Category: Animals

TODAY I visited Monkey Jungle for the first time in nearly two years. I spent a good 2½-hours there walking around amongst the wildlife.

My thoughts:

1.  Monkeys are just like humans. They love to eat. They love to beg for food. They love to play. They love to jump around and have some fun. They tend to litter all over the place. They have a rank structure. They have political alliances. They have cliques. They have their bullies (fighters). They have their wimps (lovers). Monkeys are just like you and me.

2.  Maybe I should have visited the place last Saturday during the peak of my bad cold. That way I wouldn’t have smelled some of their scents. Then again perhaps their scents would have cleared up my nostrils and sinuses. Of course to truly appreciate the monkeys you’ve gotta smell them.

3.  When the bell rang the monkeys knew that it was time to head for the swimming pool for some delicious treats. After all there was a 10:00 show to put on. Monkeys will reach in to the water to pick-up the floating fruits, but if you throw in a hard-boiled egg the nearest monkey will dive in to the pool, go under the surface, retrieve the egg, come back over to land, and proceed to enjoy the egg. I wonder if they like deviled eggs ?

4.  Mei the Orangutan was sleeping in the hot South Florida sun and didn’t want to be bothered despite the large crowd of humans that were awaiting her to make a grande appearance before us. We made enough noise, and she finally woke up and came to. She knew what to do – climb up to her position. She knew what was waiting for her if she did that. She got her zesty orange. She adored it.

5.  38-year-old ‘King’ – the Western Lowland Gorilla – was nowhere to be found – until his buddy (trainer) found him and coaxed him over to make an appearance for the 11:00 show. It took him awhile to get on over to us, but once he did it was surely worth the wait. After walking like a human dude (one of his favourite tricks) he got his treat – a delectable banana. He peeled it like a human, ate it like a human, and then tossed the peel aside like a human. He then got what he was really looking for – a bag lunch – including the bag itself – chock-full of delicious items fit for immediate consumption. It was an instant picnic fit for the ‘King’.

It started out as a morning like any other, but just a few hours later it would become a morning that forever changed the lives of me, my little brother, our Mom, and our Dad.

Exactly 24 years ago this morning on December 23RD 1983 me (16½-years-old) and my little brother (8½-years-old) looked out our living room window at the snow and the ice on the ground of our backyard. It was a freezing-cold Friday morning – 2 days before Christmas – in McLean Virginia, and we were happy to be warm and comfortable inside.

But there was a creature stirring outside that was not warm and comfortable. It was a lonely young cat with no tail that was wandering around aimlessly outside on our elevated patio deck, and it was shivering. Me and my brother decided rather quickly that it did not belong in the harsh elements of outside at that moment, so we brought it in to our more sheltered screened-in ‘Florida Room’. We gave her some milk to drink. She loved us for it. We gave her some love. We heard a strange sound coming from her that we hadn’t heard before. It was the sound of her purring. We let her in to our warm and comfortable home. She never looked back. We pretty much named her ‘Fluffy’ that day, and she instantly became an important part of our family – the missing link if you will. She stayed with us for the next 17+ years until her (expected) death in April 2001.

There have been other cats and dogs within our family over the years since then. Fluffy eventually gained a feline roommate with Barney (also known as the cat that never liked me). After Fluffy’s death Barney eventually gained his own feline roommate with Pumpkin (our parents’ current cat that me and my brother picked out for them several years ago). Boots was my own loving cat and housemate for 12½ years here in Homestead until his (expected) death on May 17TH 2007. He was the coolest cat that ever lived.

But it all started with Fluffy The Manx Cat. She was the Queen of her castle. She was the stability of our family. She was our family’s common denominator. She was the center of attention. She was the most lovable cat that ever lived.

Fluffy never met Boots, but I believe that the two loving cats in my Life for nearly 23½-years are hanging out together up in Heaven comparing notes about me. Barney is probably up there too – ignoring Fluffy and Boots.  

This blog is a spinoff of the (now on extended hiatus) massivesmash.com web site that I created in 1995. That web site grew out of a previous web site known as ‘MANx On The Net’. That first web site was a spinoff of ‘MANx Cat BBS’ (1993-1997) that was inspired by and named after Fluffy.