Wow, its been a busy couple of weeks. Lots of fun, some headaches and a new PET MONKEY! Yesterday I had someone deliver a monkey to me and it didn’t cost me a dime toward the cost of the monkey.
Monkey Rescue
A member of this site and my sites knew I lost a monkey a year ago. It appears one of the children in the area killed it. I’ll never be certain. His name was George and he is irreplaceable. Our new monkey is not going to replace George. Hopefully she will just add to it. We are working on building her a monkey mansion to keep her safe. I’d be happy keeping her inside but we’ve already had one battle with the landlord over the issue. I don’t understand why. She only says homes are made for people, not monkeys. Bah! If it was causing harm, I’d understand but its not.
She is very afraid right now. She’s also skin and bones. She really has not been taken care of very well at all. She was captured by a farmer and taken captive for stealing corn. Then they fed it corn. 
But just enough to keep her alive. She’s been out in the elements chained to a bamboo pole for the last year. When it rained, it rained on her. She had no where to go. Its probably a testament to her will to survive that she’s still alive.
She’s quite the handful, mostly because she’s afraid. Its going to take some time to train her. I say train because she’ll never be tame, she’ll always be wild but we’ll likely refer to her as tame. We still have a bit of a way to go.with her.
Battle Of The Monkeys
There was a full fledged monkey battle in my bedroom today. We let her out of her cramped cage and let her roam around with a short chain. She didn’t want to let us get a hold of that chain. She learned from the day before that if she lets us have the chain, we have control.
First my girlfriend, Jessie tried to grab it and the monkey charged her with teeth in full view. The monkey doesn’t want to hurt anyone, she has done this several time. It freaks Jessie out and scares the both of them. The monkey already sees me as dominant, which is good but it also causes her to be fearful of me. Dominant males can be real bullies in the wild.
When the monkey charged Jessie, it got my blood pressure up and I decided to have a talk with the pint sized monkey with a gallon of attitude! She reminds me a bit of a Filipino. That’s meant to be a compliment even though not all Filipino are small. :I admire their feistyness.
I grabbed the chain and the monkey went ape! Screaming at me while baring teeth, though it scared me enough to get me drop the chain, I too went ape. I screamed back at it with the same sound, I didn’t even know I could make and gave her a face full of my teeth! When in Rome do as the Romans, when you turn your bedroom into a monkey zoo, then I guess its time to act like a monkey! Its a good thing I have a prescription for xanax. I was in need of some after our exchange. The maids were soon asking Jessie if everything was okay. She told them Rusty and the monkey had an argument!
Actually I learned from my first monkey that communicating on his level worked wonders. One problem is, the face they make for a threat display with their teeth is very similar to a sign of submission. It has to do with the teeth being open or closed and I can’t remember which is which.
Our new monkey has its canine or fangs and she can do a LOT of damage with them. When we first got her she was very thirsty. We gave her water in a plastic tupperware like container. She drank the water and she proceeded to bite a very alarming hole in the container! A real eye opener.
I knew I had to prevail in this battle of wills today or I would forever be below her on the social scale and that would mean real problems down the road. I must be able to control her. For her safety and those around us.
Jessie being smarter than me suggested we throw a towel over her and then get the chain. This too was a struggle but it worked. The monkey is not stupid though. She grabbed a hold of it and tried to hide it from us! Finally we wrestled it loose.
Then we put a much longer chain on her so she wouldn’t be able to do that again. I took her for a walk around the house. Much too soon to take her outside on my walks yet. Again, I don’t have control over her yet because she doesn’t trust me yet.
To work on that trust, we spent an hour or two with her, grooming her and she loved this so much that her skin quivered. I doubt that she had this done to her in the last year. This is the way to a monkey’s heart!
Some how she hurt her leg in the battle, which I didn’t understand at all at fist. She was limping a bit and I thought she was hurt bad. I think when I grabbed the chain she pulled back on it and I pulled back but its hard to remember what you did when you have a mouth full of teeth in your face! I think that she held on tight enough that it hurt her rather than let go. I didn’t pull that hard. Well I don’t think so, I was shaking after we got control over her so I guess the adrenalin was pumping. I already love this monkey and would be sick if I did anything to hurt he. I have to wonder if she might have an old injury there. I still don’t see how she got hurt.
