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The Kia ora coo-ee : the magazine for the ANZACS in the Middle East, 1918

Mascots. — "Jinnie" Of The Mobile Vets

Mascots.
"Jinnie" Of The Mobile Vets.

"Jinnie" is a monkey, once the pride of a L.H. Field Ambulance; but she fell from grace. As a juggler of knots, she would have made Houdini look like a beginner, and she never stayed tied up longer than she considered necessary.

When the dentist's weekly tally showed that Miss "Jinnie" was sinking false teeth faster than he could build them, he held a war council with the dispenser, whose corks were helping to supplement "Jinnie's" rations. It was decided by a majority of two to none, that she should be struck off the strength, or sent to Moascar. She got to hear of this somehow, and took to the roof. Nobody could catch her, though she haunted that E.P. tent like a ghost. When she wasn't looking through the ventilator, she was peeping through the little window or around the door; and questions were being asked in Parliament about the extraordinary number of teeth and corks being used in Palestine.

One night, the Huns bombed Belah, and "Jinnie" put in some solid graft dodging sfpunttrs. Next morning she appeared on sick parade, with a "bomb wound of the thumb." After a first field dressing had been applied, she left for the Mobile Vets., where they "walked her up and down, and put her on the lines." Notwithstanding her transfer from the Ambulance, she got well; but the Vets, took a fancy to her, and there she stayed, as many a good horse has done.

We lost sight of "Jinnie" for nearly a year; but recently I had occasion to visit the Mobile Vets.—it was rumoured that the CO. had procured a case of hospitality— and there was "Jinnie", looking well. She had become very frightened of horses: her tail had been trodden on, and was not yet healed. On this particular day, sundry horses were drifting about, grazing, and one, happening to stray near "Jinnie", caused her to leap for safely. This frightened the horse, and in his wild dash for open country, he fouled her chain and broke it. The end of it, attached to the monk, was well tangled round '"Dobbin's" leg; and "Jinnie", seeing she was going on a journey, determined to do it with all available comfort. She fastened on to "Dobbin's" near hock. Then the circus commenced. The old horse broke every Palestine record up to two miles, and the monkey still hung on.

It soon became clear to "Dobbin" that a new offensive was necessary, and he started to root. For three willing bucks, "Jinnie" sat him, and then went skywards. After the usual interval, obeying her homing instincts and the Law of Gravity, she returned to Mother Earth. When we arrived she was carefully ex mining herself for bruises and septic sores; and you should have heard the language she used! Next day she applied for a base job.