The end of the year is a time to look back . Project Bow has many supporters , some very vocal and others more hidden . We received cards and donations and good wishes and even reviews . I 'm very grateful for all of that ! You probably are curious to know what Bow got for Christmas . From Lawrence , he got in one gift - wrapped package a pair of shoes about his size , a little toy tractor that makes sounds when you push the right buttons , a green hulk like little humanoid figurine with huge muscles that has arm action , and a green octopus like plastic mold . From me he got two new blankets , not for sleeping with , but to have during the day , as long as he is good . One is brown , and the other has an orange reddish brown pattern . ( He calls the second blanket " the pretty one " . ) From his uncle , he got a fruit basket , full of apples , oranges and pears . Bow enjoyed all his gifts , but sometimes being too happy makes him act up . So he got in trouble several times over the holiday . Sometimes he is very sarcastic when he answers my accusations . " Did you drip on purpose ? " I ask . Believe me , I 'm not making him say " Yes . " I would rather he said " no " and " I 'm sorry " , but he looks at me totally defiantly and intentionally spells " Yes . " I guess I have another tween on my hands . So what is my plan now ? I have to find a way to motivate him to do something constructive . I 'm also planning over the next few months to contact colleagues and try to arrange for them to share their grad students with me , so that I can have help with the project , and Bow can have more friends , and my colleagues can have access to a chimpanzee who has language abilities . There are many ways that people can help each other achieve their common goals . One of the challenges that we face is finding creative ways to do so . Bow and I got a Christmas present ready for Lawrence this Wednesday when he came . Before Lawrence came in , Bow spelled in Hebrew on the glass : " Give Uncle Lawrence the present . " I guess he thought I might forget . When Bow got around to using the touchscreen , sometime later , he got the computer to say : " See yours . " At first , Lawrence wasn 't sure what Bow meant by that . Then he realized that Bow was indicating the present . Lawrence was here yesterday , and he tried to encourage Bow to use the touchscreen . Bow was less " destructive " of the virtual screen , only reducing the keyboard in size a couple of times , but not closing the program . He didn 't say much , though . Once , he said " it . " Lawrence wanted to know : " It , what ? " Bow hit a few random letters and numbers , and then a little later he spelled : " Take . " When Lawrence asked him what he meant by that , Bow gestured at the computer , and then at the door to the pen . " You want me to take it out ? " Lawrence asked . " You want me to take the computer out ? " Bow seemed to sanction that interpretation , so Lawrence acquiesced and took out the computer . Which means that now Bow is using the touchscreen to tell us that he doesn 't want to use the touchscreen . How 's that for progress ? Yesterday , in the morning , there was a little mouse in the pens and Bow 's attention was all riveted on the mouse . He alerted me to its presence by my making a low gentle , bilabial kind of sound that seems a little like " boo " . This is a sound he makes when something unexpected emerges . Just as I was trying to figure out how to catch the mouse without doing harm to it or letting it bite me , Lawrence arrived . He went through the usual routine of locking the glass doors behind him when he came in , and then unlocking one of the grated doors to go into the pen adjoining where Bow was , and just as he did so , the mouse scurried out , but it was trapped in the small anteroom between the glass doors and the pen . Lawrence did not notice the mouse till I drew his attention to it . Then he said he could kill it for me if I wanted . I said it would be better if he helped me to catch it , so I could release it away from the house . He trapped it under a miniature Folger 's coffee can ( made of red plastic ) , but he could not slide the black lid under that , so I gave him a laminating sheet which was a better fit . Then Lawrence turned the can over and instructed me to hold the laminating sheet down tight , because otherwise the mouse would escape . Under these conditions , I could not take the mouse far . I couldn 't drive to the wildlife preserve and not accidentally release the mouse in the car . So I walked in the freezing weather with no coat on , holding on to the can with one hand and the laminating sheet with the other , until I reached the barbed wire fence next to the road . But when I removed the laminating sheet , the tiny , tiny little grey mouse could not scamper up the steep walls of the coffee can by himself . I had to gently tip it the ground to help him escape . It was not an adult mouse . I thought it was a baby , but Lawrence said it must have been a juvenile . I wonder if it found its way right back to the house , or decided to find a new home . When I got back to the pens , I set up Bow 's computer so that it was plugged in on the inside of the pen adjoining Bow 's , so Lawrence could take it in with him to play with Bow . Bow is less destructive than he used to be , so he can have direct access to the computer under close supervision . We were hoping that if Bow were allowed to have the touchscreen with him , and did not need to use the chopstick to touch it , he might be able to spell out words better . " He made the screen go black again , " Lawrence reported to me . This happened twice . Once in the morning , and a second time in the afternoon . Anyway , even when Bow has given up his compulsive physical attacks on objects , he still feels the need to destroy the setup electronically . He seems to have a compulsion for behavior that is not constructive , albeit the destruction at this point is only virtual . He doesn 't smash the screen . He just closes the communication program . Maybe he 'd be good at writing computer viruses . This morning , as I was setting up breakfast in the pens , I was ranting to myself about an online discussion I had with someone . It was one of those things that had to do with a disagreement with one of my core beliefs , and so it touched a nerve . I was so upset about it that I was actually talking to myself out loud . It snowed last night . We definitely can 't go out and play . The glass doors that shut the pens out from the cold weather are iced shut and cannot even be opened . Bow and I were going to open them just so we could take pitctures of the outer pens , but even that could not be done . In the photo above , Bow sits in the corridor leading to the outside pens and looks out at the snow . Early this morning I checked the mousetrap on the kitchen counter . Two tiny mice were trapped inside . When Lawrence comes later , I will drive them to a wild life preserve far away from here and release them . Is that the right thing to do ? I don 't know . If everybody did this , then the preserve would be teeming with mice . The balance of nature might be