I wish she would eat more, when we first got her she huffed down several yellow bananas. Monkeys don’t really care for yellow bananas but she was hungry enough that she didn’t care. She also ate bread, something else they are not overly fond of. Today she’s not too interested in bread and even less interested in yellow bananas. She ate some orange and some rice but she didn’t eat like I think she needs too.
I hope I can get her to a vet soon. I don’t suppose anyone knows a good monkey vet do ya? I’m pretty sure I know what I’m going to name her but if you’d like to add your input, please visit RustyFerguson.com to add your input.
I’m pretty excited about my new daughter…. Wish us luck! I really want to give her a better life that what she’s had. She’s been with people too much, I fear certain that if she were to be released she’d end up dead. I hope to get her a companion.
About Rusty
Rusty… Very cool. It’s good that you have her now and she’s safe. I’m not sure she could ever go back to the wild after her experiences. But, you are right… She’ll never really be tame.
Monkey return to sender? Gosh, I shouldn’t have written that “Elvis” article, His songs kept popping up in my head, LOL!
I’m not surprised she is in such poor state, after being neglected for so long. I hope you and Jess can nurse her back to health.
Thanks for the support John!
I wish you could have seen her today. I scratched her for about an hour. With her sprawled out on my bed it was pretty hard to see herd as wild but yes, she is.
My going temporarily ape turned out to be exactly the right thing to do. She’s completely submissive to me now. I could take her on a walk but she’s not strong enough for that. She’s in far worse shape than I first thought.
The limp is caused by the sores on her legs caused by the chain rubbing on her. She’s in a lot of pain. Well get a clothed covered chain on her this week and once I have her cage built, I will just take it off her and let her heal. I hope I don’t regret that.
Will try to get her to a vet too. The cage we are building is going to cost us P7500 and will be 10 feet long, 7 feet tall and 5 feet deep. I hope our landlord doesn’t give us a hard time over the cage. Its kind of big.
Now I’ve got myself worried.
I put some of my over the country antibiotic cream on her wounds, its go a Vaseline like base that I hope will ease the chain as it rubs on her. We got rid of the big rusty chain and put a smaller galvanized one on her but the lock we use to secure it is bothering her.
I can pick her up now, she resist a little but not much but her balance is not what it should be.
I’ve gotten to know her a lot better in a couple of days as I wrote most of the above story two days ago. Proof read it yesterday.
Anyway, things are going great with her, just hope it continues. I wish I could buy my own place, in Jessie’s name of course and live in peace from people fussing.
She’ll be on my back walking around town in no time and people will start calling me the monkey man again.
Good luck with this one! As long as you remain the boss it should all work out for the best
Can I suggest using a wide belt around her waist instead of a chain? Something like a wide dog collar. It would be much gentler on her skin. With a bit of ingenuity, you can modify a wide belt so you can attach a chain.
Hi Rusty!
but he was a cute male white-nosed long-tailed monkey. We also build a big cage in the back-garden with small trees in it, taken him to the vet – we even had him here in Germany on holiday with us. We still have lots of paper pictures of him.
A very touching story – we do feel with you and Juliet! We also had a monkey in 1978 in Ghana for about 7 years when he died. We called him Balu, he was not a bear
When he died lateron in Sierra Leone it was very hard for our children and for us, it was as if a family member had gone from us. Funny though! Friends of ours and locals thought we were crazy about our feeling for an animal.
I found him as a tiny baby alone on a bush road near Accra, the mother got shot by locals. My wife fed him and he grew up with our two boys – he was afterwards very tame, but sometimes also quite agressive to strangers.
We wish you “both” a lot of luck, and we hope sincerely that Juliet will recover from all her wounds soon.
We already had quite a few contacts with Bob and Klaus by E-Mail.
Perhaps we will see Juliet some day when we will come to retire in Davao-City
Kind regards across the miles from Rudy & Ivy
Call of the wild Huh! Rusty sounds like a lot of fun .. good luck and happy monkey raising .. Phil n Jess
This brings up a subject I had meant to mention in the forum. My in laws are having a terrible time with monkeys eating their crops. We discussed how to deter them. They actually like the monkeys and refuse any idea that might be harmful for them.
I suggested diesel soaked rags as it sometimes deters animals but isn’t a sure thing. Apparently it didn’t work. Then I suggested making hot pepper spray and spraying everything. Their reply was they love hot peppers! I suggested maybe they needed a hotter type but was told they were eating the ornamental type that are to hot to eat! My only other idea was an electric fence but that was apparently to costly.
