Juliet the Catty Monkey
Juliet mess just the way one would expect a monkey to be. Last night a female friend of ours dropped by and she constantly threatened this girl, especially when she got any where near Jessie! I thought it was funny, though our friend seemed a little intimidated. We covered the cage hoping to calm down Juliet, the catty monkey. However, on Jean’s way out, she passed by the cage, the covered cage and out came both hands through the covers trying to blindly grab Jean’s legs. She must have smelled her walk by! Like I’ve said before, pint sized monkey with a gallon of attitude.
Today, Jessie bought a harness for Juliet. Yesterday, we watched her bit her foot. The one she sometimes drags behind her. That was it, I took the chain off. I just couldn’t stand to see that monkey in that kind of pain any longer. Now we have to leave her in a cage that is too cramped. We’d like for her to be outside more but for now, this is the most human thing for her. I expect to start building her cage any time now.
Jessie suggested a new name for her. We were so happy with this idea of a harness. It seemed like the smart thing. We got it on her and Jessie went to the bank. Juliet had it off in about five minutes. She had broke the neck strap. Just pulled it apart.
So Jessie sewed it back together. It had been glued before. That will work for a dog but not for an animal with four hands! So we put it back on her after our custom alterations. Again, we patted ourselves on our back and thought how smart we are. This time it took her about 7 minutes to get out of it.
The new name Jessie suggested? Houdini of course! seems like a reasonable choice to me. We’ve been calling her every thing, including Georgette. Cute name, only one problem. That’s what I call Jessie when she acts a bit wild. Sometimes her behavior reminded me of my first monkey so I called her Georgette from time to time. Both of us though are having a hard time, we keep calling her Georgette.
She’s not as picky as George. George would eat only green bananas. Georgette will eat just about as many yellow bananas as you give her. Bread though, she’s not big on. She LOVES milk. Someone suggest we put the local over the counter pain killer into milk and see if she’ll drink it. Boy did she ever. Jessie tried to take the empty can so that she give the whacky monkey some more and Juliet attacked with mild bites. Biting her four times before I could get between them.
Juliet has become afraid of me. She doesn’t want me to touch her. I’ve been pushing the issue, catching her and picking her up. She squeals and yell like I’m killing her. She bit my hand, I didn’t react a bit. It didn’t hurt. I didn’t even notice until Jessie pointed it out. I noticed when she was doing it but I forgot. It didn’t hurt though I briefly thought, oh no! Its a bluff. If she wanted to hurt me, she could. She has no interest in that at all. She’s just afraid I’m going to hurt her. So I’m going to leave her alone, as much as I can for a few days and see if that helps her feel safe around me. That I have to break up the fights between her and Jessie is not helping my cause but its good that she see’s me as the Alpha. I can control her now.
She’s going to have a shower soon, this is not something I’m looking forward to. I think someone has sprayed her with water as she doesn’t like the shower running at all. Don’t know what the story is behind that. Her life up until now has been pretty sad. Her abuse much worse than we thought.
Her spine is curved, most likely from being in a cage smaller than she is. I suspect this will shorten her life. If we find she is in pain and there’s no way to stop the pain, then we will loose her as we would put her down. I don’t know when I can get her to the vet.
She is a very gentle loving monkey. I know what I said above doesn’t like it but that’s just the way monkeys are. When we got this monkey they warned me she might bite. I said, she will bite, there is no doubt. That is what monkeys do. On the other hand, she loves to play with Jessie’s hair. She talks and purrs to Jessie while playing with her hair. She once got on top of Jessie’s head, laying across as if to stop Jessie from getting up. She also put her arms around Jessie’s neck and held on to her as if Jessie was her mother. This monkey just loves Jessie to death. The bad part of that is that she doesn’t seem to see Jessie as above her in the social status of our monkey clan.
I have to find a way to get her trust and remain the alpha at the same time. It will take time. I’m disappointed I can’t cuddle with her now. One night, I stroked her for a long time. I rubbed the sores around her waist and her legs. She seemed to love it. The next morning all seemed fine when I went to check on her and bring her in, then suddenly she’s afraid of me. I don’t know what happened. Maybe she thinks I’ll be jealous of the bond between her and Jessie. Maybe monkeys have only one alliance? I don’t know. Seems that way. I plan on giving her a wide berth for up to a week. At least as much as i can. I’m going to act as if I’m uninterested in her. Maybe that will cause a change in her behavior. Just try it and see what happens.
I have rambled on enough, so I will bring this to a close until the next update. Looks like I should post more of them more often so they wont be so wordy. She has become the center of our attention, like a new baby she both demands it and deserves it. Even at her worst, we love our Philippine Monkey.
Tagged with: Philippine Monkey
Filed under: Monkey Diaries
Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!
Get
To The Philippines Faster
Juliet is back to liking me again. She doesn’t want me to pic her up but she’s okay with my touching her.
I had to pick her up, she resisted but not as much.
The other day, she was standing on my head and pooped on my head, I think i forgot to mention that.. Grrrr
We just bouught another harness. We plan to work on a harness she can’t get off.
Did you see my suggestion in LIP about creating a wide leather belt attached to 2 large rings on each end and join both with a small padlock. If Juliet can pick that, she could be Houdeini reincarnated!
When I used to work in a Psychogeriatric ward, we often had to be clever because some of our demented elderly patients would refuse medications, telling us he/she doesn’t need it. So we get into all sorts of tricks, such as crushing the medications and mixing it with yogurt or mouse, if it is in syrup we mix it with their drinks. One day this particular elderly demented patient must have got suspicious, he refused any drinks we offered, he wasn’t into yogurt (hated it!) and didn’t particularly liked mouse. So my colleague, Stacey thought she’d be clever. She knew this man liked peanut butter and jam sandwich, so we made him this sandwich, and Stacey put the different coloured pills (uncrushed) amongst the jam and the butter. Well, when we took it to him, first thing he did was lifted the bread, and there was the brightly coloured pills amongs the jam and peanut butter. After that he stubbornly refused anything we offered him. Did any one say he was demented? 🙂
Sounds like that older patient might have been paranoid but that doesn’t mean they are not really out to get you. 🙂 Paranoids, as I’m sure you know, don’t like to take medication. They don’t trust it.
We always try to use locks on anything we use to control her with when out of our presence. The problem in this case is that she’s pulling the harness off without opening it up. She opened it once, Jessie fixed that by sewing it together. The second time she just pulled the entire thing off her. Now we have added a third strap to it. Its a bit too tight so we need to work on it some more. She doesn’t seem to be able to get it off. We wouldn’t trust anything until its been on her for several days though. That is, not trust it to secure her when she could escape. The dirty kitchen does have ways she could get away if we she managed to slip out of it.
Putting something around her waist would be easier but we don’t want anything on her waist right now. I’m going to try to get pictures of her waist and legs. Its not going to heal with something on her there.
The cage is under construction now. I thought the guy would build it here but Jessie said the neighbors would complain as it would draw too much power. Something else I learned about the Philippines. I’m curious how he is going to get it here. 🙂
We have locks on the harness, but they didn’t matter. 🙂 we also put locks on her because of our fears she might be stolen.
No matter how careful we try to be, s,he could eventually out smart us.
She’s been trying for about an hour now to get that harness off. there are additional places where we need locks on it but no way to put them on it. Jessie just read your comment on LIP. She understands it better than I do. It would have the same issues of her pulling it off. If its tight enough it can hurt her, if its loose enough she can get it off. cloth is the way to go and we are haded there. What George had was a cloth with a tie wire running through the middle of it, a thick one which could be adjusted to allow for additional growth.
