Sunday, September 28, 2008

Welcome to Julian!

It's been an interesting couple of weeks...Sherri heard about an incident in the Picton area concerning the escape of a Japanese Macaque from a place that has seen better days. She reached out to those people to assist and we went to the area on a rescue mission a few times! Tracking through woods and fields looking for a medium sized monkey is not so easy. 
But that is our commitment. To make monkey lives better, every day for the rest of their lives. Period.
So, last week, Julian was captured and Sherri went on down and he was released to the care of Story Book Farm...where you may ask was he going to fit into the barn? Some construction has been necessary this weekend to accomodate George and Susie to live beside Nan and Chelsea so that Julian can live amongst Lexy, Yoshi, Sweet Pea and Pierre. He arrived on Monday and had a nervous two days of not leaving his nest box. Sherri was becoming very anxious but on wednesday morning he had come down for a big drink and eaten a bit of fruit...whew!! Now came the aggression at his new situation. He was none too happy to have new roommates! He lashed out at Pea and Lexy...wouldn't let Sherri anywhere near. 
I went up on Saturday to see what I could see and it seemed that the instant he saw me, he  thought I was okay and he started to calm down. I can't take any credit, it was just I seem to be the person for him. He really turned a corner yesterday. I spent some time in the area, talking to Pea and Julian and even Lexy and Yoshi...we had a great time. When Julian got aggressive and started Pea off, I talked quietly  to them and Pea calmed down, then he did too. 
We decided to try to shift him over to Lexy's area and it only took 15 min, which is really astounding! He was so trusting. He was scared, don't get me wrong. He knew Lexie was around and had lived with her wrath before at the other place. They are actually  part of the same family and we hope to get them together in the future.
So, Sherri put some yummy food into the shift cage and I waited patiently to see if he would come over. He made lots of good noises and peeked through the shift door and eventually came all the way over. He didn't even look at the food. I had also thrown in some peanuts, but again, pad no attention. I was amazed at his level of trust. A  little overwhelmed at one point too...I am a big softie you know! Once he was feeling a little relaxed I closed the door and we were able to clean out his area and change the water from the inside! He went right back when the door opened again...I think he has shifted before and he is a VERY smart boy! Way to go Julian! I am very optimistic that he will make more progress soon and learn to trust all the souls that are around the farm including the human ones! Sherri will try to shift him today and hopefully that will go well. 
On a separate note, little Freddy duck is changing colour and looking beautiful and is extremely happy and content. Charmaine returned from Borneo and came out to help out and went home with a kitten for Dave! Only two left,,,actually Val will be taking one so just one left...Sarah, you need to come and get it! Everybody else is good and hopefully George and Susie will be moved today and enjoy their new area...they will be able to Jenkins again, I think Jenks will like that!
Okay, that's too many words for today...thanks to everyone who reads the blog, we know you're out there now! Thanks to all the wonderful volunteers and keep in touch everyone!
See ya out there...
kim

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