We would like to welcome all of the new members to Monkey Tales.

This issue will introduce you to Meja, better known as Mimi and Indigo

Meja, better known as Mimi, is the smallest resident of the sanctuary.
Mimi is a 3 year old Marmoset. She was turned over to Mindy's after
biting her former owner multiple times, which resulted in her being
hospitalized. While Marmosets are usually under 2 pounds, as you can
see, that does not mean that they cannot be dangerous. She is the
quietest of all of the monkeys. One of her favorite past times is
sitting outdoors in her solarium, soaking up the suns rays. She bounces
back and forth between her indoor and outdoor enclosures. If a fat
grasshopper is found, she will quickly hunt it down as prey. She prides
herself on being a mighty hunter. We hope to one day have another
Marmoset to keep Mimi company. There is a photo of Mimi, climbing with
one of her favorite foods, a sliced peach, in her hand, in the
yahoogroups photo album.


Indigo, who was born on 5/10/93, is a physically challenged Rhesus
Macaque who has recently been retired from research. Indigo is unable
to walk. While it is unknown if he will ever be able to walk, we will
never give up hope. He waddles, sort of like a duck, to get to where he
wants to be. He does have another way of getting around, by raising
himself up on his knuckles and swinging the lower half of his body. He
also appears to be paralyzed on one side, in his leg and some of his
fingers. One of his fingers appears to have been broken at some point
in his life. He arrived on 6/24/02, after an extremely long day in
transit. He was so exhausted that he ate a banana, took a nice long
cool drink and went to sleep. When food is placed just outside of his
reach, he appears to be placing some weight on his legs while he is
stretching for it. One day, he raised one of his legs up a couple of
inches to place it on the ramp, before he began his duck waddle. He is
very alert, and pays careful attention to all that goes on around him.
A grant had been obtained for a new enclosure to be built for him, and
it has been completed. This enclosure is different from any other at
Mindy's. It consists of 3 round cages, that are connected by 4 foot by 4
foot tunnels. Dividers can be raised or lowered as need be to separate
monkeys. Linda has painted his house tan with chocolate trim.
September 3rd was moving day for Indigo. He was not at all happy about
being captured, and very loudly let Linda know just how he felt. This
was the first time he has vocalized since his arrival. At first he was
intimidated, as now there were monkeys everywhere he looked. As usual,
whenever there is a newcomer, all of the monkeys scream at them, Indigo
was no exception. Some of them, including Ginger, who is to be one of
his future cage mates, even make fists and shake them at the newcomer.
Monkeys are always introduced through the wire of an enclosure so no
one is seriously injured. They are not released together until grooming
is observed through the wire. This usually means that the monkeys have
become comfortable with each other. There has never been a serious
injury at Mindy's. There have been times when some of the monkeys take
longer to adapt to socialization and they are allowed to proceed at
their own pace. Ginger was allowed to enter Indigo's enclosure, and
their meeting was not to Indigo's liking. She approached him, with arms
open to give him a hug. Never having been with another monkey before, he
was not ready for this. After he pushed her away several times, she
jumped on him. He defended himself by biting her, which is not uncommon.
Ginger left him alone and went to check out all of his toys and the rest
of his enclosure. Indigo will be given more time before he is placed
with her again. Indigo loves to eat. His absolute favorite is baby
carrots. When he hears the food cart coming, he lifts his head up as
high as he can to see just what new food is coming his way. The only
thing that he refuses to eat is sweet potatoes. There are several
photos of Indigo in the yahoogroups photoalbum.

Toy Drive Update

So far several toys have been collected, but we are a long way from
reaching our goal. Please try to have all of your toys delivered to
the sanctuary by December 15th.

ITEMS COLLECTED FOR INDIVIDUAL MONKEYS (40 MONKEYS TO GO)

2 Pails
1 shovel
2 plastic serving spoons

MULTIPLE MONKEY TOYS (13 ENCLOSURES TO GO)

1 Toddler Swing


HELP US MAKE THE FIRST ANNUAL CHRISTMAS MONKEY
TOY DRIVE A SUCCESS.

Wouldn't you like to help make a Monkey's Christmas dreams come true.
Our goal is to collect at least one toy for every monkey. The toys do
not have to be new, just in good condition. What many people do not
realize is that monkeys can enjoy the same toys that human children do.
All you have to do is make sure that the toy is sturdy or durable enough
to be played with by a strong child. For example, Fisher Price or
Playschool, busy boxes or riding toys make excellent choices for them.
They cannot be something that can easily be taken apart. The capuchins,
especially Cookie, love playing with musical toys that play nursery
rhymes. She just keeps pushing the buttons over and over until the
batteries need recharging. As you are putting away all of the backyard
toys, if your child will have outgrown some of the toys by next summer,
consider sending them to the monkeys. Keep this in mind as you are
getting rid of the old toys to make room for the new Christmas toys. They
also enjoy flat bed sheets, that will have plenty of knots tied in them.
They like to drag them around and hide under them. When they peek out to
see if anyone is watching, another monkey will quickly pounce on them and
then the wrestling fun begins. Spray them with a little perfume and they
enjoy it all the more. All of the monkeys love to play with pails and
shovels, sometimes out of necessity dust pans and containers are
substituted. They love to scoop up and fill the pails with mulch from the
floors of their enclosures. Kong toys for dogs are also used as
enrichment items. If you would like to donate a toy as a gift for
someone, please indicate this when the donation is made. A gift
notification will be sent, letting that special someone know that you
have made the donation in their name.


