When the old keeper forgot one latch, the 400-pound silverback reached through the steel

behind him.

Nobody told him to turn around. Nobody told him not to.

Tom lifted one hand in a small, unfinished motion. Then he lowered it and walked out.

For several weeks after Tom’s last day, Winston came to the training wall every morning at the same time.

That was not surprising at first. Animals learn schedules, and Tom had been a schedule as much continue reading …