affected . But not everybody does this . I have a chimpanzee to think of who can hear mice scream when they are dying , so I cannot afford to do anything else . This morning I served Bow a new type of grapes for breakfast . The Town & Country supermarket had them displayed so nicely and priced so reasonably , that I couldn 't resist , even though I know new things are risky . New things are risky , because Bow doesn 't always like new things . He might refuse to eat them . After all , we all remember the incident a while back with the Concord grapes . It took me forever to convince him to eat them , on account of the seeds . Today 's new grapes were not Concord grapes , but they did have seeds . They are red grapes , but larger than usual . I think maybe some people call them " globe grapes " . I served Bow , had my own breakfast , and then went to work on my CreateSpace blog , not paying much attention to Bow , who was still eating on the other side of the glass . When I came in to take away the metal colander in which I served the grapes to Bow , Bow started busily picking up seeds from the floor and putting them into the colander . I didn 't have to tell him ! I might not even have noticed the seeds on the floor , because there were only a few of them . The majority of the seeds were already neatly piled up with the stems inside the colander . When he had finished picking up the seeds , Bow picked up the colander by its two handles and gave it to me . Does Bow play with toys ? Yes , of course he does . He owns a lot of toys , but he can be very destructive , so he gets to ask for toys one at a time , and he plays with them until he is tired of them . Among his toys is this set of magnetic links that he played with this morning . As you can see in the following video clip , Bow 's way of playing with the links and my way of playing with them are different . While Bow is aware that the links are magnetic , he prefers to play with them as if they were hockey pucks rather than building blocks . Is it because he 's a boy and I 'm a girl ? Is it because he 's a child and I 'm a grown up ? Or is it just because he 's more athletic than I will ever be ? Either way , he does eventually discover they can be linked . One of my readers emailed to ask me what the status of Bow 's " bottom wiper " might be . Well , I am happy to report that the bottom wiper is still intact . This in itself is a sign of progress . Bow has mouthed it on occasion , and he takes every opportunity to play with it , when I am distracted , but he has not destroyed it ! He could so easily do so , but he has chosen not to . While this may not seem like a very big deal to outsiders , to me it is a sign of growing self - control and self - discipline on Bow 's part . Of course , the " bottom wiper " is just a rubber lint brush , such as you see in the advertisement here . It is not advertised as something to use to clean bottoms , but every tool has many uses . Bow has not started using it for that purpose himself , but he allows me to do it . " Bow , would you like to use the bottom wiper yourself ? " I asked him this morning when bottom wiping was called for . He silently picked it up and handed it to me , as if to say : " No . You do it . " Lawrence was here the day before Thanksgiving , to sit with Bow while my mother and I prepared things for the feast . They could both see the kitchen , from inside the pens , and Bow likes to watch . He was feeling very talkative that day , and Lawrence reports that he even used his touchscreen . At one point , Bow poked the computer with his chopstick until he got it to say : " Yes , I see party . " Bow contrives to spell things on the computer when Lawrence is not looking . So , it is entirely possible that the " see " was spelled " C " . But the " yes " and the " party " would be hard to achieve any other way than spelling them out . And let 's face it " I " and the letter " I " are already a shortcut in normal spelling . Now , people who claim chimps do not have syntax could make a really big deal of how there was no article in front of the word " party " . I assure you , however , that Bow left that out because of difficulty with typing , and not because he doesn 't know grammar . For that matter , having articles in front of nouns is not a universal of human language . Lots of language don 't have them at all . Hebrew has a definite article and not an indefinite one . One might have supposed it was a question of fluency with English . But those of us who know Bow really well know his English is better than that . Using the touchscreen is hard . I sometimes leave out articles when I type , too . Thanksgiving day was just family : Sword , Bow , my mother and me . Bow and Sword each got a turkey leg , so that neither could claim I was favoring the other . The other favorite thing among the younger generation was cranberry sauce . Here are some candid shots I took with my laptop 's built in camera : My mother arrived last night , while Sword was at her musical event . Bow waited up for her until almost past his bedtime . He was very happy to see her and greeted her with gentle pants . This morning , it rained . To say that it rained would be an understatement . There was a deluge . In this kind of downpour , Sword would have gotten a complete soaking , waiting for the school bus at the side of the road . My mother volunteered to stay with Bow , on the other side of the glass , while I drove Sword down my long driveway to the end of the property , and she waited for the bus to arrive before she got out . This morning , I picked up the proof of When Sword Met Bow from the P . O . box , while Lawrence stayed with Bow . After lunch , I read the book to Bow , and then I let him proof it himself . Bow seemed to like the book . He took a good long time to go over it . Then , later , when we were on the other side of the glass , he spelled : " Let Sword read it , too . " " Okay , Bow , " I said . " I will . I 'll let her read it as soon as she gets home from school . " Today , Sword had a gymnastics meet , and she got to ride to the event with a friend . This means that even though it is a Saturday , Bow and I are all alone . Around eleven or so this morning , a vehicle drove up onto our property , and Bow , who had been napping on his blanket , got up and stood to attention on his tippy - toes to see who it was . It was Mark , the Schwan 's delivery guy . We weren 't expecting him at all . He comes every other Thursday . Today is not a Thursday . He shook his head . " Nobody remembers . It 's on account of Thanksgiving . " Next Thursday is Thanksgiving , and it would be odd to receive a frozen food delivery on that day . Mark usually comes right in so he can talk to Bow , but he had the feeling that we wouldn 't remember , and we would be frightened by an unexpected person just walking in , so he stood at the door . " Come on in , " I said . " Come talk to Bow . " I finally broke down and started heating , despite my Scrooge - like disposition . I also installed a new heating lamp in the chicken coop . My mother is coming in for Thanksgiving next week , and I hope that she will find everything nice