Rusty, has it ever occurred to you that she might be seeing you as a rival to Jess? Her feelings towards Jess might that be of a child to a mother. Hence she might be feelng threatened by your presence, perhaps she could be thinking you are going to take Jess away. Just a thought…..
that is possible. its all about her standing in the family, I’m sure of that Knowing a little about primates, I know that bonds between them are very important. In the monkey world, “fraternizing” with another monkey can get you a butt kicking by the Alpha. There is no doubt she see’s me as the alpha. Jessie and her are still developing their status toward each other and who is closest to me. She has been able to back Jessie down. She knows Jessie is afraid off her. I am too but I guess I have too much testosterone to let her know that. My male ego takes over. )
What you describe is possible but I think its more likely to be fear I’m gonna kick her butt for not being only close to me.
She loves on Jessie, s he does not do that with me. She finally groomed me a little today. Primates also have mouthing behaviour, they touch each other with their mouths, its meant to be reassuring but monkeys have thicker skin. She’s trying to do this to Jessie but she gets too aggressive at times. Jessie’s skin is not up to it. Right now Jessie has a lot of bruises on her and some teeth marks. They wouldn’t matter to me at all but Jessie’s just not as tuff as I am. It got to her a bit today.
I think its really just a matter of males in the wild sometimes being extremely aggressive. Watch Animal Planet, you’ll see it. I also think when I grabbed her chain the other day, I hurt her pretty badly because of the sores all around her waist. Especially on her legs. that hurt her and made her weary of me.
The second thing going on, she wants to establish her dominance over Jessie.
She’s working her way back to me. You know how some women can be, if you act less interested then they want you. LOL I think Juliet has some catty going on for sure. She’s far more territorial than George every was.. She picks things up and puts them under her front armpits to mark it with her scent. I never saw George do that.
Sometimes George would turn to Jessie for cuddling but when he wanted to be protected, usually from children that were curious about him, it was me he came too. 🙂
She’s getting a lot better with me today.
Re-the harness. Okey, the wide belt thing is not going to work. How about making Juliet a vest made from a thick canvas or leather. Have it closed with a zip at the back, surely she can’t reach? and have it designed so it can be padlocked after zipping it up. Then just have a large ring at the back for the chain.
the old man certainly had paranoia, that’s why he was in our ward. Looking back now, he probably had psychosis too because he would hallucinate and tell me how he can see crows picking on his wheat crop (he was a farmer).
I always tell new staff and students to listen to their gut instincts – it’s not in the nursing curricula, but a very useful tool in Psychiatry. Reading a patients’ body language and facial expression can tell you what mood he is in. We always offer oral medications first. If nothing else, then injection in the bum is the last alternative. It can really be brutal, especially if a patient is combative, because you can be held down by up to 9 burly men while we strip your undies down so we can inject you. Certainly increases the paranoia. But once medications kick in, they often go back to their original personality, and a lot are really nice people and couldn’t remember what happened, and even what we’ve done! Just as well……
We have been trying to adapt a dog harness to use on her but she’s beaten us. She truly is a Houdini. She seems to know the weak spot and she pulled it over her front shoulders twice. The first time we thought it was too loose but then she did it again.
So we have aborted that now. It had two straps, one in front of her forearms and behind them. Last night she attacked the plastic parts because she knew she could bite through them if she worked on it long enough. Tonight she tried that and bit into two pad locks. It was a little comical to see all those padlocks on her. 🙂 The humor soon left me though as she pulled it off again.
Jessie is resigned to the need to make her a belt for the mid section now.
I think the vest would work too. I don’t’ know if Jessie is up for making something with a zipper in it. I doubt the seamstress would be up to taking measurements of my monkey. That would be just too funny. They would know the kano is crazy if I did that. LOL Makes me want to do it.
What George had on him was something someone that knew what they were doing had made.
We just didn’t want to do anything around the waist but we are going to have too. She’s already healed a lot.
I put the chain back on her waist for a little while tonight as she had become just too funky and needed a shower badly. So I cuddled her like a baby, while holding tight to her chain, expecting a major battle but she didn’t put up much resistance to the water. The shower terrified George, she has much less problem with it. Jessie took the chain back off. I wish we had left it on.
After catching her twice tonight and putting the harness on her twice she’s not in the mood for another “capture.”
