Day 9

Well, it looks more and more like I am NOT going to be able to correct the back log of stuff for the blog for a while... So, let me do a summary here... Day 1 arrival, Day 2 orientation, Day 3 routines and protocols... introductions to all the animals... Assigned Piedra, a weeks old baby raccoon that was accidentally hit my a machete causing amputation of her left arm half way to elbow and 2 fingers on her right foot... Piedra and me learned each other today... I fed her, clean her and her cage and basically cared for her wounds. Besides PIEDRA there are one Mono Titi (Squirrel monkey) with rear paralysis, 3 free roaming young female spider monkeys, named Winkie 2, Sweetie 4 and Poppie 6yo. Spider monkeys are highly endangered, which if I ever get a high speed connection, I will explain. Poppie is about 17 equivalent and is looking for a troop of wild spider monkeys to join... based on attraction to a male. She is just coming into sexual maturity... Sweetie is equivalent to 12 and she is the one who was not sure about me entering her group... Noting malicious, but 31 bites later, 19 stitches in 4 places, some very deep, Sweetie and I found our relationship... Last two days she and I have been nothing but pals... No bites and lots of monkey hugs, kisses, cooing, and she even took a nap with me. Sweetie and I are going to be fine... She has accepted me into her group. Winks is our baby... still taking bottle... The Sanctuary has two sides... the public side for tours and the rehab and release side for those animals that will be going back to wild and those that are injured and in some form of rehab... like a Margay named Isaiah. Isaiah was hit by a motorcycle a few weeks ago and came to us with a severe laceration of his eye... After surgery to remove his eye and close his orbit, he now is awaiting his new quarters. He will cost $30K to keep over a lifetime... and there is a small possiblity he can be trained to hunt with one eye and be released... 5%. He is currently my patient... and I am his keeper. Also on the rehab side is a baby howler monkey named Congita, who will be released when she is big enough to join a group. Then we have a Jaguarudi waiting for release and a couple of free roaming howlers, a young Scarlet macaw in rehab, 6 white mice that are eventually food for Isiah... Last night they escaped and we have recovered 4... The other too are probably already a cat's dinner. We have a young cebus (white faced) monkey in socialization and we basically live on this side (rehab) with the kitchen, conference and dining room (1 room), quarters for the owners and guests... I have my own cabin about 150 meters from beach... so I hear the surf all night. We have a young parrokete and 2 domestic cats... We also have the clinic/lab on this side, which is mine to organize and stock. Isaiah - I forgot above... is a small arboral feline, about 30 lbs at maturity. It looks much like a leopard for its coat/spots... and his a fierce hunter... In the ocelot family, it hunts high and ocelots hunt low... On the public side we do tours... our main source of revenue. We have the animals that are not going to be released for a variety of reasons... and they include a young Toucan that is being protected from other Toucans... these animals attack each other and they are pretty nasty birds... Fruit Loops cereal asside, not a nice bird. We have a hand ful of parrots and a group of parroketes... Our parrots have produced young... Then we have a Tayra which is a Cental American weasel. His name is Boogie... A collard peccary (wild pig) who needs companionship... and that is one of my challenges... A troop of cebus (white faced monkeys), that can never be released for many reason, but primarily because they came from different sources and locations, and unless we know where they come from we can never just release them... They have to go back to their base territory or they will be killed. Among the cebus' are Loco (a young cebus that was kept in a box) - who is mentally challenged - by the way cebus monkeys make the list of the top three most intelligent creatures on earth... Man and chimps are the other tow. They travel in groups and are known to distract your attention and pick your pocket or one great story is of a group of 8 here in Costa Rica... 3 would wait out on the road for a car... They would basically be diversion for the other 5... As the people got out of the car to take pictures of the cute little dancing monkeys, the other 5 would get into the car and take phones, keys, money, anything and everything and disappear behind the car... We also have 2 2 toed Sloths, another amazing animal. Heart beats 11 times per minute when active and 4 times when resting... On the rehab side we have some free flying Toucans and a virgin flock of Scarlets... OK... I better send this before I lose my connection... More soon.