Our first duties were to make sure this little fellow was fed, clean and healthy. The Vets soon gave him a clean bill of heath so the rest was up to us. The first few hours were taken up with the usual euphoria that follows the arrival of any new baby, then we received a message from John via some friends from the UK. The message was that Macaque babies require a nappy when being hand reared as they tend to mess more frequently than other breeds of monkey, and that there are specially hand made pants and nappies upstairs in a cupboard?
Yeah right?. Nappies on a monkey? sure I’m gonna fall for that old chestnut?.. this had to be a wind up in return for all the times I’ve had one over on people.
No?.. Way?. Jose?..
But eventually curiosity got the better of Jane, so she went to have a look in the cupboard upstairs, and sure enough she found specially handmade pants and ‘pampers’ nappies that had been cut to size to fit a baby monkey. Well if this was a joke it was too well planned. We had to give in and try the nappy on the baby, sure enough they fit perfectly, and as Jane has just said “to be quite honest they’ve been a bloody god send”, ” especially as the little fellow shares our bed at night”.
You have to admit he does look cute in his designer pants, don’t you think.
Immediately John and Jo very kindly offered to cut short their trip and return to India, but we felt sure we could cope, after all having raised four of our own babies how hard would this one be.
To be honest, Little Baby Denis has been a very easy baby to raise so far, I think that is probably more luck than judgement, but thankfully we’ve had an easy run with him. He is extremely fragile in a robust kind of way. Contradiction in terms I hear you say, so what I mean is that Human babies whilst fragile don’t start leaping of the bed, following you around the house on all fours or even climbing up and down your body whilst you are trying to change their nappy, so yes fragile as in baby, but robust as in bloody fast and very wriggly. If you’ve never handled or tried to raise a baby monkey and you get a chance to help out, my advice is go for it. It is probably the most rewarding experience of our lives.
Jane is the one who should get most of the credit as she’s the one who is taking the foremost roll in the mothering. We did think our days and nights of raising babies was long finished but it’s surprising how quickly you get back into the swing of it when faced with a creature so helpless and so very cute.
After a couple of days we started to introduce young Ella who is still a baby herself to Little Baby Denis, we were amazed, all Ella wanted to do was cuddle him. Denis was a little nervous to begin with but they soon started to play together, Ella suddenly looks huge next to Denis but they seem to be getting the measure of each other.
Children, no matter whether they be human or monkey find a way to play together. Absolutely amazing.
These past three weeks have been an absolute blessing for us as a family, suddenly Jane and I have two more children to think about and it’s been wonderful.
Awe How cute is this??
Whilst we’re busy baby sitting Ella and Denis, life at the rest of The Tree House continues as normal, the three other young Languor’s, Puck, Phooka and Shalee come out to play each afternoon and Ella loves to go and join them in a rough and tumble game of chase. These three seem to be growing up so fast in front of our very own eyes. It probably won’t be long before Ella will be able to join them in their compound on a full time basis. They all seem to get on so well.
We hope this has given you a brief insight into life here at The Tree House over the last three weeks.
