I’m very sad to say that George is dead. Someone intentionally killed him. And they wanted to make sure we knew this. Someone took the chain from around his waste and tied him up to the fence with it. It is really tie wire but hard to explain. Tie wire wrapped in a collar, put on by a vet or other animal professional. There was no way George could get that off and if he had, he wouldn’t have wrapped it around the chain link fence.
Jessie also noticed that he had blood under his nails. I saw it too after she pointed it out. So at least he made the killer bleed.
I spent a lot of time with George but I wish I had spent more. I don’t feel guilty about that. I noticed he was a bit tangled up and started to go out there to untangle him but I thought he could work that out himself. I meant to go back and check on him. If he had been able to move freely no one could have got him. I feel some guilt over that. One of the neighbors, most of them loved him, was taking a banana to him and discovered he was dead. The first word we got is something is wrong with George. Jessie got to him first and said he was dead. I tried to do some chest compression on him. But he was gone. Still warm but gone.
I know who did this and it is hard not to strike back but I wont. That would be wrong. He has roosters and I moved George closer to those. He fights roosters, pretty clear what he thinks of animals. He recently cut the crest/cone off a full grown rooster. That had to be horrible for the rooster. I have changed my mind about going to cock fights here. I didn’t know it was that barbaric. I knew they cut them off, but I thought it was done when they were very young. I like to partake of all Filipino Culture. While the fight itself may not be that bad but cutting the cone off a full grown roster is unthinkable to me.
Just this morning, George figured out how to open doors. He was growing daily and getting smarter and relating to us more each day. I never got the chance to video tape him opening doors.
I had a bad feeling when I took him outside today. I was worried about a cat. But this was no cat. Someone killed him and then tied him up to a fence to send a message. Hard to find a tame monkey. George loved us, when you interact with a primate it is different from a dog or cat.
The only good I can find out of this is that George may have been in pain. His front leg had been broken at some point. Recently he got where he didn’t want me to touch it. But then the next day it was okay. I noticed last night that one of his back legs had been broken in the past.
I just wish you could have seen what it is like to be close to another primate. He would come sit next to me and make me move my arm so he could get under it. He liked to be between my arm and my side/chest. Made it dang hard to type but it was such an honor to have him there that I put up with it.
I usually get Jessie to proof read my messages but not this time she is too upset.
It is so hard to not kill some roosters but that is wrong. It goes against the code I have chosen to live by and I wont do it. When I showed Jessie what happened, she looked right at that mans house. That is, when I showed her that he had been tied to the fence by someone. We both know what happened. When the police where here they kept peeking out the window and we didn’t see the man for the rest of the day. Even Jessie feels this urge to strike back but both of us know it is the wrong thing to do and it would only make matters worse on top of that. It didn’t surprise me that I had feelings of revenge but Jessie usually reacts better and doesn’t have such feelings. Jessie also tends to feel guilt about things that she bares no guilt for.
We moved the monkey to this new location because our landlord said we couldn’t keep him on the porch. The porch is tiled and marble, nothing the Monkey could hurt. She said someone was complaining about him. For the life of me I can’t understand that. She told us to move him under the carport. That’s where he was today. I wanted her to come see George, the way he had been tied to the fence but I had already taken him down before she got here. She acted like she wasn’t going to come, she could have cared less. But she did show up and said we shouldn’t have put him there because it was unsafe. Duh? Really? Look at my post from last night. I said it was unsafe. That is where she told us to move him! Guess the danger was obvious as she saw him laying on the ground, dead. Jessie told her we couldn’t talk to her right now as we had just lost a son. She worded it just like that.
The kids were in school at the time so it wasn’t one of the kids. Someone did this to send us a message. I’m usually very pro-Philippines but needless to say, I’m not right now. But things will go on. I’ll get a whole zoo of them one day but I’ll wait till I have my own property.
Until a Monkey has held on to you in such a way to show you he needs you and he looks to you for protection, you can’t know what it is like to have one. When I gave him showers, I learned I had to hold him close to my chest. He grabbed the hairs and it hurt but I didn’t stop him. He finally would just lean back like a baby and really get into the shower after a few minutes. He loved the attention. He wrapped his arms around me and held me like a baby monkey is held by his mother. He trusted me.
He’s going to be missed. It is a few hours later now. Jessie says we wont find another monkey like George, they just are not tame usually. I told her I had to hope someone would need someone to take care of a rescued monkey. That’s the only way I want one. It is hard not to be selfish and have someone go catch a baby for me but that’s wrong. They deserve to be in the wild if possible. They need their own kind. I told her I had to hope, it was like smoking. When i quit, I couldn’t handle the idea of I’d never have that again. I had to hope.
