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January 10 2007 - Me And My Guys
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I just received a wonderful email from my friend Vicki filling me in on all the news from London. A friend who is temporarily homeless has been staying in my flat while I'm away, so Caspar, who loathes everyone except Vick and I has had to find a new way to exit the house. He usually does so through my French windows, but has been decidedly miffed since Joel's arrival, refuses to enter my flat and now exits via Vicks drawing room window. This is not as easy as it sounds. Vick recently had new windows (as close to the Georgian originals as possible) put in, and they require lots of nuts, bolts, screws etc., not to mention a great deal of physical strength to open them. Caspar apparently watches Vick go through the fifteen minute maneuver necessary to open vast Georgian window, and then retreats under the piano. By now, Vick is terminally exhausted, a force 8 gale is howling through the house, and Caspar refuses to budge. Vick then crawls under the piano, Caspar retreats to just out of grasping distance gazing at Vick with a wounded expression and just a hint of smugness and after fifteen minutes of pleading and cajoling from Vick allows her to pick him up (ever so gently) and deposit him on the windowsill. He then makes a huge meal of staggering down the six inches of window ledge required to place him on terra firma, and after a last reproachful look at Vick, recovers strength and energy and bounds off into the night, where he proceeds to get up to God alone knows what, and returns when it suits him, looking very pleased with himself. Nelson is a stray we adopted about two years ago. We'd seem him around the neighbourhood for quite some time, often at 2 in the morning walking on the path beside one of the busiest main roads in London. Then he disappeared for a while only to show up in our garden some months later, looking very dejected and sad. Vick started to leave food out for him (she called him Nelson because he only has one eye; good, eh?) and before we knew where we were, he'd moved in, made himself very comfortable in the top bedroom, peeing, as we later discovered into a handy pot plant, and having found himself a nice gaff, with en-suite facilities decided to stay. We were concerned as to how Caspar would react, having been top cat for an extremely long time, but after making quite sure that Nelson knew he was only there on appro, so to speak, they settled into a very accepting, and dare I say it, even affectionate relationship. According to Vick, when Caspar returned from the vet yesterday (which he HATES) he snogged Nels for a good fifteen minutes before bopping him on the head in order to maintain the status quo. I'd so love Vick to meet the monkeys. My guys are hilarious at the moment, particularly Almond. Almond is two years old (a year older than Felix and the gang) and he arrived here a year ago in a very bad way. One of his back legs had been broken earlier in his life, and he still has a limp, and I don't think he'd ever seen another monkey before. He clung to a human for three months, and apparently the day he first jumped off and landed on the ground, a huge cheer went up from the entire Sanctuary. He's now in my enclosure, and doing very well. He loves to play, and particularly likes it when I blow into his mouth. He laughs and shows off the best set of teeth in the Sanctuary. He's an exceptionally beautiful monkey, being in possession of huge, soft brown eyes, a great sense of humour, and a smile to die for. When we're playing, he sits on my lap, opens his mouth in a huge grin and waits for me to blow into it. He chuckles away, and I fall about laughing. What really finishes me off is if I turn my head away for any reason. Immediately he reaches out, and turns me back to face him grinning all the while. He is totally irresistible and I'm putty in his hands. When he finished playing this morning, he snuggled up to me, put his arms around my neck, tucked his head under my chin and fell asleep, still smiling. You can't buy an experience like that, and I can never adequately express the magic of those moments. We were then joined by Amber who jumped down my top and began sucking her fingers. She always sucks the first two fingers of her right hand (she's an extremely sensitive little person, and has become very humanized) and I feel a great rush of love as I look down at her tiny face peeping out of my top. Not to be outdone Felix then crash lands on my head, spread-eagles herself, slips down the side of my face and begins to groom me. She starts with my eyes, going through each eyelash with meticulous precision as she removes the previous days mascara, before moving onto my eyebrows and head. Monkeys love to groom and to be groomed; next to eating it's their favourite occupation. I have to return to England in three weeks; my visa expires and I am unable to renew it until I have a working passport. My present one was almost completely destroyed in the fire; it's covered in feathers but my photo is still recognisable and all the important stuff still legible. So it will get me out of the country, but I'll need a new one in order to get back in. I'm rather pleased actually; the present photograph made me lose the will to live every time I looked at it. The weather finally broke on New Years Eve - thank God - it had been unbearable for some weeks, and we had the most spectacular storm. Thunder, lightning and rain that made it impossible to hear the person sitting opposite. But since then, it's been comparatively cool and I for one, feel almost human again. Apparently, we've had the hottest summer since records began. Phew! I'm going to bring this blog to a close now because our internet connection is capricious to say the least, so I'm hoping to catch it while it's up and running so to speak, so forgive me for writing less than usual. I send love from Felix, Amber, Almond, Monk, Jasper, Pixie, Honeybear, Forest and me! xxxxxxx
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