Some couples, when they aren't able to have children, adopt kids from orphanages. But not the Temerlins. They decided to adopt a two day old chimpanzee from a chimpanzee circus. It was an experiment to find out if, raised by humans, a chimpanzee could become a human.
The Temerlins adopted Lucy when she was two days old from a circus that specialized in chimpanzee acts. Mrs. Temerlin took Lucy home on an airplane. They raised her like she was their daughter. They dressed her, potty trained her, and taught her to eat with utensils. When Lucy was older the Temerlins brought in a tutor to teach her sign language. When company came over she would go to the kitchen and make tea. When Lucy was older a male chimp was brought in. Lucy was terrified. That was the point when the Temerlins realized that Lucy wasn't fully human or fully chimpanzee, she was somewhere in-between. As Lucy got older she became stronger and began to destroy the Temerlin house. The Temerlins had no choice, but to shimp Lucy off to a nature preserve in Gambia.
I thought this story was really sad and interesting. Interesting because of the experiment. And sad because of what happened to Lucy.