She’s threatening Jessie now. they are not friends at the moment. A dog would be easier but I like monkeys. 🙂
Everything is okay, nothing we didn’t expect. We went by the welders place today. he hasn’t started yet but he has purchased the materials for it. He’s got jobs ahead of us. I saw heavy galvanized pipe.
one of her legs does have me worried. I hope she will be okay. She loves milk a lot and we put that pain killer in it a couple of times per day. I can’t tell that she’s in pain but sometimes she just doesn’t carry that leg like she should.
You worry too much, we’ll be fine. We are just working with what we have and wanted to try something new. A locked belt is the way to go and we’ll just have to do it around the waist.
When I suggested about the wide belt, it was meant for the waist. It will have to be snug enough she won’t be able to just slip out of i, but not tight. Yeah, I think she would just easily slip out of the vest. I imagined she would be more supple than a child.
Any idea re-time frame when he is likely to start and finish the cage?
I know it was meant for the waist that’s why we were trying to avoid it. Her waist is scared and cut. I want to let that heal but since the vest is not working, we have to go back to the waist.
she will chew threw nylon though, leather doesn’t stand a chance, well maybe that real hard leather but I doubt that would either over time. Jessie is going to start on a new belt, I hope today. She plays these dang computer games all day. Hope she will start on it soon. She’s going to take the material from the harness and split it apart, its double layered. She’s going to put a guy wire in it to prevent her from chewing it in half. Basically what you said at first with a little extra safety built in.
I don’t have a time frame. He has the materials at his place. They guy is a master welder. There wont be any problems.
Jessie finished Juliet’s new belt. It seems to be working perfectly. We will leave her caged though for a couple of days to make sure. She did a great job.
I may take her walking with me on my next walk. I’m goingn to see if I can send all comments to her and me so that she will also see them and maybe come write more often. It would be good for the sites and good fo her.
Her English has always been very good but it has beocme much better since I got here!
Whose English? Juliets’ or Jess’? 🙂 🙂
Juliet’s is better than you might guess. She knows the word no quite well already. 🙂
George did the same thing so I think maybe they are masters at interpreting the tone of voice.
Juliet keeps trying to type for me. She’s spent a lot of time on my shoulder today.
Last night when I was trying to recapture her, she stopped running from me and just let me catch her. A break through!
she’s beginning to trust me. I only had to ignore her for a few hours and I was prepared to do it for a week.
How is Juliet and how is the cage progressing?
Christine, I made a new post about her last night. Maybe I forgot to publish it. I’ll look. Juliet is doing great. I have not been able to go out since my last walk. Seems it took a lot out of me and I’ve been sleeping in the afternoons. I hate sleep, such a waste of time.
Hopefully, I can get buy there today. I plan to try.
Hi Rusty,
I am looking for some advice on where i can purchase a monkey,I live in Lucena City on Luzon 6 months out of the year the other 6 months I work in Alaska.I am engaged to a Filipina and am loving every minute of it.She has been told there is an animal market in Pasay that has monkeys and a friend of mine there who is looking for one for me.My concern is i have spent some time around local monkeys in Lucena and they all seem to dislike Filipinos..They would cuddle up to me and be comfortable but if my fiance or other family members come close they would for lack of a better term “hiss” like a cat.I assume from watching the monkeys at the local zoo and seeing them be teased by locals that they have become conditioned to dislike locals.Any thoughts on this and good possibilities for finding my own monkey would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks for your time
Jason
Hello Jason,
I don’t know where you can get a monkey. Be wary of public markets. Far too often the monkey’s mother was killed to catch it. Getting them young is a good idea. Juliet has been too badly treated and she’s older. Cuddling is not her strong suit. Though I can get her too after she protest a little bit. She is afraid.
I d0n’t know what you mean by a hiss, people usually refer to their threat or warning calls as a bark. Juliet has a number of them. She screams when she’s really upset. Some sounds kind of sound like a growl. She also does what I call coo when she’s calling to you.
I wonder if it is because they have been mistreated. Filipino tend to be afraid of monkeys. It is considered bad luck to bring a monkey into your home. Probably worse if it comes in on its own. Not sure.
Juliet is very possessive of me but then she will be possessive of my girlfriend when her son is around. It is more about position in the troop. Sh knows I’m the alpha but she’s fighting with Jessie over who is the alpha female. LOL She knows Jessie is afraid of her. She tried to back me down when we first go her but that didn’t go the way she thought it would and she’s not been threatening to me any more. Where she will take things away from Jessie if she gets the chance, if she’s got something and I walk toward her, she will drop it. Once the monkey has become close to you, she may be threatening people that get close to you rather than because they are getting close to her. The monkey may also sense their fear.
Males get large and a bit dangerous. They get up to a little over 20lbs where females about 12 pounds. The male I had was a baby. He had been castrated and his fangs had been removed. Probably the only human thing to do if they are not going to have a mate and to make them far less aggressive. I doubt I’d get a male again. The one we had was no problem but he was young.
If you go to small mountain community, I’m told you can get someone to catch one for you. Personally, I have a lot of problem with the idea of taking one out of the wild.
I’ve only seen two for sale, I bought both of them. Well someone bought Juliet and gave her too me as she was being treated so poorly and I don’t think far from death. In many ways she’s unlike our first monkey. She’s a bit fearful of lizards and roaches where as George, the first monkey, tore after those things as if they were chocolate.
Let me know how it goes. I’ve spent almost no time in Luzon but I’m sure there is a place to get them. I wish I had another female so they could keep each other company. I’m afraid they may fight too, probably would, at least some.
Rusty,
Perhaps a hiss was the wrong word to use…but definitely it made a low growling noise and became agitated,the ones in the zoo would come to me to be petted but when locals came around teasing them they would go nuts and as soon as the locals left they came back for more attention…maybe because of the fact that its considered bad luck to have a monkey in the house is why my fiance is hesitant to get one,i had not thought of that.I had thought she was just scared of them,you should have seen the look on her face when i was petting the one i made friends with,oddly enough he lives at a hotel in Lucena and i call him George..haha..i guess its a good monkey name,anyhow she was amazed he was not chewing my arm off…probably just thought..crazy American….I agree with you about not wanting one from the wild due to the fact its mother was probably killed to get it,A friend of mine has a friend that has 5 ungoy and has told me he will get me one when they have babies.Thanks for your time.
Jason
They have different growing sounds. It usually means displeasure but not always. It may also mean, I want you to come touch me. Sounds like in the situation you’re talking about they want the person to go away. I’ve seen Juliet do it when our 9 year old comes home. They are not the best of friends but she does like attention.
When they are really upset and in a fighting mood, they make a much deeper sound with that rattling noise I think you’re talking about. Kind of a chatter.
It would be interesting to see how the monkey reacts when you are not with it and see if it still reacts the same way. Your girlfriend is probably use to seeing them put out in a cage and rarely handled. They become aggressive in those conditions and monkeys tend to be a one owner animal. I think it has to do with their place in the troop. Most monkey behavior is all about that. The higher up the chain they are, the better they get treated and for the males, the more babies they get to make. At least that’s what I’ve learned. There’s much I don’t know. That’s why I mentioned the behavior of our first monkey is so much different than Juliet.
I’m amazed that the Manila zoo allows interaction with the monkeys. Jessie teases Juliet a lot too but Juliet seems to enjoy it. I just came in from outside and Jessie didn’t go with me. When Jessie doesn’t go Juliet stands up on her back legs so she can see in the house. She’s looking for Jessie.
Juliet likes to throw things are her but its become a game of catch. Jessie throws it back, sometimes Juliet catches it in mid-air. She started doing that after she saw Jessie do it. I guess its a case of monkey see, monkey do.
Getting one that has been in captivity since birth is without a doubt the way to go.
Thank you for your comment, I hope you’ll keep coming and joining in. I’m going to build a website for Juliet. If I write about her here, as much as I want too the site tends to be over run with post about her.