It seems the only option left is to try to trap and move them but they are intelligent and most things only work on one and they have WAY to many monkeys. Besides if they move them they just become someone else’s problem. If any one has a suggestion on how to keep the monkeys away from the crops we would love to hear it.
Oh and Rusty just how many monkeys would you like?
Might be easier to move Rusty to that farm,hey John H?
Hi,the hardest thing a man can hide is his opinion of himself(!/do you disagree?.re your rambo “pic”.now most of us do read Phil Inquirer and know about the poverty and cruelty by man there compounded by so many islands, not being able to revolt like in Thailand/64 journalists MURDERED in the Philippines in the last 8yrs!We also know the vulnerbilities/tragedies of this country allows the Kano to indulge his selfish,indolent whims adhoc.I don’t need a long reply because this is going to have to be enough for you,”if you’re open”.Did you/doesn’t it convict you that some of the poorer men eat dog,infected with rabies,(I am informed by my Cebu 37yr old girlfriend/anyone want to argue with her on that?) in Manila,not culture choice thing if you listen to your conscience.So,are you ready for any possibilities of anything near the tragedy re the chimp attack in US happenning to Jessie, a passing child or anyone else?Did you ever hear dogs are jealous and likely other animals?!and that they do not have have a soul(!.I dare you/get a life/familyradio.com(!!!! open forum archives.Go help the POOR!!Its the likely only good reason to live there,a huge priveledge(if your open)and very rewarding and then you will live very contented and enriched ongoingly!
Oh! What a cute monkey Rusty. Does your monkey eat lice to? (Lol) My grandpa used to have monkey… I remember growing up, me and my cousin’s play with the monkey, feed him bananas and he liked to caress our hair and eat our lice or kuto…hehehehe
Hey Ann that sounds like fun , but with out the lice .. hee hee Phil n Jess
Rusty
Good luck with your monkey. Sounds like you are getting things under control.
Can anyone translate what it is that Jerry is trying to say? My head is still spinning after reading his post……
You might try using a harness instead of a collar. Some people even use harnesses on small children. It allows them to attach a rope to the harness (in the back). I have a couple of Italian Greyhounds (miniature gryhounds) I use harnesses on when I take them for a walk. It works great.
You should be able to find a suitable large ring if you go the hardware area of Gaisano. Or if you go to a Mechanic’s shop, he might be able to suggest something. Filipinos are clever you know..
I took that damn chain off her, I couldn’t take it any more.
Hi, Rusty!
Firstly, I do feel sad about the loss of George and that he is “irreplaceable” as you mentioned. Sometimes, as you might know already, some animals can even be more affectionate, caring and loyal than some people are.
Well, in spite of your loss of George, I’m happy you found Juliet. I’m sure she’s very thankful you saved her from her pitiful condition and that she found her best friend! I sincerely feel you ought to be praised for that!
Cheers!
For those that are interested, I will be posting more articles about Juliet on my Philippines based site they I know call HiP for Hey Joe, Expats Living in The Philippines.
Hopefully Bob knows imitation is flattery. 
Rusty, I think you and Juliet were made for each other. Don’t get up to any monkey business and remember to take your GF for a walk with you when you take Juliet out. Wow man, you got a Pinay GF and you now got a wild monkey, you must enjoy a challenge lol. Best of luck to both of you.
rusty,
i’m just wondering. I thought that you have mentioned in your previous articles that you are immune suppressed or something? Correct me if i’m wrong though. Doesn’t having Juliet makes you more vulnerable to endanger your health? Just concern.
She’s in worse shape than I thought as my reply to John explained more. One thing monkies do well is balance but she wobbles a bit. I think because is weak. She’s also in pain.
I’ve ruubbed her soar spots now. Getting to know her better every day.
I put her out in the dirty kitchen and since we don’t have a hose (will get one in two days) can’t clean it out well. Pewwwwwwwwwwww Now this I can see the landlady commplaining about. I’ve got cash in the bank I just hate to withdraw a small amount becaus eof the fees. Hopefully it can wait another couple of days but I’m not sure.
It was sooooooooooo hot today, humidity was hard to believe. Ii surely didn’t go for a walk today!
