Chapter One Goin' Fishin'. Jon and Savvy left the house just after breakfast and walked to the dirt road in front of their farm house. At the road they turned left and ambled toward the river only a quarter mile away. Jon had his favorite fishing pole on his shoulder. It was a old, long cane pole that his grampa had given him six years ago on his seventh birthday. He did all the fishing. Five year old Savvy just watched. Sometimes he would stretch out and take a nap. Sometimes he would wander along the river bank just to see what he could find. But he never wandered very far from Jon. Jon was enjoying his first year as a teenager. It seemed as if his parents gave him more freedom to do the things he liked to do and they were listening to his opinions more now. On the other hand his farm chores had increased a little but Jon didn't mind that. Both of his parents had jobs in La Crosse so he felt a responsibility to help on the farm. Their didn't have any livestock on their farm except for a few chickens. It wasn't a big dairy farm like some of the kids Jon went to school with lived on. He knew that these kids worked hard on their farms with morning and evening milkings as well as the many other chores that went along with tending to animals including Jon's least favorite chore, cleaning the barn. The smell of cow manure was high on Jon's 'Don't Like It' list. Jon knew all this because farm families are a happy group and they like to visit often and are always ready to help each other. Jon had spent a lot of time at his best friend Tom's farm which was next door to Jon's parent's farm. It was only a five minute run for the boys to go from one farm to the other. But this morning Jon had no chores to do. His dad had just gotten home from his late night shift at the Pearl Street Brewery in La Crosse. His mother was preparing to go to her job as a nurse at the Gundersen hospital in La Crosse. Their small sixty acre farm was basically an excuse for all of them to live in the country. They grew cash crops which added a little to their income but wasn't enough to live on. Their most profitable crop was the popcorn they grew. Their land was good fertile land along the upper Mississippi delta and it was perfect for corn. But Jon's father had grown up on a farm and he knew corn took a lot out of the soil and couldn't be grown in the same field over and over.
They rotated their crops each year between popcorn, soybeans which they also sold directly from the field and alfalfa hay which they either sold as it was baled or stored it in their barn until some local farmers needed some hay during the winter. These crops were also low maintenance crops. And they didn't need any tending today. So with nothing else to do on a fine early summer day Jon and Savvy were going fishing. In a few minutes they were across Wisconsin Highway 35 a few miles south of La Crosse and at their favorite fishing spot. The mighty Mississippi was at their feet. At this point the upper river was much wider than it was a few miles down river at Genoa where there was a lock and dam so here the river flowed almost lazily at only 1.5 knots per hour. This was a good spot to fish. Jon caught several types of fish here. He had caught small and large mouth bass, perch, sunfish, crappie and more. He usually kept only the crappie. They were the easiest to clean and they were the tastiest. At least he and Savvy thought so. Jon was sitting on the riverbank watching his plastic bobber which had floated a few yards down stream. Savvy was lying in the grass beside Jon trying to keep his eyes open. The warm morning sun was putting him to sleep. This time of year the river was usually at it's lowest. Here in the wide part there were several sandbars that appeared and the water was often shallow enough to wade out to them. A few times Jon had waded out to a sandbar but he hadn't caught any more fish there than where he was now so he decided it wasn't worth the risk or the trouble today. So he was content to be where he was until something caught his eye. There was a slight movement from a sandbar just before the center of the river. Jon stood up but he still couldn't see the sandbar clear enough to make out what he had seen. Jon laid his pole on the ground and told Savvy to stay where he was. He walked back up to the highway which was at least eight feet higher than the riverbank. From there he got a better look at the sandbar.
