Elvis the Squirrel Monkey Has Died

Our stay at the Mono Feliz Sanctuary in Punta Burica, Panama was the highlight of the trip we took. There we met the irrepressible Mickey and his sidekick Elvis. Elvis was a bit more shy than Mickey and also a bit older. He had little sideburns and loved to play with the laces on my sneakers. He tried and tried to tie bows, but only succeeded in untying my shoes.

Allegra Marshall has been wonderful about creating a newsletter and keeping everyone up-to-date on the happenings at Mono Feliz. We've just received the latest update informing us about Elvis. Here are her words:

.....Our precious little Elvis, who had been unwell twice during the year already, and who had lost so much body weight each time, took another turn. This time it was a lot worse though and he ended up dying in my arms on the 13th June. Jane and I trying homeopathic medicine and I frantically tried everything I could, but it was of no use. We buried him in front of the house, in front of his favourite little bush. John and I were devastated. Mickey did not understand what had happened, constantly looking around for his big brother who had always been so patient with him, always letting him have first serve of the milk bottle. Elvis was simply the best monkey! Jane was upset too as she never got a chance to know him. His little presents that she had so lovingly bought were put in a bag and tucked away. We are still not sure what happened, but a poisoned leaf or perhaps mushroom could be to blame....

A week or so after all of this, one of the locals brought us a baby monkey he had found. He knew how devastated we were losing Elvis. Mickey had been moping a lot too, and we are all too familiar with "cabanga" or heart break as they call it here - when an animal loses its partner, it often decides to die too. Birds are reknown for this and monkeys too. This did provide John and I with a huge moral and ethical
issue though as this little monkey was not injured. (Usually we only accept injured animals). It was too late though to reverse the operation, so we gracefully accepted the little guy.

Mickey was just too excited for words, jumping around,smelling him, wanting to play. He had not been sleeping since the day Elvis died. Elvis could sleep alone, but Mickey never was able to. We also had been having sleepless nights as a result. It took the little guy only a few days to settle in, but it was obvious he was a cry baby. We have called him "Mongy" as a result ("mongongo" means cry baby) but he is certainly not like that anymore! (My initial choice for a name was Felix). He is dominating Mickey in a few ways and now Mickey has to take on the older brother role, as Elvis had had to do with him.

Mongy was a lot of work the first few weeks as we had to watch him constantly, but it's amazing how quickly he has adapted. He and Mickey are completely independent now and spend most of the days in the trees catching little bugs and playing. They sleep very well together, although I still need to do a milk feed around 130am! Hopefully this will end soon as it is exhausting, especially after a late night with
tourists....."

Munro and I cried when we heard about Elvis. He had such an endearing personality. We are looking forward to going back again and meeting Mongy.