and cozy . Sword has a musical performance to attend at her school the evening that my mother arrives , and I have arranged for her to ride with her music teacher , while I stay at home to greet my mother . Bow heard us discussing all of this at dinner last night , and before bed time he took me to the glass and spelled : " Call Grandma . Tell her about problem with music . " But what about proof ? Am I really trying to prove that Bow can use language ? Why have I spent so much time on proofing books for children , and so little time on trying to prove that Bow can read ? What is more important here ? What 's most important , of course , is for all of us to survive . And in order to do that , I have to start generating an income stream . We have to eat . I set up an experiment , the goal has been achieved , but proof is hard to come by . And it 's not just hard for me . It 's hard for every animal language experimenter . Sue Savage - Rumbaugh is still publicizing that Kanzi has English comprehension at the level of a two and half year old , when Kanzi is a very intelligent thirty year old . But knowing what he knows and being able to prove it are two different things . Irene Pepperberg worked with the late Alex , an African Grey parrot . He didn 't need to point at lexigrams or words , he could vocalize comprehensible English . But in order for her work to be accepted , she had to make cognitive , not linguistic claims . Linguists who are receptive to her work like to point out that Alex 's production and comprehension of English wasn 't " language " . He was just manipulating " auditory symbols " . I ask you : when somebody says " green " to refer to a green object , and that person is a human , is the word " green " just an auditory symbol ? Or is it a word ? But when a parrot does the same thing , do we have to use different terminology to label it ? And this goes on without having the problem that we 're having : that Bow won 't point at letters without using our hands . Lawrence came back from his trip very eager to make progress with Bow . He has a really positive attitude , and he 's trying to think of ways to get Bow less dependent on physical contact with us when he writes . He 's thinking of things like taking letter boards outside with Bow , so that he can spell outdoors as well as in . ( Of course , we did do that , but he tore them up , and it 's just much better when he can 't directly harm the letters he is pointing at , because they are behind the glass or beyond the grid . ) " Yeah , so you tried that , " Lawrence said to me yesterday . " But maybe he can do things now , that he couldn 't do before . Maybe he 's maturing . " Lawrence may be right . We can try these things again . We can write letters in chalk on the concrete , we can wear T - shirts that are letter boards , we can re - try a lot of things we 've tried before . But . . . while we 're trying all that , we still have to eat . I laughed . The truth is that I could have a million such videos , and it still wouldn 't be enough . Doubters would want any possibility of " cuing " to be eliminated . They would want to see him doing this with no one in the room . They would want to see him doing it with people he doesn 't know . They would want him to talk to complete strangers . They would want him to answer multiple choice questions , over and over again , till he was bored to tears , so everything could be " replicable " and " objective . " And even if he did all these things , it might still not be enough , because he would be accused of doing it by rote , and the utterances would not be spontaneous . So , while I 'm never going to give up , I 'm also not holding my breath . Which is why at the end of this year , I am putting more energy into proofing books , and less into trying to come up with proof . The next book I plan to publish , When Sword Met Bow , is going to come out sometime in December . If you buy it , please be sure to review it on Amazon . It might help us buy more bananas and grapes and apples . They played together outside , and around three thirty Bow asked to have an apple for a snack . Lawrence brought in two apples , one big and green , and one small and red . Bow asked for the red one . Yesterday , I was hard at work on hub about dominance . Dominance is not my favorite topic , because I am still struggling with it , but it certainly comes up a lot when dealing with a chimpanzee . The truth of the matter is that it 's a tricky thing , and that all is not as it appears . I do have to stand up to Bow and not let him walk all over me , but at the same time , he lets me know in all sorts of subtle and not so subtle ways that when he does cooperate with me , it 's because he chooses to , and not because he has to . Even when Bow gets in trouble and has to be disciplined , the only reason I can stick to my plan of discipline is that Bow allows it . He respects me , and he demands that I respect him , and it 's just not that easy to explain to outsiders . People who pick up on it and instinctively understand this concept , like Lawrence , get to have a fine relationship with Bow . But others , some who are too soft and others who are too harsh , just don 't make it in the program . Meanwhile , on Hubpages , all sorts of people have been sounding out about dominance . Some of the things they said were so bizarre ! For instance , that one person can " give " dominance to another person . So I went and wrote a hub about it . And in the process of writing the hub , I watched a video clip from Capra 's Meet John Doe . In that scene , Gary Cooper is an unemployed , homeless man on the verge of starvation , and Barbara Stanwyck , a savvy newspaperwoman , hires him to perpetrate a fraud on the public , in order to sell newspapers . Watching the scene , I wondered : " Who is dominant ? " After all , Gary Cooper is bigger and stronger than Barabara Stanwyck , and he could just take what he wanted from her , rather than making a deal . But somehow he doesn 't . He defers to her power and her position . Does he do this because he has to or because he wants to ? It 's getting colder now , but I 'm not heating yet . This is the best time of the year to snuggle together and share a blanket . It 's very cozy , if a little boring . Bow yawns . My book , In Case There 's a Fox , is now available for sale on Amazon . com . If you buy it , please consider reviewing it on Amazon , as every review can potentially help . The next book I plan to publish is called When Sword Met Bow , and it will recount their earliest experiences together , mostly from Sword 's point of view . It 's really an excellent book , and not many are like it . It ties the cycle of life in with the business cycle in a way that no other book does , and without being at all preachy . There is such a light touch , and the prose flows like poetry . Bow leafed through it , and then he settled down on a blanket and let me read to him . In the evening , I was intent on cleaning up and getting back to my review , but Bow spelled : " We should call grandma . " So I did . He really has his priorities straight ! Yesterday , Bow had a very big lunch . We have