Page 19 - Animal Kin

out over the ocean. Then I looked down and saw that one of them was holding Gimlet! They had been back on the street that runs along the beach and he had landed right in front
of them! I couldn't even remember one word of Spanish to thank them for finding him and bringing him back to me. But I hugged them both and I’m sure they understood how grate- ful I was. Then I took Gimlet back to his cage and had final- ly learned my lesson about having him outside in big open places.
Everywhere I went on that trip Gimlet made friends with kids. It turned out that he liked kids better than grownups and I never worried that he would bite them as long as they were gentle with him. After two months we were ready to go home and I was a little nervous about whether his papers were going to work for bringing him back into the U.S. On the plane he slept in my shirt. I was tempted to just keep him there as I arrived but I decided to put him in his cage and just present his papers along with my own. The official who looked at our papers peered into the cage and said, “You must have had a big adventure, little fella”. Gimlet cocked his head as if he understood and looked right at the man and I answered for him- “Yes, a huge adventure!”