We’ve been working hard to make Chiquito’s cage more monkey-friendly.

First we welded a platform into an upper corner and secured an airline crate with bungee cords so Chiquito would have a safe place to hide out. He sleeps there, and often takes his security blanket up and covers himself with it when there’s too much construction activity around the house.

Oscar also brings in a large branch for Chiquito to play on each week, and secures it to the chain link with wire. It resembles Charlie Brown’s Christmas tree in a matter of days, and makes everything harder to clean, but it really does naturalize what is still nevertheless a cage.

Yet in spite of all our efforts to decorate Chiquito’s “room” to his liking, he still prefers the house. So when Paul accidentally left the door to the garage unlocked while he was cleaning the cage, Chiquito seized the moment. He was up the stairs to the storage area over the garage, and out onto the cat walk (since renamed the monkey walk) above the great room, before Paul realized he was gone.

Chiquito helped himself to some peanuts in the shell. Then he grabbed a banana and sat in one of the swivel rocking chairs to eat it. Finally, he spotted homemade cornbread on the kitchen counter and, unfamiliar with Ziploc bags, chewed through the plastic. After what seemed like hours…but was probably ten minutes…we were able to lure him outside.

Chiquito had “broken out” once before and I was able to slip a noose (or nylon choke collar) over his head and return him to the cage. It’s not a desirable handling technique for dogs or monkeys…or one that Chiquito was going to fall for again…although we tried. Our real problem was trying to corner a spider monkey.

Inside the house he climbed a wall to the cat/monkey walk. Outside the house he climbed a wall to the roof. Just like a spider. So for a while there were two ladders propped against the house, and two workers on the roof with Chiquito, but it seemed like an accident waiting to happen. And once the men came down, Chiquito did, too.

Oscar eventually managed to trap Chiquito on the ground in my primate net, which elicited such a ferocious display of teeth we were stunned. And there was still no way to get Chiquito out from under the net and back into the cage without someone ending up in the hospital…so the $100 net with fancy-telescoping-handle joined the noose in the “fool me once” category.

At that point I realized we weren’t going to capture Chiquito. The workers had stayed almost a half hour past quitting time at 5:00 PM, and although they were willing to stay longer, it was not only futile but counter-productive. Chiquito had to re-enter the cage on his own volition. Either because it got dark out or because he got hungry.

So Paul and I sat in the cage and waited. Chiquito helped himself to some sugar by the coffee pot the workers kept out back, and found some of their leftover pastries in a plastic bag. I got my camera and took a picture since I had nothing else to do. And eventually, when it got dark outside, Chiquito sauntered back into the cage.

That break-and-entry was four months ago. Chiquito has been out of the cage frequently since then, but always on our terms, and life is peaceful. Come back soon to find out how…

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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.