The Red Slender Loris

Jooby the loris, was actually, in fact, called a red slender loris. His mother had told him this one night while teaching him how to eat sap from trees and nectar from flowers. Jooby didn’t think he was particularly skinnier than other types of lorises, but his mom was proud of her figure, so he didn’t argue. He figured they were called red because of the color of their eyes.

           Jooby, his parents and two sisters lived in a hollow in the top of a tree. The tree was in a tropical rainforest which was very hot

and humid, it rained a lot. The rainforest is in Sri Lanka. Jooby was glad they were nocturnal mammals. He preferred the coolness of

the night and could see just as well in the dark with his large round eyes. Jooby and his sisters, Ooka and Pearl, followed their mom

closely as she made her way across the branches high in the trees. Momma Red Slender Loris moved in slow motion, step by careful step. Because they were primates, they had opposable thumbs which made it easy to hang onto the branches. A canopy is over-lapping branches of trees, Jooby’s family moved easily from tree to tree through it. They searched for grapefruit, bananas, passionfruit, papayas, avocados, and many more. On this night they’d found mangoes.

           They travelled through the canopy until dawn then made their way back to the dark cozy burrow high in a kapok tree. Jooby

sniffed the warm air and said, “I smell figs! Oh boy!”

           “Shhhhh. Let Poppa sleep,” Mom whispered.

           Jooby crept over to his dad, “Are you asleep?” he whispered.

           “Yes.” Dad replied, one eye open and smiling. “Go ahead and have the figs, share with your sisters.”

           “Thanks Pop! You’re the best!” he said and gave his dad a peck on his silky soft cheek.

           The red slender lorises slept all through the day. After dark had settled, Jooby’s dad went out to see if there were any more figs

on the tree he’d found. The night before he had only picked two when a family of orangutans came to claim the tree. Dad was only nine inches from head to butt and weighed a mere nine ounces. (That’s just a hair more than half a pound.) The orangutans weighed between 100 to 250 pounds, as big as humans! And they could be quite vicious in a quarrel over food.

           Momma showed her young offspring how to catch bugs on this night. Most were quite yummy, but not all.

           She said to them, “Look over there, little ones, see that fat yellow beetle with the blue legs? If you can catch that one, you’ll be

quite pleased.”

           Jooby did not hesitate. He reached the beetle and silently snuck up behind it.

           “Get it Joobs!” whispered Pearl. She was drooling.

           Before the bug could flee, he snatched it up and popped it in his mouth. “Yum! It’s crunchy on the outside, and creamy on

the inside! I want another!” His eyes were sparkling as he wiped an antenna from his mouth.

           “Jooby, let your sisters have a go at the next one.”

           His mom pointed out a black and red bug with long quivering feelers and wicked looking mandibles, “Those are quite tasty too. 

but be careful not to let it see you! Its bite is really nasty!”

           “Okay Mom.” Said Ooka. It was her turn next. She snuck up quite well but at the last second the scary bug whipped its head in

her direction.

           “Eek!” she squealed and jumped back just as the bug snapped its jaws at her!

           “Lesson learned.” Ooka said with relief.

           Just before dawn, Jooby ran into his friend Roary, who was also out hunting with his family. He came over and said to Jooby,

“Hey buddy! You wanna sleep over at my place in the morning?”

           “Sure, that’d be awesome! I’ve had to hang out with my sisters the last two nights, they’re driving me crazy! Always trying to

get me to wear dumb hats and have tea parties. Yuck, girl stuff.”

           Roary said, “My brother is going to watch the cricket races tonight with Dad, so it’ll be just us two.”

           Roary liked playing with Jooby because although Roary was a pygmy loris, Jooby never made fun of him. Momma was a

worrywart and very protective, another reason he liked Roary’s place.

           Jooby asked his mom, ”Hey Ma, can I sleep at Roary’s place today?”

           “Okay. But be sure you’re in bed by dawn.” She sighed as she watched her son go off with his wee friend. “They grow up so fast.”

           The youngsters took off, carefully picking their way along the leafy branches, heading in the general direction of Roary’s burrow.

           “Hey Roar, look over there!” Jooby pointed at a plump yellow beetle with shiny blue legs. “Ma taught us about eating bugs

today. That one is delicious! Check this out…” He slowly and oh so quietly snuck up on the beetle…and snatched it up before it could

fly away!

           “Wow” Roary said with his mouth full of half the beetle. “It is good! I wanna catch the next one.”

           After twenty minutes or so, he froze, Jooby right behind him. It was a black and red bug!

           “Wait!” cried Jooby but he was too late.

           Roary had reached out quickly but the mean bug had seen him coming with its large multifaceted eyes. “Owwwweeee!” he

screamed when the bug pinched his finger viciously.

           “I tried to warn you. Sorry Roar. You okay?”

           “I’ll be fine,” Roary pouted, “It stings, but I’ll never do that again. I’ll just stick to the yellow and blue ones.”

           “There’s one down there!” Jooby said, pointing to a large banana leaf below them.

           Roary looked down and said, “Got him in my sights, he’s all mine!”

           It took the pygmy loris over an hour to catch the tasty prize.

