Wednesday, February 20, 2008

More Monkey Business

So, after reading my post about the baby monkey for sale, my mom reminded me that she, in fact, once had a wee monkey as a pet! I don't know how I forgot about that story. I didn't really get the details on how this arrangement came to be, or the legality of it and all, but hey, it was the 70's!

It was a Capuchin Monkey. Seemingly very cute little creatures, have a looksie:


Apparently it looked more like this a majority of the time, though.


She has told me some stories about the true nature of having a monkey for a pet. Apparently they stink and screech and scream and throw their dung at you and all over... I have this funny mental image of a huge metal birdcage in the middle of their living room, with a crazed monkey shaking the bars and screeching... I'll draw a picture and post it at some point. Note the splattered poo that monkey has thrown about, and the cool retro 70's lamp is the standout fixture I remember from that house...


Apparently it got out a couple times, and they toyed with the idea of letting it stay gone, but the threat of someone tracing it back to them was too great. Plus I think it only ever went up a tree in the back yard, so it would still have been there, taunting and terrorizing. I am just fascinated by this. How they got a monkey, why they got a monkey, what did they do with it when they DID actually get rid of it (from the tone of the stories, I gather it was a short term arrangement).

Anyhow- just an interesting story...


2 comments:

Therese said...

I swear, your blog gets more interesting every day.

My grandfather had a chimp...I think it died right before I was born, but I hear he was a mean cuss. And dirty too.

How funny that your mom had a pet monkey. Random!!!!!

Big Fat Gini said...

I'm super impressed that you took the time to actually draw out your mental image. Complete with a neat-o 70's lamp too.

I'm pretty sure my kids wouldn't do well with a monkey.

(sorry this comment sucks...)