If only it were that simple. We put a dog collar on her first thing, same one we tried to use on George, same one George took off within 30 seconds. And Juliet did the same thing. They have to be sewed together and then locked or some funky manipulation of tie wire that a monkey can’t figure out. I prefer locks. It will be a few days before I can do anything as I had more fun than budget this month.
She’s doing much better but she’s been in horrific pain. I’ll keep hitting her with the antibiotic cream, after all, she bit into the tube within a hour or two of getting here. She’s learned through that, its not something she wants to eat. 
She’s eating great but I guess I gave her too many eggs, she doesn’t want any more. I’ve never seen a monkey not want an egg!
Christine, Jessie and I have decided that as soon as we have the cage built, we will get that chain off her and only use it when we take her out. That should take care of the problem. I will also work toward a gentiler way to control her when we do take her out.
I don’t normally like a lot of attention but I miss walking around town with a monkey on my back. When we lost George, and he was no longer there, I felt like just another Kano.
I guess if I’m honest iwth myself, I like being the monkey man. LOL
Rudy and Ivey!
I think a primate in the family is hard to graps until you’ve been there. Finding one in need of rescue as a baby would be awesome.
I still miss George a great deal. Juliet made those feelings even stronger as she brought back memories.
She’s turning out to be much more cuddly than George would have ever been. The biggest thing she’s agressive about is wanting attention. She reaches out for Jessie and scares Jessie. But as I suspected, she wanted to be close to Jessie. Juliet finally got ahold of her last night and had herself a party grooming Jessie’s hair.
Juliet laid across Jessie’s head as if to hold it down. This went on for about an hour.
Phil and Jess,
I got to thinking about that battle and began to wonder if I was tame. I think I may have my wild side moments after that. Geesh…
I was a mad man. LOL It was just what she needed though.
Jerry, it is amazing what you take from the article. Perhaps you’re projecting because what I wrote sounds nothing like what you portray me or this situation as. I don’t think you read it and if you did, you didn’t get it. I’m not surprised by your criticism but it is completely unwarranted. Do you wish that I left her out on a poll in the rain and in pain and tortured by teen age girls that live around it? Did you miss that part? That was her life until a few days ago.
A monkey is not a chimp. They don’t have any where near that kind of strength.
Maybe you should stop asking your girlfriend and instead come see for yourself.
Hi Jerry – Boy, you seem to be a really happy guy! NOT. Who died and left you Rusty’s boss? Really, the way you write it makes little sense, but if I dig down deep enough into your writing it is really hate filed dribble.
Hey Jerry, remember, you drew first blood!
Its wonderful to hear that the family doesn’t want to harm the monkey. I think a lot of cats might help. Or dogs. Don’t think monkeys will be fond of either. Monkeys don’t seem to like cats. I’m very worried that one will attack Juliet before I get her cage built.
promote growth of natural predators I think is the only real answer. Owls? Eagles? I know that’s easier said than done.
I surely don’t know. If a Filipino farmer doesn’t know I can’t imagine anyone that would!
I’m sure she would be happy to eat lice if shee found it. Spiders, lizards and cock roaches are always on the menu.
They love to groom and be groomed they will look in your hair and pick something out of it and put it in their mouth.
I was like, what the heck is it finding. I finally found out they are eatingg the dead skin. Was a relief.
Thanks Larry!
Hee hee hee… I caught that one. Bravo.
Hey Rusty ? Sometime a woman or monkey needs … “A good hollern at ” just to make them know where they are at … the monkey that is .. hee hee …Phil n Jess
Maybe Jerry was bitten by a monkey when he was a boy .. then it makes since .I think ??
That’s a great idea David! I don’t know if we can find any though. Very unlikely to find them in Bogo City. Might can find one in Cebu City but don’t know which size to buy.
Once we take it all the way off, we may have a heck of a time getting our hands on her again.
I may have to get a net. 
I want to take it off of her now. I keep going back and forth on that. I’d have to keep her in a cage that’s too small for her to do. She’s crampped in it but its not cruel for reasonable time periods. I’m probably going to do it. If I ever wake up today.
Rusty, you can probably improvise on the wide belt thing. Don’t use the buckle, because she can take it off. It’s hard for me to explain, but I’ll try. Once you remove the buckle, have both ends of the belt attached to a piece of metal ring. You might have to fold the ends of the belt and rivet it once the ring is in place. I hope you follow. Then once it is on her, you can use a small padlock to keep it joined. Attach the chain on either ends of the ring. Have a think about it. You might even be able to improvise on this.