lunch at noon . We have dinner at five o ' clock . If Bow feels a little hungry , sometime around three - thirty , he can ask for a snack . But yesterday 's lunch was so satisfying , that Bow did not ask for a snack . However , he started to feel hungry about a quarter to five . And when Bow gets hungry , he also gets a little testy with people . He kept leading Lawrence toward the door . Bow was confusing sequence of events with causation . On days when Lawrence is here , he usually stays till five . Then I relieve him , and Sword and Bow and I have dinner . We don 't have dinner because Lawrence leaves , we have dinner because it is five o ' clock . And Lawrence doesn 't leave because we 're about to have dinner . He leaves , because it 's five o ' clock . If he left earlier , we would still have dinner at five o ' clock . But it was a natural mistake on Bow 's part to think that if Lawrence just left , it would be dinner time sooner . At first Bow refused to answer . Then when he did , he took Lawrence to the glass and spelled : " You are going far away . " It 's true . Lawrence and his family have a cross - country trip to California planned next week . I guess Lawrence must have told Bow about it , to prepare him for the fact he won 't be sitting with him at all next week . Yesterday , Lawrence could not come to sit with Bow , even though it was a Monday . But he came in today , which gave me a chance to vote . I also picked up my third proof of In Case There 's a Fox from the post office box . The missing illustrations were restored . The colors were not quite as vivid as before , though . I debated with myself back and forth and decided to approve for publication . It is now available to purchase here : When I got home for lunch , Lawrence told me that he asked Bow if he liked his swing . Bow spelled : " I like my new swing . " He seemed to want to make a big point that the swing is new . Bow spelled : " Because I can hang . " He likes to hang upside down from the swing . And so they went outside and Bow proceeded to " hang " . All is well with the world . Bow no longer dresses up for Halloween . When he was little , he once wore a cute little pumpkin costume . Clothes in general are something he outgrew . He was never that into clothes when he was little , and eventually I had to give in and agree that he did not in fact need to wear any . Sword dressed up as a sorceress this Halloween , and she and I went trick or treating after Bow went to bed for the night . But the holiday did not go unmarked even for Bow . We had a special treat for dinner : pumpkin pie topped with Halloween themed edible decorations . Bow liked it ! He even asked for seconds . Sword was happy with a single piece of pie . Bow and I each allowed ourselves two ! Even though the weather has turned cold , Bow and I have been going outside more lately , because Bow has been asking to go outside specifically , repeatedly and adamantly . I end up pacing a lot , because it 's too cold to sit down and stay still . But Bow seems especially energized . He plays chase . He tries to incite the dogs . And he swings . He especially likes to play tag and use the swing as the protected zone , where he is out of reach and untouchable . This morning Bow and I went outside . I was hoping that he would enjoy playing on his new swing . Actually , it 's an old swing , but he hasn 't had the opportunity to use in a while . Yesterday , Rex the welder came by to reinforce one of our inner doors , and he also installed two iron rings in the outer pen so we could hang a swing . It was one of the swings Bow used to use regularly , before the sun room was converted into part of the pen system . It used to hang from the beam that is now inaccessible to those of us inside the pen . Yesterday , Lawrence installed the swing for Bow after Rex left , and Bow had a good time with it . But this morning it was cold , and Bow didn 't want to swing . He lay on the outer chair that is not intended for him , so much as for the human with him , and he wrapped himself up in his own body heat . " Could you keep talking to Bow while I get my purse ? " I asked Mark . ( Actually , my fanny pack was right there in the pen , but it was covered up , and I couldn 't see it . ) Mark dutifully kept up the chit - chat with Bow , but when I came back , he told me : " I think I said something that made him mad . " Bow is aware of what happens to chimpanzees who venture outside their homes . He has heard about recent events , and he wants nothing to do with it . He even objected to this line from one of my Debt Collector songs : " I would rather be free than live trapped in a cage . " The cage is safer . Yesterday , when he was out with Lawrence in the outer pens , Bow asked to come in . He took Lawrence to the glass and spelled : " I think it 's going to rain . " Then he asked to go back out again . Apparently , the only reason for going in was in order to share the insight . ( Bow has no letters and no computer outside , so if something occurs to him out there , he has to go in to spell it out . ) Well , it didn 't rain . The weather was blustery , and the tree limbs swayed and the leaves fell , but there was no rain . Later in the day , when they were next to the computer , Lawrence asked Bow : " Why do you think it 's going to rain ? " Bow took the chopstick , pressed a few letters and the computer said : " Why is . . . " But the question was never finished . Lawrence speculated that Bow was trying to say something like : " Why is the wind blowing ? " But that 's just one guess out of many . Yesterday afternoon I made a mad dash for the kitchen to put the chicken in the oven as usual . I had Bow 's permission to do this , but he knows exactly how long it should take me to do it , and I was very dismayed when the scissors for removing the shrink wrapped plastic off the thawed hen was not anywhere near the sink , where it should be . I usually keep these scissors in a crystal vase intended for a single long stemmed flower . The vase is right next to the sink , but it was empty . I started to panic . Where could the scissors have gone ? Sometimes Sword borrows those scissors when she has a new sack of chicken feed to open , and sometimes she fails to return them . I checked the garage near the chicken feed area . Nothing ! So then I made a dash for my bedroom and brought out a different pair of scissors , appropriate for sewing and paper work , but not very good for kitchen tasks . I prepared the chicken , placed it in the oven , and was on my way back to the pen when I ran into Sword in the hall . " Have you seen my scissors ? " I asked her . I hurried back to the pen and Bow . I was half expecting to find a puddle on the floor , in punishment for having taken so long . But no , Bow was good . He was patiently waiting for me at the door . He had been watching the exchange between me and Sword . Bow took my hand , led me to the glass and spelled : " Bow doesn 't think Sword took them . " This was very nice of him , since he often says things that are not so complimentary about her . ( Sibling rivalry . ) It was true ! When he said that , I suddenly remembered that I had