There was a small rowboat stuck on the bar. Chapter Two His Own Boat. The first thing that went through his mind was how neat it would be to have his own boat. Maybe his dad would buy a small outboard for it and he and Savvy could fish anywhere they wanted too. Then he slowly returned to reality. The boat was almost halfway across the Mississippi river. How was he going to get to it? He had never gone that far out into the river before. He went back to his pole and Savvy who had been watching Jon but hadn't moved. Jon fished for two more hours but the boat was on his mind more than fishing. Besides he hadn't caught anything yet. Finally he couldn't stand it any longer. He pulled his hook and bait out of the water and laid the pole on the ground. He left his sneakers on but he rolled his pants up as high as he could above his knees. He slowly stepped into the cold water and started taking one small step after another feeling his way toward the nearest bar. In a few minutes he was there. As he stepped onto the sandbar he looked back at Savvy. He was watching intently but he hadn't moved. Jon didn't want to have to worry about Savvy so he had told him several times to 'stay'. Savvy didn't always do as he was told but Jon was hoping this time he would. Slowly Jon stepped back into the slow moving water and headed fo the next sandbar. Halfway there he felt something touch his leg. Immediately his heart started racing. He looked down and saw a small branch floating away. He regained his composure and kept walking. He slowly walked from sandbar to sandbar. The closer he got to the middle of the river the deeper the water was. On the last bar he crossed he found a long stout tree branch. He picked it up and used it to help him keep his balance. He had one more sandbar to go but the water was very deep now. Between the last bar and the one he was on now the water had been waist deep. But he had one more patch of water and the boat was his. He looked back at Savvy. He was surprised how far back it was to where Savvy was now nervously pacing the riverbank. But he was so close he wasn't about to give up now. He waded across the last few feet of water and he was on the sandbar with the boat. But now what?
Jon hadn't noticed it before but this was the last sandbar before the main channel of the river and that meant much deeper water. In the main channel the water was at least twenty feet so the huge Mississippi river towboats could bring barges upriver to be loaded with grain, corn and commodities. He also hadn't thought about how he was going to get the boat back to where he had started. So he had better figure something out now. His first thought was he could row it back. But as he looked in the boat there was only one oar. His next thought was to take the rope and tow it back to shore. He wondered if the current was too strong for him to pull the boat from sandbar to sandbar but he had made it out there so he figured he could make it back. He grabbed the rope and stepped carefully into the river. He tugged on the rope to get the little boat off the sandbar and into the water. The boat didn't move. Jon pulled harder. The boat still didn't move. Jon took a couple of deep breaths, he stepped a little further into the water, turned and faced the boat and pulled as hard as he could. Chapter Three Whoops. The boat lurched forward and Jon fell backward. Jon came to the surface and looked around. He still had the rope in his hand and the boat was slowly floating past him. He stood up and pulled the boat to him. He was already several yards downriver from where he had lost his balance and the water was chest deep. He was starting to float and had trouble keeping his feet on the river bottom. Jon knew he had to stop trying to walk and get into the boat. His grampa had told him the safest way to get into a small boat was from the back of the boat so it didn't tip over. Jon made his way to the back of the boat and carefully climbed into it. Meanwhile Savvy had been watching as Jon had disappeared under water and he didn't wait another second. He was in the water and on his way to help his friend. Jon had scrambled into the boat and he sat up and looked around to see just how bad his situation was. Jon was pretty level headed for a thirteen year old so he was very
concerned about his predicament but he didn't panic. Then he saw Savvy. Suddenly Jon quit thinking about his predicament and began to worry about Savvy. Meanwhile Savvy was thinking about saving Jon or at least getting to where Jon was. Savvy didn't like water but he was a very strong swimmer when he had to be. But it was his leaping ability that brought him to Jon's boat very quickly. Savvy was almost flying from sandbar to sandbar in his attempt to reach Jon. At the closest bar he lept toward the little boat and landed in the water so close to the boat he splashed water right over Jon's head. Jon reached over and pulled his best buddy into the boat. Savvy shook himself dry and looked around as if to ask what they were going to do now. Jon was wondering the same thing. They had already drifted almost fifty yards downriver from the last sandbar so wading was not an option anymore. Jon stood up and tried to paddle with one oar like the boat guys he had seen in a video. All he remembered was that these guys lived in a flooded town in Italy and made their boats go by putting the oar near the back of the boat and moving it just right. But Jon wasn't a Gondolier in Venice and he didn't have a forcola, the rowlock used by gondoliers and his boat was certainly not a gondola. With that idea out of the way he decided to try paddling on the downriver side to try to go to shore but the river was beginning to narrow and the current was getting stronger. They were going down river faster now. Jon could no longer see his fishing pole and that entire section of the highway would soon be out of sight. But Jon still didn't panic. He knew there was usually a lot of boats on the river. Some were fisherman, others were pleasure boaters out for a ride. Someone would come along soon and tow them back to shore. But this was a weekday and most people were working. Jon didn't see another boat for three hours. By then they were almost five miles downriver and in the main channel. Jon was getting worried when something he hadn't counted on showed up in the distance. It was a Mississippi tow boat. Jon's immediate concern was whether the captain or a crewman would see them in their