I kind of like Jerry, he’s given me a lot of laughs with that Rambo comment. You know he’s right, I am self indulgent from time to time.
I really didn’t do this just for me. I did it because this monkey was in a bad way. The timing was very poor for me actually.
I don’t need any expenses right now. I’ve had a P20,000 increase in expenses. I really can’t afford her. I’m not sorry I took her in though.
Further more, Jerry doesn’t know a dang thing about me. He doesn’t know if I give to the poor and in that regard, i believe what the Bible says. One shouldn’t let the left hand know what the right hand gave. If you give and go around telling everyone then you already have your reward.
I honestly don’t care what Jerry things. I expected to hear some criticism along the way on this. That’s why I tried to makek it clear this was truely a resecue. the monkey has two humane choices. I keep it and hopefully nurse it back to health or it be put down.
I just took the dammn chain off her, it was causing her a lot of pain. And now hse’s talking and chirpping and cooing she feels so much better.
For some reason, she began to associate that pain with me, i think because I put medicine on her the other night and rubbed the sore places. She loved it at the time but I think it may have caused it to hurt her later.
right now I’m having to keep her in too msall of a cage but I just can’t let that chain stay on her at all. I couldn’t take see her in pain any more.
I’m considering asking for donations to help with her cost. I’ve got a cage to build, it’s going to cost me P7500 and I want to put a security cam out there to make sure the kids don’t harm her.
Yesterday, I went to check on her an she was laying on her side. It was the morning after I rubbed her sore spots. I thought she was dead. I do not want to go through that again. I’m very anxious about that.
Someone is loaning me the money to pay for the cage and giving me P3000 toward the cost of it. Actually it will cost P8000 by the time I put ropes and things in there. My funds are tight, maybe I will ask. Probably wont get them but I think I will.
Hear! Hear! The monkey is a free!!! The monkey is free!!!.. Rusty I would like to stop by and see you and the family,monkey too ? If you don’t mind socializing with a backwod northen yankeeeee…hee hee Phil n Jess
Hello JR, I live in Bogo City and know a pinoy here that goes by JR.
Thanks for your kind words. I’m not very good with compliments perhaps. Don’t much like praise either but I do appreciate the kind words.
I have noted several times that Filipino are quite creative when it comes to make things work for them.
We have made some progress on this.
we got a harness that she kept taking off. We ended up buying three of them so we could take parts of them off to use on the one we put on juliet.
We finally found a combination the little Houdini could not slip out of, so she bit her way through the plastic parts, the clips that held it together. We suspected she would.
Now we will use metal, we are going to try to use the metal clasp that came with the other two harnesses and padlock them together. Hope its still tight enough after we do that but not not too tight. I guess we could also use tie-wire to pull the parts together if we much, be hard to do while its on a monkey. LOL
Jessie just got back from Cebu gonna try to get her to work on it soon. I also thought we could use the rings from key rings to do it!
I’ve been processing pictures all day.
Hi, Rusty!
Greetings from the province of Laguna!
Yes, there are a lot of JRs in this country nowadays. In fact, a well-known local pop artist who grew up in the US goes by ‘JR’, too. It’s probably going to be as popular a nickname as ‘George’ is in the US. You can assume that if a Pinoy goes by that nickname, he is a ‘Junior’. In fact, my mon, uncles and aunts call me ‘Junior’ instead! ha! ha! But I prefer to be called ‘JR’ for casual reasons.
Anyway, I hope Juliet will eventually bring joy to you anc your family as George did!
Have a nice day!
Hi Rusty –
Hi Janet,
I have lupus which is suppose to make me more likely to get an infection, up until I got treatment, it seamed to be true. I don’t fully understand that though as they treatment for lupus is basically to suppress the immune system.
I’m not really being treated for lupus any more. Its under control. Possibly mostly remission but my immune system will never be “right.”
I don’t know that a monkey would make that worse. How so? Do you know some, thing I don’t? It wouldn’t be the first time.
I am interesed. However, I decided to stop living like a mushroom afraid to be in the sun or live a life at all really. The only thing that slows me down now is I tire easily, especially in the heat.
I’m going to guess that there is more chance I’ll get run over by a bus while walking for my health than of catching something from the monkey. So that never crossed my mind. Why did it cross yours?