used them to open a package around lunch time . Mystery solved . They were on the dining room table , next to the package . Sometimes there 's not much to report . It 's fall . The leaves are turning . The weather outside is perfect . Cool , but not too cold . Bow and I went outside and snapped some pictures , using the built in camera of my computer . He loves to stick out his tongue for the camera . Sword was out in the yard , playing with the dogs . Last Monday , when Lawrence was sitting with Bow , Bow asked him if he could have an apple . I was out with Sword at the time , so Lawrence went to look for an appropriate apple to give to Bow . Now , I keep apples handy out on the dining table , in big bowls right next to the bananas . And I keep other apples , the ones that are in reserve , in case the first apples run out , in the refrigerator . But it was around three - thirty , and Lawrence knew that we eat dinner at five , and he didn 't want to spoil Bow 's appetite , but he did want to comply with the request . The apples on the table were big , red apples and big yellow apples . The red apples had come in a large bag , and we were down to the last couple of them . Lawrence felt the apples in the bowl , both yellow and red , were too large for just a snack . So he went looking for smaller apples in the refrigerator . He found an unopened bag full of yellowish / red apples , and he took one and gave it to Bow . Lawrence told me that he 'd taken an apple from the refrigerator to give to Bow before he left that day . It was not a problem . So when I served dinner , I decided to give Bow one of the big red apples . And the next day at lunch , I gave him the last of the big red apples , while I took one of the smaller yellowish / red apples for myself . Bow threw a fit ! He would not finish eating his red apple . I came and looked at it , to make sure it wasn 't rotten . It wasn 't . It was fine . " Bow , why won 't you eat your red apple ? " I asked . I was shocked . " No , Bow , he didn 't . Those are my apples . I bought them at the store with my own money . Lawrence let you have one of them as a snack , but he didn 't bring them , and they don 't all belong to you ! " It took quite a while to convince him . Because Bow had never seen any of those apples until Lawrence gave him one , he assumed Lawrence had brought them . He thought he knew all my apples and that those were not mine . However , I did convince him , and he did eventually finish eating his big red apple . It 's true that many times people do bring by food just for Bow . Once Rex the welder and his wife brought shiny red apples that had grown on their own trees just for Bow , and only Bow got to eat them . Lawrence does sometimes bring special snacks just for Bow . Tracey brought sweet potatoes he had grown himself just for Bow , and only Bow got to eat them . Bow received a shipment of pears a few times as a present , and we were so anxious to honor Bow 's property rights , that when he refused to eat them , we let them rot . But the second time that happened , we decided that if Bow refused to eat the pears when they were overripe , then others could do so , because it is really very wasteful . Bow is not always that cooperative , so the word " yes " is not often on his lips . Or on his keyboard . Or one that he spells on the glass . He is usually not a " yes - man " . But yesterday the word for the day was " yes " . After lunch , Tracey , our computer consultant , came by with my old Gateway laptop that recently lost its hard drive . He had saved as many of my data files as he could , and had backed them up on the new hard drive . The old operating system with all my installed programs could not be saved , and so we were in the process of trying to replicate it , when Lawrence came back from lunch . Tracey and I kept working on the computer , while Bow and Lawrence played in the adjoining pen . Then Bow took Lawrence to the glass and spelled out that he wanted to go outside . Lawrence escorted him out , but Bow made a big point of rattling the door right behind where Tracey was sitting , working on my Gateway . Tracey turned around and asked : " Bow , are you going outside now ? " And Bow said " Yes . " After which , Lawrence opened the next door , and the two of them went outside to play . What do I mean , he said " Yes " ? Well , it really was more like " eh " , but I just know he meant to say " yes " . The consonants weren 't there , because he can 't make them . All he can make is the vowel , and the intonational contour , and let me tell you , those were perfect ! Lawrence and I both thought he was saying yes . Am I completely deluded ? Well , no , I 'm not making a scientific claim here . I realize that this would carry no weight with the scientific community . But here are some of the reasons that it makes sense to us : Meanwhile , Bow and Lawrence wrestled outside , and Lawrence told me afterwards that Bow had been working really hard to beat him , probably because he wanted to impress Tracey . Finally , Lawrence gave in . " You win , " he told Bow , and Bow , feeling satisfied , decided to go in to use the potty . Afterwards , when Lawrence was emptying out the potty , Bow picked up the chopstick he uses for his touchscreen . Lawrence , who was already in the corridor , said to Bow : " Now don 't you be playing with that . You either put it down or use it to say something . " ( I can 't tell you how many chopsticks we 've lost as a result of other uses that Bow has put them to . ) This morning I am still preoccupied by my discovery , while editing The Debt Collector , that the going rate for milk teeth has quadrupled since 1985 . I try to interest my children in the discovery , but they are non - plussed . " Did you know that in 1985 when I first wrote this play , a milk tooth went for twenty - five cents , " I say to Sword . Sword is not impressed . " The bank just gives people more money now , so the things in the store also cost more , so it 's all the same . " No big deal , she implies . Here 's another thing Bow refuses to do : spend his tooth fairy money . There it sits in his piggy bank , and there it will remain . He won 't tell me what to buy with it . I think if it were up to Bow , the price of everything would go down , because there wouldn 't be any demand . This morning was a little tough . I took Sword to the theater last night , and we had a great time , but we got home close to midnight , which in turn made us oversleep and caused a lot of little chaotic things to happen . Sword missed her bus . Bow acted up . I had to drive Sword to school . I had no sitter , and Bow was not very cooperative . But Bow is really not such a bad guy . I was checking my email and Hubpages comments a couple of minutes ago , when , in my peripheral vision , I saw that Bow was playing with something . I just naturally assumed it was the bottom wiper , and so I used my deepest and most authoritative voice to say : " Put it back where it belongs ! " I didn 't even look up , but I saw Bow respond to my request , go over to the potty , pick up the bottom wiper , place something in the bottom wiper 's spot on the potty seat very