Paul never used to swear. And he doesn’t swear often. So when I heard him say: “Oh, F*** !” this morning when he was cleaning the cage, I knew that either: 1. Chiquito had broken another pair of his bifocals, or 2. Chiquito had escaped.

I headed out of the bedroom into my study, which faces the cage…and was met by Chiquito as he swung open the screen door.

There is NOTHING more disastrous than a spider monkey ransacking the house, so the moment is burned into my “abject horror memory” (along with a few others provided by Chiquito).

I froze in my tracks. And incredibly, Chiquito did the same. He was face to face with Evie, our Golden Retriever, who was between me and the door. Paul and I might hang out with carnivores, but Chiquito’s no fool. Nanoseconds later the screen door slammed shut in Evie’s face.

Adrenalin shot through me like electricity and I blitzed around inside the house closing sliding doors and locking everything else. And then…never one to miss a photo op…I grabbed my camera.

I could write pages describing the fifteen minutes that followed, not unlike the TV show 24 (hours) that lasted a season at a time.

I heard Chiquito on the roof. I watched him tease our street dog, cornered in her crate on the porch. I snapped a picture of him peering in the front window, and crossing the driveway by the gate.

Paul had passed through the stages of Anger and Denial into Depression by the time I handed him Chiquito’s leash and a small container of honeycomb, and he sat on the front porch to try bargaining …, with the hope that honey was more enticing than freedom.

At some point Paul questioned my conviction that Chiquito would never run away.

“He won’t,” I said. “He’ll come back. But it might not be until dark.”

And then as deliberately as he’d strolled out through the double escape door Paul had accidentally left open, Chiquito sauntered back into his cage for breakfast.

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You can visit Michele’s website at www.SpiderMonkeyRehab.com and check out The Ten Monkey Rules and the Spider Monkey Trivia.

It’s clear that Monkey Mom Michele and Monkey Dad Paul Gawenka are doing this for the love these incredible monkeys – it certainly is not for the money which they have been spending to try and provide an environment where they can rest and recover before they are released…

After we published our first article in this series, I and a few other VIP Members paid some money into Paul Gawenka’s PayPal account (pgawenka@yahoo.com) to help with the costs for a new enclosure…

Michele and Paul don’t have some fancy ‘charity’ that you can contribute to but they’ve given us their personal guarantee that every penny that you may give goes towards helping the animals – they don’t want a dime for themselves – so please log into your PayPal account and follow my lead and send them a US$100 to pgawenka@yahoo.com

Andrew Makarik

to@welovecostarica.com

Andrew Makarik is the main editor of WeLoveCostaRica, a fan of this sunny country. He is also a loving husband and a has a lovely daughter. By being a devoted family man and the biggest Costa Rica fan, he wants to make more people feel at home there. WeLoveCostaRica unites people and helps them find new home or a new travel destination. This website is a friendly community where everyone can find not only information, but also new friends and travel pals. Andrew is also passionate about IT and programming, so he himself maintains a friendly atmosphere in this cozy environment of WeLoveCostaRica.com.