Jojo and Rick

I just finished reading Jane Goodall's book My Life with the Chimpanzees with my children.  We loved the book, and highly recommend it.  There are so many beautiful stories and moments in this book, and I'd like to share one that I loved because it so clearly shows the profound intimate connection that can be formed between human and a non-human animals.

Rick Swope is a truck driver.  Once every year he takes his family, his wife and three little girls, to the zoo.  In this zoo lives a chimpanzee called Jojo.

Jojo was born in Africa.  When he was about two years old his mother was shot and he was sent to North America to a zoo.  For some years he lived with a little female called Susie, but then the zoo director sold her to another zoo and Jojo was left alone.  This was very cruel, although maybe the director didn't understand.

For the next eight years or so Jojo lived in a small cell with steel bars and a cement floor.  Then the zoo raised lots of money to build a huge enclosure.  They bought nineteen other chimps.  They introduced them all to one another, and then they let them out into their new home.  The chimps couldn't escape because there was a moat filled with water around the enclosure.  Chimps don't swim.

After a while, a fight broke out.  One of the new males challenged Jojo.  Well, Jojo didn't know anything about fighting.  How could he?  He lived all those years alone.  In his fear he rushed into the moat.  He didn't know anything about water, either, except as something to drink, from a cup.

In his fright, he scrambled over the safety barrier that had been put there to stop chimps drowning in the deep water beyond.  He disappeared under the surface, came up gasping for breath, and vanished again.  Twice more he surfaced, and then he was gone.  There were only some decreasing ripples on the surface of the moat.

On the other side of the water was a little group of people, including a keeper.  He knew Jojo weighed 130 pounds.  He knew male chimps can be dangerous.  He just stood and watched.  But luckily for Jojo, that was the day for Rick Swope to be at the zoo.

Rick jumped in.  The keeper tried to stop him, but Rick pulled away.  He swam about in the murky water, feeling for Jojo, then managed to heave the limp, heavy body onto his shoulder.  Somehow he scrambled over the safety barrier.  He pushed Jojo onto the bank and turned to go back to his wife and kids.  They were really scared.

Suddenly Rick's family and the keeper began yelling at him to hurry.  Why?  Because charging down the bank toward Rick were four of the big adult males.  Hair bristling.  Teeth gleaming as they screamed.  Rick was a stranger-- perhaps the four males thought he was hurting Jojo.

Rick paused.  He saw the four males looking enormous as they charged down toward him. He also saw that Jojo was sliding back into the water.  The bank was too steep.

For a moment Rick stood there.  He looked back at his frightened family.  He looked up at the four males.  He looked down at Jojo vanishing into the moat, and he went back to Jojo.

He pushed him up out of the water again and stayed there to stop him from sliding back.  The four males did nothing.  They stopped and watched.  After a few minutes Jojo raised his head, and some water came from his mouth.  He staggered to his feet, took a few steps, and lay to rest where the ground was level.

Rick saved Jojo's life.  The whole incident was captured on tape by a woman who happened to have a video camera with her.  That evening her piece of film was shown on the networks across North America.  The director of my institute saw it and called Rick.

"That was a very brave thing you did, Mr Swope.  You knew it was dangerous-- everyone was telling you so.  Whatever made you do it?"

"Well," said Rick,  "I happened to look into Jojo's eyes, and it was like looking into the eyes of a man.  And the message was: Won't anybody help me?"

This beautiful story reminds me, again, how very deeply we can connect to other animals if we are aware and open ourselves to the messages around us.  And so often, it is with amazing and profound consequence.