carefully , and then put the bottom wiper over whatever it was . All this I could see with my side vision . ( My peripheral vision seems to be expanding , the more time I spend with Bow and the computer at the same time . ) It turned out that it was a piece of vine from the grapes I gave him this morning . I hadn 't cleared it away . I 'm getting sloppy . Wasn 't it nice of Bow to decide that it belonged under the bottom wiper ? He 's such a big help . Bow and I live in isolation in a protected zone inside our pens . We have an internet connection , and we subscribe to a couple of magazines , but we don 't watch TV , and we don 't get any newspapers , except the ones that arrive for free and are used to line the bottom of Sword 's bird cages . However , when something that affects us happens in the outer world , the news eventually filters down even to us . Yesterday , as usual , Lawrence was trying to get Bow to use his computer . Bow spelled something on the glass . ( I don 't remember what it was . ) And Lawrence said to him : " Why don 't you say that on your computer ? " Bow took the chopstick from Lawrence , strode purposefully toward the computer , poked at it once , and the computer said , in its robot voice : " Why ? " Lawrence didn 't see what key Bow hit , but he figures it must have been the letter Y . Nevertheless , " why " is what Bow seems to have meant . Why should I spell it on the computer when you can understand me perfectly well when I spell it on the glass ? Well , the answer might have been : so you can go on Oprah . When Lawrence was leaving , he turned to me and said : " My family tells me they saw some chimp on the Oprah Winfrey Show , and he wasn 't just an ordinary chimp ; he used symbols to communicate . And also , he could blow up balloons . " When Lawrence had gone , Bow said to me : " Bow is trying not to be mad that Kanzi is important . " This made me laugh . Jealousy doesn 't have to be all bad . It could be a very good motivator for Bow . Then I called my mother , to see if she had caught that Oprah show . She said she hadn 't . So then I googled it . It 's not very hard to find . Just google " Oprah Kanzi " and immediately you 'll find evidence that Oprah had a segment about Kanzi recently . One of the articles this search led me to had a very nice picture of Kanzi , and underneath , it said : " Kanzi has English comprehension on the same level as a two and a half year old human child . " That 's based on a study conducted decades ago . I shared this with Bow and asked him what he thought about that . " Those people are stupid , " he said . Kanzi 's comprehension is not limited to the weird novel sentences that were used to prove his understanding of English syntax . His English production ability is not limited to the lexigrams at his disposal . Anyone would sound like a two year old if limited to lexigrams and not allowed to spell out words . What primatologists manage to " prove " and what they actually know about the primates they work with are two different things . This morning Bow was still thinking about that . Before breakfast , when I was expecting him to tell me what he wanted to eat , he spelled out : " Kanzi is not a baby . Kanzi is big . Everyone knows Kanzi is not stupid . " I 've ordered my first proof of the CreateSpace book In Case There 's a Fox , and so now I don 't have to work on that for a while until the proof arrives . Meanwhile , there 's the first act of The Debt Collector to finish revising . I wrote the first act in 1985 and the third act in 2009 / 2010 , and I need to make sure they go well together . Bow , for his part , has only one concern : whatever it is I am doing , he should be involved . He acted up a little this morning , but as soon as I allowed him to sit on my lap , he was happy . The picture above is of the two of us peering into the screen , while I hold the old Debt Collector manuscript . Yesterday afternoon , while Lawrence was watching Bow , I baked a cake . No , I didn 't bake it from scratch . It was from a lemon - poppy seed muffin mix , but I baked it like a cake , and I used three eggs instead of two , because of the surplus of eggs that we have . I haven 't baked anything in ages , because the oven is in the kitchen , and I need a sitter just to be able to get there . Well , that 's not completely accurate . I bake chicken and sweet potatoes practically every day , but I have that down as a routine , and I don 't spend one extra minute in the kitchen . I just stick them in the oven as fast as I can . Cakes , though , even when they come in a mix , require a little more time . Bow can see the kitchen from the pens . That 's one of the nice things about the house layout . The pens open up into the living room , so Bow can see anything that goes on in the living room with no extra effort . In order to see the kitchen , he has to stand in a certain spot and peer at an angle . I could see Bow and Lawrence standing there , watching me as I prepared the mix . Then , when the cake was in the oven , I called Sword to the kitchen so she could lick the bowl . I glanced in the direction of the pens . Bow was standing on his tippy - toes watching all this intently . Sword is not a very efficient bowl licker , so there was plenty left when she was done . I brought the bowl into the entry way of the pens . " Would you like to lick the bowl , Bow ? " I asked . " Tell Lawrence on the computer . " We are still trying to coax Bow to use the touchscreen computer rather than the letters on the glass . We do not use food as a reward . But licking the bowl isn 't really about food . It 's almost like a recreational activity . " Yes , " Bow spelled . Then he went over to the computer , but didn 't spell anything . After that , he took Lawrence back to the letters on the glass . When I came back at noon from running errands today , Lawrence had to tell me that Bow had misbehaved while I was gone . Bow was making a lot of raspberry sounds , so it was hard for me to hear what Lawrence was saying . " It 's because . . . came by , " was all I could hear . Well , who hasn 't heard of Jehovah 's Witnesses ? Of course , I had . In fact , Bow and I have met a lot of Jehovah 's Witnesses . There was a time when Bow was riding on my back all day , and the only kind of rest I could get was to sit with him on the front porch for a while . It was before he was confined to the pens . Before there were any pens . But it was after I could no longer allow him to move freely through the house . As long as I held him , or he was riding on my back , Bow behaved well . But if I put him down , he would run around like a madman , leaving destruction and chaos in his wake . At first , I told myself that I would get things done while we sat there on the porch . I brought out a canvas and paints , but Bow would not let me concentrate even on that . The moment I had my back turned , he 'd snatch a tube of paint , and before I knew it , he had swallowed all of its contents . So it was that when the Jehovah 's Witnesses dropped by , they always found me sitting on the porch with Bow , doing nothing . They would come by , and they were polite but persistent , and they would not leave unless I accepted a pamphlet . I tried not to argue with them so as not to prolong the visit , and also because Bow can sense even the slightest animosity between people , and it can set him off . But as soon as the Jehovah 's Witnesses had driven away , I would turn to Bow and ask : " Do you want to read this book ? " He was always very interested , but as soon as he had finished reading it , he would start chewing on the edges . This would happen every time the Jehovah 's Witnesses came by , until one day they caught Bow with one of their pamphlets . " These are very valuable , and they cost a lot of money to print , " they told me . " If that 's what you 're going to do with them , we 're not going to bring you any more . " " Okay , " I said as meekly as I could . And that 's how I got the Jehovah 's Witnesses to stop coming by . And they haven 't been here for years ! But today they dropped by again , and they wouldn 't take no for an answer , even though Lawrence told them that he had his own beliefs , and that he doesn 't live here , and that he was working , and that he had to get back to Bow . Nothing could convince them not to leave their booklet . So finally in desperation Lawrence said : " Fine , give me the booklet . " I 've been working hard on trying to master the CreateSpace publication path . I have various manuscripts in memory in each of my old laptops , and the hard disk can fail at any moment . Yes , I have hard copies , too , and some things are backed up on CD and DVD , but it all seems very risky , and I want to stop sitting on old manuscripts and just get them out there to the public . The best way to preserve a document is to continuously make copies of it , and CreateSpace offers to do this for free . So even if I don 't look at it as a potential revenue stream , it 's a great system for archiving . However , I do have to learn a few technical skills before I can make use of this service , and Bow doesn 't like it when I concentrate for long periods of time on any one thing . Just as I try to influence Bow to focus his attention , Bow tries to influence me to scatter mine . Because we have no choice but to spend twelve hours a day together , this is give and take goes on all day . " You never finish , " he spells . Then he tickles the bottoms of my feet , and we play chase . I jump up and down with him , or we play music and dance to it . But just as he can 't stand to concentrate on a task for long , I can 't stand to stop working until I have finished . So I go back to the computer , and he goes back to fidgeting . Finally , I finish a hub in which I share my frustrated efforts to put together a CreateSpace book cover . I go over to the other side of the glass to play with Bow . He spells : " Mommy , don 't tell them it 's hard for you . " A reader of this blog emailed this morning to ask whether Bow is aware that he is a little bit famous . She suggested that while this might not make up for the fact that he has no girl friend , it might be some consolation . The answer is yes , he knows about his fame , and in fact he has an exaggerated awareness of his own importance in the world at large . He often asks me not to write about certain things that he has done , because he doesn 't want people to think that he is " bad . " Right after doing something not so nice , he will spell : " Mommy , don 't tell them that I did that . " I am now reaching an uncomfortable point in chronicling my family 's life , because both my kids have become aware , painfully aware , that I write about them , and I have to exercise a little more caution about what I say . I myself up until recently thought that I was writing for an audience of strangers , only to find local people to be among my readers . I have to watch what I say more now , so as not to hurt the feelings of my children or of the people they interact with . In Bow 's case , his awareness of his public image can sometimes grow way out of proportion . He knows that many people do not believe he can write , and he is not planning to enlighten them . He 'd rather they continue to think that , because someone once told him that his life would be in danger if the truth came out . This has created a sort of paranoia that puts him at center stage , even when what is going on is not about him at all . Once , somebody knocked at our door by mistake . He was trying to find one of our neighbors , but these country roads can get confusing , and he was lost . I gave him directions , and off he went . All this time , Bow was watching the front door from the pens . When I went back in with him , Bow spelled . " That man lied . He 's not lost . He came to see me . " " Bow you 're not the center of the universe , " I tried to tell him . " Not everything is about you . " But he was not convinced . The best thing in the world for all of us is if Bow stopped worrying about other people and their opinions and started thinking of his life in a more down to earth context . He needs a social life a lot more than he needs fans . And he needs to start doing something productive for his own support , rather than expecting everyone to provide for him . We do get donations , and we are grateful for them . But the best thing would be if we could also contribute something to the community we are a part of and trade value for value . Bow is so smart ! It would be a shame if he didn 't eventually find something constructive to do with all that intelligence . I 've been busy writing on Hubpages , while Bow has been making rasberry sounds all day . Every once in a while I go in to deal with potty issues , and I always ask him if he wants anything . " Bow , do you want anything ? " Yesterday Bow had a special visitor . Linda , the daughter of our computer consultant , Tracey , had a day off from school , and she came by with her dad just to see Bow . She was shy at first , but Bow did his best to show her his friendly side . He knew in advance that she was coming , and he was on his best behavior . Bow can be quite intimidating when he chooses to be , flinging himself at the pen doors and displaying his strength to anyone who doubts it . But with Linda , who is eight going on nine , just like him , Bow was friendly , jumping up and down and trying to engage her in a two way interaction . He restrained himself admirably and did not start showing off his strength until she was more comfortable in his presence . " Yes , he does , but he does it without using his voice . " I demonstrated by doing a voiceless " ha , ha , ha " , which is more like panting , and less like talking . As soon as I started , Bow joined in with his voiceless " ha , ha , ha " , just to demonstrate . Then I tickled him , and he laughed louder , and this time for real . It 's hard to tickle a chimpanzee , because they are all muscle . You have to apply a lot more force than with a human . But the laughter is the same , only without vibrating the vocal cords . When Linda felt really secure with Bow , she let him have some cherry / lime soda that she had brought in a styrofoam cup . Though Tracey and Linda could not go in with us , they could share the soda with Bow