Tarzan the Gatekeeper

here's a little bit about tarzan, our monkey man.
he's the life of the party at rainsong !

tarzan had a pretty rough start in life.
as a tiny infant, he witnessed his mother's murder by people who captured him for a pet.
then he suffered unknown abuses and neglect from his captors.
they quickly tired of caring for him, so they set him out in the trees behind their house, thinking 'well, that's the end of that problem.'
a tiny lil baby capuchin monkey, all alone with no troop to protect him, has ZERO chance of survival in the wild.
a few hours after he was abandoned in the woods, a troop of howler monkeys came along and began to tear him to shreds.
his piercing screams as he was being killed caught the attention of people nearby and they came running to see what was happening.
they were able to rescue him from the troop of howler monkeys, and then they rushed him to the vet's clinic in nearby cobano.
[we happen to know all these details about his sad start in life because some of the kids of the families involved actually visited rainsong's rescue center a few months later, and they were eager to share all the details about this poor baby capuchin monkey]

the vet saved his life, but she could not save his left arm, it was dangling by a shred of skin, and had to be amputated.
he was kept at the vet's clinic in a small kennel box for 6 weeks after being rescued, while recuperating from his surgery and the numerous wounds on his little body.

after such a terrible ordeal, we brought him to rainsong, and began to care for his wounds, both physical and emotional.
we named him tarzan.
tarzan immediately began to adjust to being treated with love and respect, and he quickly became content with his circumstances.

his habitat is located near the front gate of rainsong's homebase, so gradually tarzan began to take it upon himself to announce visitors, strange dogs, snakes in the yard, anything out of the ordinary in the rescue center.
he even keeps inventory of the number of people in the complex.
we rarely leave the rescue center unmanned, but once, when we ALL went to a dinner party,
as we walked out the gate, the last ones to go,
he began to cry out, knowing that he was being left alone.
we could hear his cries even 200 meters down the road.
after that incident, we try to never leave the place totally unmanned.

tarzan is now almost 2 years old.
he's still a juvenile with a lot of growing ahead of him.

now he is a very happy monkey, content and adjusted to his lifestyle at rainsong.
he adores all the attention he gets as the gatekeeper,
everyone who comes in the gate gets a chance to shake his hand [or foot !].

we let him out of his habitat every morning for an hour or two, to enjoy a romp in the canopy at the rescue center.
he's a little clown, jumping tree to tree.
he eats every spider in sight !
and any other bug is on the run when tarzan is loose.
also, he'll sometimes run into the kitchen to look for crackers or cookies to steal.
he's ecstatic bouncing thru the treetops, and he does quite well with just one arm.
and he's always peeping down to make sure he has an audience !

he's a doll, and everyone at rainsong loves him very much !!!

happy trails,
mary at rainsong