           “Hey Roary, it’s getting light out,” Jooby said with a feeling of dread.

           “Oh wow, I didn’t know it was getting so early.” Squeaked Roary, “and check out how close we are to the ground!” This was a

big deal because lorises are arboreal, which means they live nearly entirely in trees.

           “Wooooaaaahh,” Jooby said with awe, “I don’t know of any loris who’s ever come this close to the ground.”

           “Yeah, everyone in school will be so jealous!”

           “Um, either that, or we’ll get in trouble.”

Roary sighed, knowing his friend was probably right, and said, “It’s getting really hot out, and way too bright. All this light is

hurting my eyes.”

           “Mine too.” Jooby agreed. “Let’s head up.”

           Just as the two lorises were about to head up to the canopy, a flash of spotted fur slinked through the foliage under them. A

leopard!

           “Holy moly!” cried Roary. The leopard stopped stalking whatever it was stalking. It turned and cocked its head, listening…

           Jooby and Roary froze in place like their moms had taught them. They were too slow to out climb a leopard but smart enough to remember their lessons. Joby threw the rest of a beetle he had as far as he could. It made a rustle then a soft thud. The leopard took off after it.

           “That was close!” Roary shrieked, shivering. “C’mon!”

           Jooby let Roary go up first, he felt protective over his wee friend.

           Jooby’s entire body was suddenly encircled by huge thick vines! He tried to hang on to the tree branch but couldn’t! It felt like

he was inside a giant hand! He was! The hand smelled of pipe tobacco. Then he was thrown into a burlap sack and all went black. The sack rocked back and forth, he realized he was being carried. He was carried for a very long time.

           Finally, the movement stopped. The sack was left open and he cautiously peeked out, one eye at a time. He was in a wooden

crate that smelled of moldy oranges and fungus. Newspapers lined the floor. The crate was inside a little room lit only by one candle in a lantern. The little room swayed back and forth, up and down. There was a bowl of water in the crate and a banana. He ate the fruit and was lulled to sleep by the gentle motion of his strange new habitat. Back and forth, up and down.

           He awoke many hours later. The room still swayed gently but it was now daylight. Yellow sunlight streamed through a small

round window with a shiny brass frame. The hazy air in the room smelled of pipe smoke like the man, and old fish, and stinky body

odor. 

And the sea! He was on a boat! He’d seen ships before. From the tops of the tallest trees, he had a magnificent view of the

Indian Ocean. He’d learned in his ‘small primates class’ about the ships that sailed past the island country of Sri Lanka. Most were

trading ships that carried everything from small exotic animals to spices, from fine silks to timber. The island had deep harbors and a

perfect central location to make it a hub of trading.

“I’m a small exotic animal,” he thought to himself.

           The trader who smelled like pipe tobacco came into the cabin and Jooby dove back into the safety of the burlap sack. PipeMan

put a peach into the crate and refilled the water bowl. After he left, Joby cautiously crawled out and tasted the peach.

“Delicious!” he thought. He’d never had a peach before. It was devoured down to the pit in seconds.

           PipeMan came and brought fruit and water twice a day. Every time he came, Jooby dove into the sack. One day the man came to

clean out the crate and put down fresh newspaper. The moment he turned his back Jooby slipped out the door. He had stuffed some

shredded papers into the sack so PipeMan would think he was inside it. He was out of the cabin before the trader was finished. When the man lifted the sack to put the fresh newspapers under it, he knew he’d been duped. But it was too late, the red slender loris could be anywhere on board.

           Jooby scurried down into the bottom of the ship where it was dark and there were many places to hide. He discovered that this

ship was trading in fruit, there were hundreds of crates of fruit! Oh delicious, sweet fruit! Oh tangy, juicy fruit! He found fruit he recognized but so much more he did not, fruit from far away foreign places. Jooby ate and ate and ate. He could not stop eating. 

And since he was hiding, he did not get any exercise. He just ate all day long between naps. He didn’t even know if it was night or day

because deep in the ship it was always dark.

           One day the ship stopped rocking. A hatch opened and daylight filled the storeroom. He had not seen daylight in many days, and it blinded him. He tried to run but found that he was too fat to move!

           “There you are!” said PipeMan. “I can see you have gotten really fat too! Why, you’re downright roly poly!”

           Then he emptied a nearby crate and grabbed Jooby up by the scruff of his neck. He laughed, “You are now a red fat loris! Ha ha ha!”

           Jooby was embarrassed and hid his face with his hands as the man tossed him in the crate.

           PipeMan carried the crate down the gangplank off the ship. He carried it to a vehicle with big black wheels and a back door. The van had no windows in the back, Jooby couldn’t see his new landscape, but he could smell it. The farther he travelled, the worse the smell. It was human stink – exhaust, smoke and pollution. The smells were nauseating. 

           After a couple of hours, the van stopped. Jooby smelled the eyewatering reek of gasoline, then they were travelling again. After

two more hours, they stopped again. The back door opened, PipeMan took the crate out, slammed the door shut, and carried the crate into some sort of brick building. The crate was placed on a desk where another man sat. His office smelled of cigarettes, whiskey, bacon, and breath mints.

