Flying Circus pt 4

The captain and first officer were mouth agape at what I told them
Neither one of them believed me about Gina the giraffe
So first the captain went back to see for himself what she was doing
Then the first officer took his turn

Both of them came back shaking their heads at what they'd seen
The sight of Gina pulling on the flight control cables with her big giraffe teeth

For some reason the flight engineer hadn't needed convincing
Perhaps he'd seen it all before
You know the type

The captain took charge and gave me a mission
"Get with the handlers and see if you all can figure out how to get her to stop
I can't have her doing that
Especially when we are coming in to land"

I went back to talk to the handlers
Who were all grouped at the access door in the back of the upper deck
Watching the giraffe pick at the ceiling of the airplane

We soon came up with a plan and went down the ladder to the main deck

The handlers went to their equipment box and pulled out a few items
Two adjustable length leads with chrome hooks at each end
And three onions

Turns out that Gina the giraffe loves onions as a treat
A fact that I added to the day's list of new things learned

We all walked down to Gina's open topped crate
Two of the handlers went to either side of the crate
Hooking one end of the leader that they each had into a steel ring
About three quarters of the way up the side of the container
And climbing up to the top of the box on either side of the giraffe

Gina stood in the middle of her small area
Looking innocent as can be
But wary of what we were doing

Myself and the last handler climbed up on top of an animal crate just in front of Gina's
Before climbing up I looked at the label
It said "Paulina, World's Biggest Pig"
Looking inside one of the slotted holes in the side
Sure enough
Paulina was one big pig

Pauling oinked at me
I swear she winked

Once up on the top
I held my offering of onions up for Gina to see
Her nostrils flared and she came forward to check them out
A very long dark giraffe tongue coming out as she got close to me
Touching an onion
Almost knocking it out of my hands

Satisfied with what she tasted
She moved in and gently plucked one onion from my hands
Chewing it messily
Making my eyes water with the onion smell

At the same time that she took the onion
The guy next to me grabbed Gina's halter that she wore on her head
Seemingly for just such occasions as this

He cooed at her softly in some language I didn't know
And whatever he said must have worked
Because Gina didn't even flinch when the two handlers on the side of the container
Leaned in and clipped their leads to the rings on either side of her halter
As the first guy held her still

I fed Gina the last two onions
Which she enjoyed with giraffe abandon

And all four of us climbed down and stood back

Now wearing the leads attached to her crate
Gina could still stand up all the way
As long as she stood in the front of her area
But she couldn't reach up and pick at the ceiling insulation
Or pull on the flight control cables anymore

Gina the giraffe fluttered her long eyelashes at us
Maybe admonishing us for wrecking her fun

The handlers stayed downstairs to do their rounds of all the rest of the animals
I went back upstairs to report that things were under control

Halfway up the steps I remembered that I had my camera stowed in my bag
And that I'd totally forgotten about it

Nobody would ever believe me when I told this story
I wonder if I could turn Gina loose again for some photos?

But that was just idle thinking
I continued upstairs
Told my tale to the crew
And got my long sequestered lunch out
For a mile high nosh