Sylvester the Silly Sloth
Everyone knows that a sloth moves slowly when it moves at all, hangs upside down from tree limbs, sleeps away about half the day, and doesn’t have much to say. A quiet life is pretty good protection from getting eaten up by hungry jaguars too.
That’s why it was very dangerous to do the kind of silly stuff every day that Sylvester was doing.
Instead of descending once a week to use his ground-level potty, Sylvester backed slowly down the trunk every day, doing a little wiggly sidestep, just for fun.
Instead of holding his tongue as most sloths do except during mating season, Sylvester whistled happy little songs for no reason and whispered about his plans for the day.
Instead of moving as quietly as sloths usually move, Sylvester scratched his big claws loudly against the tree trunk as he moved about and made quite a large racket as he tried to carve his initials in the bark before making his way back to his limb for a nap.
Other sloths in the rainforest tut-tutted and slowly shook their heads at silly Sylvester and his noise because they knew what would happen when Jackson the Jumpy Jaguar made his rounds.
Sure enough, Sylvester was on the ground, working on his initials when Jackson showed up. He tried to swipe at the jaguar with his massive claws, but it was too late. Silly Sylvester was a goner.
Most creatures tend to behave according to the rules, mores, and habits of their friends and relatives, and that tends to work pretty well. But from time to time, one desperately feels the need to march to a different drummer. It pays to do so circumspectly.
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Hi Patricia .. I do love the names you’ve given your characters with their stories .. poor old sylvester … cheers Hilary
Dang! Poor old Sylvester. Once I was on a conference in Venezuela and a friend and I kept spotting a sloth – there was another fella there that never saw it though we’d tell him daily where it was. He was from Australia and probably saw lots of them anyway. He pronounced it ‘slow -th’ which we liked very much.
Awww, I’m going to miss Sylvester. Though he is gone, he is my kind of guy 😉
“Jackson the Jumpy Jaguar” cracked me up! This story is like a Grimm Fairy Tale, emphasis on grim. It really made me giggle, since I like dark humor.
Great post! 🙂
Great fun post, thought I was the only one to give Mother Nature’s creatures names.
Yvonne.
Oh no, poor Sylvester. I was hoping he’d make it through somehow. I can’t blame him for wanting to be a bit silly sometimes. 😀
That was brilliant Patricia…poor Sylvester. Yep – if you want to be different, be careful how you do it 🙂
I’m doomed. 😉 Fun post!
If you’re going to be different, be smart about it.
Pat – Yes, there is definitely a balance you need to strike between doing the things the way they’ve always worked well, and listening to your own drummer. Poor Sylvester – I dig his unique approach to life even if it didn’t end so well for him.