Just to give you an idea as to what monkeys play with, please visit
http://amomentintimedonations.freeservers.com/catalog.html where you
will see photos of some of the monkeys enjoying themselves, with their
toys.

There is a picture of Cookie, playing on her slide. Monkeys do not use
the slide the same way we do. They slide down the edges of it as opposed
to the middle. They do enjoy using it as an additional climbing structure.

Missybelle is sitting by her Christmas Tree, showing how she used to
spend her Christmas, as a pet. As you can see by reading Missybelle's
story http://amomentintimedonations.freeservers.com/custom.html while
everything possible was done to make her happy, this life style did not
work out for her. Primates do not make good pets. Now she spends her
life in as natural a setting as possible. While there are no more
Christmas trees and lights, it does not mean that she does not still
enjoy playing with many of the same presents she used to receive. She
now gets to enjoy playing with them, with her new primate companions.
Her former owner, Lorraine, believes that she has already given
Missybelle the best Christmas present possible, a new life at Mindy's
Memory Primate Sanctuary.

Katy Jo is enjoying herself swinging on a toddlers swing.

Detroit has climbed up high, just as soon as he was given a basketball.
He did not want to share his new found treasure.

When Pumpkin arrived, he came with a carload of toys. Ginger very quickly
confiscated his purple riding toy and really made it work for her.


*************
Please read "A Monkey's Prayer" which was written by Linda
http://www.mindysmem.org/monkprayer.html
*************


PHOTOS OF ALL THE ABOVE MONKEYS AND THEIR FRIENDS CAN BE VIEWED AT
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/monkeytales Mindy's has the largest
enclosures of any Primate Sanctuary, complete with wooden shelves and
perches for the monkeys to sit on and climb to. Please bear in mind
that many of the pictures are taken at an angle, as the monkeys can be
sitting as high as 15 feet up in the air. This could make the enclosures
look smaller than they actually are.


ALL RESIDENTS OF THE SANCTUARY ARE AVAILABLE FOR SPONSORSHIP,
FOR DETAILS VISIT THE MINDY'S WEBSITE


THE NEXT ISSUE WILL FEATURE - ABU, SUKI AND BONNY


WHAT'S BEEN HAPPENING AT THE SANCUARY????


The monkeys received a wonderful surprise. One day the Electric Company
arrived with a truck load of fresh mulch. There were plenty of nice
green leaves mixed in. Linda added plenty of peanuts to the mixture.
This new found treasure was brought into the Macaque enclosures by the
wheel barrel full. Indigo was watching and getting very excited while
he was waiting for his share to be delivered. All of the monkeys spent
hours grooming through the mixture making sure that they did not miss
out on anything.

Missybelle is in for a real surprise, Lorraine and her husband Joe
will be coming to spend a week visiting with her in November. Lorraine
is so excited about her trip.


Remember, when sending a Greeting Card, consider sending a Monkey
Greeting Card. Please view our selection at
http://pictures.care2.com/welcome/118046932 or by using the link at
Mindy's homepage (www.mindysmem.org). There are Birthday, Anniversary
and Everyday cards available. This will be a wonderful way for you to
help us promote the sanctuary.


If you would rather send a card featuring a species other than a monkey,
please visit the Greeting Card album that I have set up for Mostly
Monkeys Sanctuary (www.mostlymonkeys.org) by visiting
http://pictures.care2.com/welcome/102604785 Here you will find Parrot,
Badger and Raccoon in addition to Monkey Greeting Cards.


Visit the Missybelle Before Mindy's photo album
http://pictures.care2.com/welcome/484014251


Visit the Missybelle Enjoying Life At Mindy's photo album
http://pictures.care2.com/welcome/963449033


HOW YOU CAN HELP

If you are considering switching internet providers and are
going to switch to AOL, please visit a web page that was set up by
Missybelle's former owner Lorraine
http://hometown.aol.com/missybellemom2/myhomepage/index.html
By using the link on the bottom of the page you will receive a free trial
period. When the free trial period ends, if you keep the service for an
additional 6 months, Lorraine will receive a $15.00 check, which she will
donate to Mindy's.

If you have a website consider adding a banner to link directly to Mindy's.

When shopping at http://www.vegecyber.com always use our code 2027MM when
checking out so the sanctuary will receive 5% of your purchase donated.

When shopping at http://www.igive.com please list Mindy's as your charity of
choice so the sanctuary will receive a portion of purchase donated. The
amount donated varies by store.

Make a donation to the Building Fund to help raise funds for housing
future residents. This fund was established after funds were not raised
quickly enough to rescue 2 research monkeys, Ben and Norman before they
were sold back into research.

Make a donation online using Paypal, there is a link on the Mindy's
homepage.


INFORMATION PROVIDED BY - LINDA BARCKLAY
DIRECTOR
http://www.mindysmem.org
mindysmem@...


WRITTEN BY - JOANNE CHRISTIE-SHPAK
PLEASE VISIT MY WEBSITE
http://amomentintimedonations.freeservers.com which features several
wildlife sanctuaries including Mindy's. There are also links to various
click for donations, which are done at no cost to you. You can also
find helpful organizations as well as ways to help your favorite cause.


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