That taught me a lesson I can tell you I don’t tell lies any more Ever So believe me when I say that the story I am going to tell you is ABSOLUTELY TRUE It’s important that you know and understand this because it is quite an extraordinary story And funny Funny peculiar Very funny peculiar in fact But true Every word The first thing you need to understand before I begin this story is that for some reason human beings have grown rather full of themselves over the years They now believe that they are far cleverer than all other living creatures This is a mistake Just because humans can read and write and use knives and forks and 2
computers they think they are better than other animals How stupid Did you know that a squirrel can hide ten thousand nuts in the woods and remember where every single one of them is hidden Well I ask you could you remember where you’d put ten thousand nuts Frogs can sleep with their eyes open Can you A cat can lick its own bottom How clever is that
The truth is that animals are just as clever as people but clever in different ways Animals think people are the stupid ones sometimes Next time you pass a field of sheep stop and look they will stare back at you with a steady sympathetic gaze If you look closely though you might see them shake their heads amused that we need to wear sweaters and coats made out of wool that grows perfectly naturally on their backs What a silly business
But anyway back to my story It begins ten years ago far away in Africa Africa as you may know from photographs and television programs is a very hot and beautiful place There are forests and bush and vast open plains where lots of wild animals live lions and elephants and giraffes There are brightly colored birds that live in the trees monkeys and gorillas lizards hyenas porcupines and buffaloes The place is teeming with life of every size and shape you can imagine And in Africa let me tell you the wild animals are also very clever They watch human beings and chuckle to themselves Fancy going around cooped up in air-conditioned buses and cars and eating boring cooked food Humans all look so uncomfortable We so-called wild animals wander around freely they say to each other Breathing the
