
On one of my first days in Mexico we had a big scare. It was a bright but hazy morning- the sun hurt your eyes but the sky was gray. I was sitting on the beach with Gimlet for the first time- a long sandy beach with rocky points in the dis- tance both to the north and south. Two young boys saw