An Animal Journey around the World

by Bruce Grimes

Two women talked to donkeys. And the donkeys could talk back. 

Wilma and Becky had a herd of 1,000 donkeys. They took the whole herd to California on a big cruise ship. 

On the way, the cruise ship ran into a big bunch of smoke coming from a fire. The fire was coming from another cruise ship nearby! 

The second ship was radioing “SOS!” when Wilma and Becky’s ship was nearby. Their ship hurried to the rescue. They picked up elephants and zebras – an entire zoo of animals that was on the burning ship. Just in time!

The animals said, “Thank you for saving us!”

Wilma and Becky replied, “You’re welcome! There’s just one problem. We don’t have enough food for all of you.” 

So they radioed to a tugboat to bring some food from the nearest zoo. When the tugboat arrived, Wilma and Becky asked the tugboat captain, “Where can we bring all these animals to be safe? They’re from so many different places around the world, and need different habitats – including the penguins.”

“I can radio another tugboat with a zookeeper on board,” the captain said. “The zookeeper can help guide you around the world to return the animals all to their natural homes.”

Wilma and Becky thought, “Great! What a trip! Let’s get started!”

Suddenly, the cruise ship ran out of gas. The tugboat captain asked the second tugboat with the zookeeper onboard to also bring fuel for the ship, and help pull the ship into the deep ocean to start the journey around the world. 

Their first destination: Africa! 

They traveled six days to the coast of Africa, where the elephants and the zebras belonged, to live on the wide open plains and fields.

But the elephants were so big and heavy they damaged the ship, and water started leaking out all over the boat. Wilma and Becky laid down some steel beams for the elephants to walk across. That made the ship sturdy enough to finish the journey. The monkeys kept climbing on top of the penguins, because their space in the ship was so small. 

Wilma and Becky docked the ship along the coast of Africa, and the animals walked down the ramp onto the dock. It looked like a parade! People nearby were startled to see them. 

The donkeys wanted to stay in Africa, too. After all, that’s where donkeys first came from over 6,000 years ago. One of the donkeys, Finnegan, told Wilma and Becky, “Let’s leave all the animals here so you guys can transport back to Minnesota through a TV.” They said, “That’s a brilliant idea! We didn’t know you were a science fiction donkey.”

The monkeys wanted to go to the space center to learn how to fly spaceships, and bring the penguins with them into space. The penguins didn’t like that idea. “We want to go to the Minnesota Zoo!” they shouted. “We can transport through the TV, too.”

Wilma and Becky replied, “We’ll have to go to the Minnesota Zoo and donate the penguins.”
So they did.