           Jooby listened as the two men angrily raised their voices at each other. Then quiet. Then the van’s engine dwindling as it

drove away. BaconMan picked up the crate, carried it outside and walked with it for a while. The man stopped, Jooby heard the rattle

and clink of chains and perhaps a lock. BaconMan put the crate down, took off its lid, and left. 

Jooby waited until it was dark, then came out of the crate. He looked around at his new home. He was mortified, this was no

home at all, but a jail! He knew he was in a human city somewhere, the dirty air was putrid. He was in a small cage with some scraggly

bushes in the back and steel bars along the front. The floor and burrow were rough cement that hurt his feet. There were no trees to climb and hide in. He cried himself to sleep.

When he woke, he tried to drink some water but it smelled like monkey pee. He couldn’t eat the fruit, it was rotten, like scraps

of garbage. He nibbled a piece of kibble meant for dogs, and spat it out, it tasted like cardboard. Jooby was so so sad. He missed his

family and Roary. He was so homesick and miserable, he even wished that darn leopard well.

           Brightly colored humans came with the daylight.  He tried to hide but the cement cave wasn’t deep enough. He couldn’t climb

into the bushes, the dead branches too brittle. He had no privacy, no security, and no food. The loud  humans came to ogle at him, every day, all day long.

“Oh, my goodness! How cuuuuute!” they’d say.

     “I want one!” children screamed. If Jooby had a peach for every time he heard that, he’d explode. They threw popcorn at him. 

They grabbed the bars with grubby little greasy hands. They screamed when they wanted chocolate. And their parents gave it to them.

Jooby wished he was a bigger primate. Then he could throw his poop at them.

A sweet-smelling lady came to the cage one day, Jooby looked at her wearily but not in fear. Primates were a lot like dogs - they

could sense when people were good. This lady was good. She had tears in her eyes just like he did.

“You poor sweet thing.” She said to him. “What have they done to you? Hang in there little one.” Then she left.

           A month passed. The red slender loris became slender again. He felt sick all the time. Then he got skinnier. And skinnier. While he was dying he thought of the nice lady often. She’d given him a little hope, that not all humans were bad.

           The red slender loris could now be called a “red way-too-skinny loris”. He could have fit through the bars if he wanted to. 

One day, he smelled the smell of the nice lady. He peeked out from the horrible fake cement burrow. There she was! He was terribly curious about her. She held her closed hand close to the bars and he went to her. The nice lady opened her hand. To Jooby’s delight, she held a bright yellow beetle with blue legs! Jooby hesitated no more, he squeezed through the bars and climbed into her hand. He hugged the beetle to himself as if it were long lost treasure. The woman quickly put Jooby into her backpack, and he allowed himself

to be rescued.

           She took Jooby home. As she gave him a bath, she told him her name was Simmi. Then she fed him squash blossoms and fresh

almond milk. She was as beautiful as the garden she led him into. It was a sanctuary many acres wide, with a flower filled garden and

tall trees for him to climb and burrow in. There were many other animals living here happily. Besides the small breeds that lived in the trees, there were antelope, giraffes, and a very old elephant. People came to pet the elephant and feed the giraffes, but were respectful of the smaller animals and gave them plenty of space. Simmi explained that people had to visit the sanctuary because it was donations that fed the animals, and it was here children learned about wild animal habitats. It helped them be good people.

           Simmi left on a mission one day. She was gone for five days. She had heard that men were cutting down all the trees along the south coast of Sri Lanka. She could not save the trees, the men doing the damage were too powerful. But she did manage to save a dozen lorises that had fallen to the ground when their homes were cut down.

           Simmi brought the lorises to her sanctuary in four comfortable dog kennels. One by one she opened the little screen doors but no one came out.

“Jooby, come help me out here!” she called to the loris whose eyes were wide with wonder.

           He called out, “It’s okay to come out now! This is a good place and people you can trust!”

           “Jooby! Jooby! It’s really you!” Roary was there and crying tears of joy.

           Jooby hugged Roary and couldn’t believe this was happening. He blinked his own leaking eyes and asked, “Is your

family here too?”

           Roary said, “Yes! And look! Here come Ooka and Pearl!”

            His sisters ran to him and the four youngsters clung to each other. “Mom and Pop fell from the tree trying to save us and Roary’s

brother is sick,” said Pearl. “They’re in the hospital but the nice lady said they’d be fine.”

           The rest of the lorises emerged to hear what Jooby had to tell them. “This is our new home. Simmi and her friends feed us

good healthy food, even yellow and blue beetles! We have real burrows in the trees and a fresh waterfall.”

           “Its pretty and it smells nice here!” exclaimed Pearl.

           Jooby grabbed his sister’s hands and said, “Pearl, I’ll have tea with you every day if you want me to.”

           “This place is heaven.” Said Rory.

           “And there’s no leopards or orangutans!” replied Jooby.

           Everyone else said, “Yay!”

           The injured were treated, the hungry, fed. It was sad that their beautiful rainforest was being destroyed. But thanks to good,

caring people, the amazing little lorises would not become extinct.