 Why is it so important for Jig and Shannon to find Gertrude a mate?
The Blue Behemoth By LEIGH BRACKETT Shannon's Imperial Circus was a jinxed space-carny leased for a mysterious tour of the inner worlds. [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Planet Stories May 1943. With Shannon's Imperial Circus, the Greatest Show in Space, plastered so thick with attachments...." I've wet-nursed Shannon's Imperial Circus around the Triangle for eleven years, and I know. It's lousy, it's mangy, it's broken-down! I had plenty of time to think how I only weigh one-thirty-seven to Shannon's one-seventy-five, and how I'm not as young as I used to be. Bucky Shannon sighed, and let his fist start traveling, a long, deceptive arc. It has always been my desire to lighten the burden of life for those less fortunate...." He went on, quietly, "I have always held that entertainment, of the right sort, is the most valuable aid humanity can have in its search for the alleviation of toil and boredom...." It was Gow, our zoo-man—a big, ugly son-of-a-gun from a Terran colony on Mercury. He said, "Boss, Gertrude's actin' up again." "Gertrude be blowed," growled Bucky. "I'm tellin' you, Boss, Gertrude ain't happy. Beamish cleared his throat and said, rather stiffly, "Gertrude?" "She's the star attraction of our show, Mr. Beamish. The only other one on the Triangle belongs to Savitt Brothers, and she's much smaller than Gertrude." Gertrude may be a little creaky, but she's still pretty impressive. The extreme rarity of the animal...." It was pretty late when we got back to the broken-down spaceport where Shannon's Imperial Circus was crouching beneath its attachments. Bucky Shannon walked out into the glare of the light at the entrance to the roped-off space around the main lock. It grates on a man's pride to have to sneak in and out of his own property through the sewage lock. The freaks and the green girl from Tethys who could roll herself like a hoop, and Zurt the muscle man from Jupiter, and all the other assorted geeks and kinkers and joeys that make up the usual corny carnie were doing nip-ups in the passageways and drooling over the thought of steer and toppings. "They're good guys, Jig. Gow was evidently holding Gertrude's hand.
 Her crying and loneliness without one is affecting the entire crew, and they can't afford to have her out of commission.
 They want to preserve her species, and they're close to extinction. Her species is too valuable to let die out.  They need another "cansin" for their show.  She feels alone in her cage and in the circus, and they feel badly for her.  Her crying and loneliness without one is affecting the entire crew, and they can't afford to have her out of commission.