Sunday, June 10, 2012

A 40 Year Old Story.....
About a Monkey!

This is a true story about a boy and his Spider Monkey, sometimes called  "organ grinder's monkey"......this boy is my youngest brother, Don. This goes back to when he was around 12 yrs. old. My oldest brother, Carl, owned a pet shop at that time and had all kinds of animals and critters.
Internet Photo
He looks innocent enough and somewhat cute.....but read on!

Chico was his name, I wish my mom would have taken a picture of him when he lived with her and Don.
Now consider this is a very small monkey, no problem, and it was love at first sight for mom & Don.
Let the fun begin........
Chico, a very intelligent and also rogue-like animal, was not satisfied to sit meekly in his cage. He learned to rock the cage about in the bedroom. Then he found he could open the closet door.
This done, he systematically snatched every dress and other article of apparel from the closet and generally acted tacky.
He also pulled all the dresser and bureau drawers from their places and dumped the contents out on the floor. Things went from bad to worse. My mom tried to discipline Chico, but her efforts were in vain. Chico remained a problem, he accidentally got out of the house and ran up a tree and the fire department was called to see if they could get him down. After a long period of trying to coax Chico down out of the tree they left mom & Don  to spend the night under the tree until Chic came down. This was the final straw for mom, so she came to a decision. She called Carl at the pet shop and told him Chico was coming back.
Carl told her Chico was a good monkey and that she was over exaggerating. Mom was adamant and she bundled Chico and cage in the car and took him to the shop. Once there, she gave him back to Carl and took a white Persian cat in trade.
Carl put Chico in the middle of the back room in his cage with other animals and went up front to talk to mom. This is when Chico pulled his "big" stunt.
In some manner, he opened his cage door and free of his small prison, he did what he considered his duty as he saw it. He let every other animal, bird, etc. in the place out of their cages. 
When Carl, hearing the commotion, rushed to the back room, Chico was just reentering his own cage and was vainly trying to refasten his door.
The question is....do monkeys really think? Do monkeys just imitate, or do they come to some conclusion of their own?

My mom owned a local restaurant in town and she was known by a lot of people and when this story was printed in our local paper she was the talk of the town.

I am glad mom saved this article all these years, when she came across it the other day I borrowed it to make a copy. I hope you have enjoyed this little story today and I hope you have a wonderful & blessed day.

I have now posted BARN #2 on my photography blog....hope you enjoy it as well!

God Bless
&
Be Safe

~Linda~

2 comments: