A lesson in greed for ‘Preston’ that unfortunately left him simply confused. At the local markets the price of all the resident monkeys’ favourite treats, grapes, is at the lowest yearly rate. This meant I could splash out on these treats for all, and on my return. I gave them to Hersha, one of the monkey staff to take round to all the pens. She started to go round to hand them out, passing Preston who was in the pool having his swim. On seeing the grapes passing by, he swam at high speed to the pool side, and managed to grab a whole big bunch out of her hands before she even saw him coming! Having got away with the snatch and grab manoeuvres, and stuffing as many as he could into his cheek pouches, he then had to get the rest to a safe place to eat them. One of the rings in to pool seemed to him the best option, but to our amusement, the act of swimming back to the ring, with the bunch of grapes in his hand trailing through the water, resulted in them all coming off the bunch and falling to the bottom of the pool! The astonished and puzzled look on Preston’s face when he arrived and saw the empty stalk was priceless. Needless to say when we had finished laughing, he was given his fair share to enjoy.
Shaylee continues to make progress and is now relaxed enough to have a collar and lead put on so she can go for walks in the garden. Phooka, Puck, and Shaylee also now spend the night in the pen together, although Phooka and Puck I am sure are missing the home comforts of my bedroom.
Ella, the baby is now on more regular 3 hourly feeds through the night, but unlike Puck and Phooka still doesn’t suck her finger, but uses a dummy bottle for comfort.