through a straw that fit into the holes in the grid . Bow finished the drink , but there were still a cherry and a slice of lime deep within the styrofoam cup . To get those , I would have to bring the cup into the pen for Bow . He ate the cherry rather quickly , but the lime piece took a lot longer to consume . First he sucked all the juice out of it , slowly , puckering his lips at the sourness . Then he ate all the pulpy part . And after that , he kept chewing on the peel as if it were the greatest of delicacies . I have a friend who is in her late eighties . She and I speak on the phone about once a week , because we live in different states and cannot meet in person . She is about thirty - seven years older than I am , and we met when I was in my late twenties . My friend is vibrant and alive and healthy for her age , and she is a happy person with an active social life . In fact , her social life is a lot more active than mine . As we were about to hang up the other day , she said : " You shouldn 't let your animals run your life . " She meant Bow , but she could not remember his name . She can 't seem to remember that he is a chimpanzee , anymore , either . But she knows that I have to stay home all day with him , and she doesn 't really understand how I could let that happen . " If I were you , " she tells me , " I would not let my animals run my life . I would go out whenever I wanted to , and if I found they had misbehaved when I was gone , I would punish them with such dire consequences that they would not dare repeat it ! I would beat them within an inch of their life . " Bow is sitting there right next to me , and he hears every word she says . It used to make him very angry when she said such things , and he would act up , and spell " she is bad " on the glass , and I used to have to caution her to stop , but now Bow sits placidly by and tolerates this . He 's long since stopped trying to correct her when she refers to him as a dog . " She is not okay , " he will tell me later . " She doesn 't remember anything . " My friend suffers from short term memory loss . She is still the same person she was before . Her personality hasn 't changed , and her wit can be quite sharp . She remembers the great depression very clearly and can tell you how to grind wheat into flour by hand . But she 's not good at remembering what I told her last week , or the week before , or a month ago , and she doesn 't remember things that she knew about me nine years ago . Now , normally , I am very critical of people for not remembering things . If I have an acquaintance who doesn 't remember anything I tell him , I figure this acquaintance has not been paying attention , and I ease up on the contact . But this friend can 't help it . This is something that has happened to her recently , and I know that it can 't be helped . So Bow and I forgive her for saying what she says . There are other friends , more distant ones , who voice similar concerns , or who fail to voice them , but give off that kind of vibe . There are friends who do not understand why I can 't go visit them but insist that they come see me . Or who , when they do come to see me , don 't understand why I have to stay in the pens all day , unless Lawrence relieves me . They have animals : dogs , cats , horses , and they love their animals , but their animals do not run their lives . For people , especially rural people , who have never dealt with a chimpanzee , but who have plenty of experience with other animals , it may seem as if I have failed to discipline Bow , and I have ceded my life over to him . But among the chimpanzee activists , I have critics who voice the opposite complaint . I once had a volunteer who chided me for hosing Bow down for a potty violation . As far as that volunteer was concerned , Bow could do no wrong , and I should let him get away with anything he wished to do , because after all , he is just a chimpanzee . I don 't punish Bow for things he can 't help , but I do hold him to the highest standards in matters that are within his ability to control . I do not force him to talk . He talks because he wants to . But I do require him to abide by certain minimal rules of hygiene and respect for others . The fact that he does abide by those rules is proof that he can . To the extent that I am not able to enforce other rules , it is because he can 't seem to control himself . But I am forever testing to see if perhaps he has acquired more self control . Bow and I are in the pens , because he can 't be trusted outside the pens to abide by the rules of the society we live in . I 've received angry messages from some readers , along these lines : " Shame on you for putting Bow in a cage . You 're the one who should be in a cage ! " Well , I am in a cage . I 'm in the same cage with Bow , and I will continue to be in the cage with him , until he is able to have more freedom . This may happen in one of two ways : either Bow will develop the self control that will allow him to live in our world outside the cage , or I can get him a much bigger cage - - like that island we dream of - - that can be like a world of its own , a self - sustaining ecosystem that will support him , even as he lives apart from human beings . I believe in discipline . I believe that whatever freedom we have is due to our own self - discipline . I 'm doing my best to foster that in Bow . But it makes no sense to punish someone for what he cannot help . I apply exactly the same standards to human beings . And this is why Bow and I no longer try to correct my friend when she urges me to beat him within an inch of his life . We understand that she can 't help it , and that we can 't change her . We accept her the way she is , and we don 't walk out on her . We don 't cut her out of our lives . Just the way I don 't walk out on Bow . Bow hates stormy weather . Last night , around dinner time , we had a gale blow through . The sky grew dark quite suddenly , and the trees bent in the wind , and the rain came down as though it meant to flood the whole world . Bow started to rock back and forth , concerned . He always takes the weather much more seriously than I do . He almost refused to eat , but I told him that the storm was not putting us off our schedule , so he ate and rocked simultaneously for a while , until it died down . When the storm was over , he completely relaxed . I wonder , sometimes , how Bow would do if he were on an island of his own . How would he deal with the weather ? We used to go outside a lot , on my property , on some other property that we have access to and even in the Missouri park system . Whenever there was dew on the ground , early in the morning , Bow refused to tread on it . He insisted on sitting on my shoulders or riding on my back . Of course , he was still a little one back then . If he had others , younger than he is , who were counting on him , would he take care of them ? Would he put them first ? Leadership , ultimately , is more than bullying others into doing what you want . It is also taking responsibility for your decisions on behalf of others . I hope that Bow will be able to handle that challenge when it comes .