little boat or would they run right over them. On the other hand if they did see them could they turn quick enough to avoid them. Jon had good reason to panic now but he had an idea. He took off his shirt and tied it to the handle of the oar. He stood up in the boat and waved his make shift flag hoping someone would see him. Someone did, the lookout on the front of the forward barge saw him and radioed the towboat captain. Stopping or even slowing a 100,000 ton load of barges was no easy task and took a lot of time and space. Turning was just as bad. Worst of all this towboat was heading downriver at 3 knots in a 1.5 knot current. Things did not look good for Jon and Savvy. Chapter Four What Is That Thing? The towboat captain blew his whistle several times as a warning to the tiny boat ahead of him. He also turned his huge pilothouse wheel as far to the right as he could. This was going to be a tricky maneuver for the towboat captain but he was an old river veteran. His problem was space and timing. The barges in front of him were very slow to answer a request for a change in direction so the captain would have to veer to the right and almost as soon as the barges started to turn he would have to turn back left to stay in the deep water channel. Timing was everything. Jon watched helplessly as the barges approaching him slowly turned a little toward the Minnesota side of the river. Then they slowly started to turn back toward him again. But they slid past him at least thirty feet away. Jon sat down in the bottom of the little boat and held onto Savvy. He knew there was a big wake coming.
As he passed Jon the towboat captain waved and blew his whistle several more times. Jon shouted he needed help. But the towboat was so noisy the captain nor the crewmen could hear what Jon was saying. But when Jon held up his one oar and showed them he couldn't paddle against the current they understood. The towboat captain called the attendant at the Genoa locks a few miles ahead of him and told him about the stranded boy and his animal in the middle of the river. The attendant notified the Genoa police and they dispatched their rescue boat to try to find Jon. Soon Jon saw a boat speeding toward him. He was pretty sure his little adventure was about to come to an end. He would be glad when he was back on dry land he was sure Savvy was thinking the same thing although once he got used to the little boat and the rocking Savvy had been very calm. As the boat approached Jon could see the police uniform. That was when the first thought of the trouble he was in first crossed his mind. The officer slowed almost to a stop when he got to Jon. He circled Jon and asked if he was all right. Jon replied that he was fine. The officer circled him again then when he was beside Jon but still fifteen feet away he shut his outboard off. He told Jon that usually he took people aboard his boat and towed their empty boat but he didn't want a cheetah in his boat. Jon started to laugh. He explained that Savvy wasn't a cheetah. He told the officer Savvy was a Savannah cat. He went on to explain that Savannah cats were a new breed of cat that was a cross between a domestic cat and a wild African cat called a serval. He spent several minutes convincing the officer that Savvy was just a big cat. When the officer heard Savvy's loud purring in response to Jon's petting he allowed his boat to drift alongside of Jon's boat. In answer to the officer's question about petting Savvy Jon replied that would be okay if he let Savvy sniff his hand first. After the sniffing and petting was over the officer took Jon and Savvy into his boat and tied Jon's on behind his. He motored along slower than he normally did under these circumstances. Jon was fine so there was no hurry. Actually he liked Savvy and wanted to learn more about him. Jon told him his grandfather and grandmother were the only registered breeders in the area and he would have to see them if he wanted a cat like Savvy. The officer said that was fine and said he supposed the cats were expensive, probably two or three hundred
dollars each. Jon looked at the officer and paused. He wasn't sure how to tell the officer how expensive they were. "Sir, I can see you like Savvy but he is worth as much as your boat. An F1 male Savannah kitten costs $12,000 to $16,000. A F1 female kitten costs from $15,000 to $20,000. F1 means registered pure blood parents." The officer almost choked. He said he reckoned he didn't want one that bad. By now they were back where Jon's fishing pole was lying on the riverbank. Savvy leaped from the boat onto the grass. He had enough of boats and water for today. He was anxious to get home to Bullion his cat buddy waiting back at the farm. Bullion got his name because of his gold color and the fact that Jon was studying about gold and silver ingots called bullion in school at the time bullion showed up at the farm and decided to stay. He and Savvy were close friends but he never went fishing with Jon and Savvy. He preferred to sleep in the barn instead. Jon was thinking too. He was already thinking about how long he was going to be in trouble at home for his adventure today. Oh well at least he had a boat for all his troubles. End Savvy and Bullion.