A Pet Monkey in the Family

When I was growing up, we had a pet monkey, a Weeper Capuchin... like the Little Rascals had. We had no plans to raise a monkey, but when we were visiting family friends', my mother fell in love with him. They were looking to get rid of him since they had 6 kids, they had their hands full. It was hard to take proper care of him too. We had a Wurlitzer Jukebox that was quite a classic, which their family wanted, so we ended up trading the jukebox for the monkey.

His name was Carlos and he was about 11 months old when we got him. He was partial to my mom and would lie in her arms as she cuddled him like a baby. We built a special cage for him, 6'x6' that took up an entire wall at our house. He was out of the cage quite often, as we considered him one of the family rather quickly.

They have a way of raising their foreheads when they "talk" to you and its just precious when they start cooing and sweet talking you. I could tell over time, what his different noises meant. Some were from fear, some from discovering a bug, some meant "I love you"....he had a nice quiet voice, and only shrieked when he got scared.

He loved our cats, and we had a litter of kittens he was partial to, he would kidnap a baby and take off with it under his arm, with the cat giving chase. He'd take it back to his cage and hold it like a baby. Often he would flip the kittens over and start looking for fleas on their bellies...he'd get so excited when he found them, and would eat them. He loved bugs, but spiders kind of freaked him out a bit. We'd let him outside by the porch light at night and he'd catch June bugs. He'd pull their wings off before eating, as he did with hard shelled bugs (which was very unappealing to watch). This was a natural instinct for him, so we indulged...he was very healthy his entire life, which was about 8 years.

Once we gave him a pork chop to eat while we were setting there having dinner, he was smacking on his pork chop and really loving it, when one of his kitties came up and sat outside the cage. Carlos ate some more, then decided to share with the cat, he pushed the meat through the holes on the cage and gave it to the cat! Well the cat....instead of going off and eating someplace private, sat right in front of Carlos eating that meat. Well pretty soon Carlos wanted it back.... you could see him mind thinking "what to do ....what to do... ". He got up on the top and actually UNTIED a rope that was hanging in his cage. He got as close to the kitty as he could, then used his rope to try to snag the pork chop!! He would throw it out, pull it in to see if he got it....then throw it again. We all sat in utter amazement when he was doing this! He never was able to rope it in...we gave him another chop for trying so hard though!

He had an infatuation with female chests...he was always touching, and looking down women's shirts and talking real sweet when he did this. Several times he'd reach in real quick and pull out tissues, much to the embarrassment to the woman. He also use to pull off my aunt Glenda's false eyelashes, and screech like he had a spider!! It was a riot for a kid like me to see; I couldn't help but laugh at my kid brother!!

My folks had some bars welded onto the house, sort of like small metal ladders for him to get on the roof with if he needed to. We let him outside alot and he never left the yard, except for once. My sister had a girlfriend the size of a linebacker, well Carlos was on the roof hanging out, and she came over, he was just being friendly and jumped down onto her shoulder, she let out a blood curling scream.....Carlos takes off a running! Hopping up fences and trees like they weren't anything, soon disappearing. My best friend and I set out to find him, calling for him, and roaming the nearby blocks. We had someone ask what we were looking for, I simply stated "A Monkey". They looked at me like I was crazy.

We finally heard a faint little whimper of his, the one he made when he was scared. We followed the sound to a tree that was the tallest tree in the neighborhood. This became the tree he would run to if something would scare him. It was 1 block away. He was way up at the top, just a cooing and crying for momma. One of us stayed with him talking, while the other girl ran for my mother. It took her awhile to talk him down, but no harm was done in the long run.

Carlos LOVED Christmas time, he loved the tree and the lights....we often traveled for the Holidays, taking him with us everywhere. We'd be driving at night, and he'd be sound asleep in my arms, and we'd come to a town, and he'd perk up, jump up in the windows and coo at all the pretty Christmas lights. He got into some families mistletoe one year, and ended up with diarrhea after sitting on an uncles shoulder. He never wore a diaper, as he was quite trained about going in his cage, or outside, but not that time, (much to my uncles' discomfort). Carlos loved to help open presents, he liked the ribbons and paper, the tree, he was a joy to have during the holidays.

Our little monkey was a conversation piece too...people would see him outside and stop for a chat. One year he bit a toddler whose parents stopped and were persistent about pushing their toddler at him. He normally loved kids; I don't know what the problem was that day. They were friends, and understanding about it (11 stitches later).

We would lock him in his cage when he was alone at the house, but he would sometimes figure out an escape route. While we were gone, he'd climb the curtains, sometimes knocking them down. He would get in the cabinets and get food out and string it all over the house. Carlos had watched men shave at some point. Once we came home to find him out of his cage. What we found in the bathroom was a mess. Shaving cream smeared all over with a pink tint to it. He had the razor and was trying to shave his chest. His little hands had gotten nicked in a few places.

My mother would bring him to school twice a year for "Show and Tell", I will never forget the year her pulled my teachers falsies out of her shirt!

He eventually died of a heat stroke after being outside in August. We weren't sure the vet was correct in this diagnosis. It was quite cool outside, but sunny.

Given the opportunity, Id have another monkey, only a Weeper though and only if I lived in a country type setting. It's not fair to keep them penned up; they are so human in their thinking and actions. Their heart breaks when they are locked up. Their understanding of things is far more than we give them credit for.

This is dedicated to Carlos

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