November: Bachelor drama

VMF vegan challenge day 9: Still going strong. I’m really not finding this difficult at all. Plus I think I’m eating healthier unless I eat bags of chips for dinner haha (and chocolate, but really, I’m telling myself dark chocolate is healthy and no one is going to tell me otherwise). Eating lots of nuts and seeds and fruit so overall I think this is a healthy choice whether it was for the monkeys or not, but even better that it is.

From my previous post about Opal I mentioned that at the same time he came in to Sickbay, both Frog and Top Left were already in there being monitored. I can update that Frog has improved drastically and is eating well after being brought in severely dehydrated and could have died if Dan had not found him in Camelot, a troop of over 70 monkeys. Constant monitoring, antibiotic and Vit B injections, and extra yummy food like blueberries has brought him back to health. Top Left from the Bachelors was brought in as his wobbly walking and difficulty getting up and down meant he wasn’t eating well. After he came in he made some small improvements, but then relapsed and it was clear he had neurologic problems that were progressive and would not improve, so we said goodbye to Top Left this month as well. Will miss his cranky face looking out from Bachelor block and his slow motion old man slap fights with Artreo.

The other half of the bachelor block, Top Right, Eddy, and Elton had some dramas as well. Eddy has a couple days in sickbay as he was cramping and passing blood, but went right back to normal and was returned. His absence must have stirred up some stuff as Elton’s lip is now open and Top Right has a bite on the bottom of his foot. There was a lot of tension in the cage so Top Right has been trapped and moved into the other half of Brian’s cage at Block B1/B2. Hopefully he won’t try to fit through the fence, as the chain link is so big the bandit babies and females can fit in and out to steal food.

Kanook, who spent a long stint in sickbay has finally left to her new home in an intro cage attached to the other side of Gismo. She wasn’t meant to be in sickbay so long but her cage had to be dismantled to build the new Gismo enclosure expansion so she had nowhere to go in the meantime. She’s gone back to her normal adorable self, as she was so bored in sickbay she became a little gremlin launching at the fence and dropping things all the time. Glad she’s got a lovely new cage with nice trees to play with.

Thandi, whose roommate Armstong moved in with Angela and Pepper as he was picking on her too much, got a new roommate, Snow White from Skunkey A. They seem to be getting along well, though Thandi has a nasty bite on her arm at the moment from Skunkey troop and is on meds.

Baromir was moved out of Nigella’s cage and back into his old cage, to see if that stops the fighting between Nigella and the Sickbay troop.

The Koko babies (Alec, Mowgli, Grace, TJ, Luka, Laux, Irene, and Buster) have half of Koko enclosure to themselves at the moment, but have been having a lot of integration time and have met a lot of the troop. They even chased off big male Hef who they found in their territory. It’s so cute seeing them playing and jumping through the trees and foraging in the grass like big monkeys :)

Irene out in Koko enclosure - Photo by Hillary Brown

The Dino & Daniel babies… are always a bit of a struggle. Integration has been going slower than anyone would like, partly due to issues between Honeybear and Mistletoe, and mostly due to the fact they they are just too humanized to know how to interact politely like normal monkeys.

Francis, on the other hand, is progressing very well in her integrations and is finally starting to stand up for herself with the juniors, even chasing some of them around the cage.

New orphan Ayla has been getting along very well with Speigel, and they will both hopefully be added as part of Sickbay troop. Spiegel will be going in with Chico full time during the day this week, and once Ayla gets the hang of the feeding cage she will go in with Chico and Speigel, with the hope that Pippa and Dolly will share responsibilities of taking care of both babies. Dolly does seems very keen on Ayla, but as we can’t go in a cage with Dolly as we can with Chico, we have to give her initially to Chico instead. Monkey mums often share babysitting duties so this should work just fine.

Spiegel hugging Ayla - Photo by Hillary Brown

Also this month one of our volunteers who has spent many years volunteering all over the world volunteered to paint us a mural outside. Our outdoor eating area used to be a dull concrete grey, then got brightened with a can of blue paint a couple months ago, and now has a beautiful African sunset landscape mural complete with monkey silhouettes.

Mural by volunteer Robin Huffman - Photo by Hillary Brown