George enriched our lives while he was with us and someday that is the memory I will have of him. I hope it is already that way tomorrow. I’ve been down too much of my life and depression can become comforting to someone that has only known that. But I have been excited about life for months now and I don’t want to ever loose that again. George was a part of that but that can’t be taken from me. Those times are still there. As mischievous as he could be, he was usually a delight even then. Sure he got on my nerves from time to time but what family member doesn’t get on your nerves from time to time.
We did file a police report, only in case there is more trouble or we find out who did it with proof. I suspected we have a neighbor with some scratches on his hands and George has his DNA under his fingernails. I don’t know where George is at. I picked George up and held him close to me and told Jessie I couldn’t put him in a trash can. So I just let her take care of it. It is hard on her too. She is strong and will recover fast. I can only hope I will too.
Tagged with: Filipino Monkey • George's Death
Filed under: Cebu Experience • Faith and Christianity • Life • Lupus
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Not much comfort I guess, but my condolences…
The link worked for me, btw.
I didn’t realize you were on my myspace friends? Is that the link you’re speaking of.
I guess the most someone can do with a loss of this nature is tell someone they care. Helps with that feeling of emptiness. Today is better than yesterday.
Thanks.
What is the hardest about it is the way we lost him.
I noticed this blog of about you’re monkey. Man why did someone kill a monkey. I do not get some people sometimes. WOW – know you have to be hurting. There are monkeys in BOHOL and the beaches are supposed to be the best in the world. Also the snorkling/scuba/beaches. relaxing life.
I would relocate to BOHOL if I was you. Bagio I have been there the weather is nice but the town seems boring to me.
I am going to vist BOHOL soon to look maybe by some chance that I might find this woman who may have born my child 15 years ago. I wonder since she told me that there are monkeys where she came from this is the only place that has monkeys in the philippines or am I wrong this will be a long search. She did tell me I remember she discribed them as being small easy to handle.
it’s has to be the tarsier monkeys. I hope so.
I would not mind living where there some cool wild monkey that would drop in from time to time to feed. That would be just to cool.
Do you know if these tarsier monkeys are the only type of monkey in the Philippines?
I am so sorry I want to get you another monkey but this will not help. I can be a friend.
Thanks for the post.
I am so sorry for your loss. I am sure that jealousy was the motive. Please don’t let this man ruin your life by causing you to strike back at him so he can get you deported. Maybe you need to find a better place to live. I was telling Marie this morning how cool your monkey is and how maybe I will sell the cows and start a monkey ranch. Peace Bro.
That monkey was with little doubt one of the coolest things that every happened to me and probably number two in the non-human “things.” There is no way I am going to strike back, even if i knew who. The person I think did it was not the person I first thought did it.
I keep thinking that he just died, no one did it, but I saw how he was tied to that fence. There was just no way he could have done that. Was probably a kid. Can’t imagine an adult sticking around to do that.
I was really just acknowledge my very human response. Would be better if I could react in a better way but I’m just not able to do that yet. Maybe someday I’ll get to that point.
Thanks for your concern and even more for being here!
hey rusty so sad to hear about george… monkey is really nice pet.. i had one also his 1 year old monkey and giving me a lot of happines everyday..
George was one of the best things that every happened to me. I miss him.
You have one now?
Hello Rusty
I can understand a bit how you feel even though I have myself never been that attached to an animal – never had a monkey though.
My first thought was similar to that of Tom Ramberg: jealousy as the motive. But you tell us that the man you originally suspected of it didn’t do it (how did you find out?) and that a kid might have done it. So I had to let go of that anti-Filipino thought. But truth to tell I would hesitate to have a fine animal in the Philippines (such as a German Shepherd for instance) for fear that I might find it poisoned one day.
Yet things like that happen here in Australia as well. I know somebody here (who, like me, is married to a Filipina) who once owned a Doberman. He and his wife got extremely attached to that dog and he told me that, after it was poisoned by some crook, they cried for about two months. Even now he can’t talk about that animal without getting tears into his eyes. They have a photograph of it on the chimney piece.
A common reaction after such a thing happens is to decide never to have an animal again because people don’t want to go through the same heartbreak. Yet as recently as the nineteenth century it was a common experience for people to lose one or more children. But they went on having children.
I hope for you that you will be able to find another rescue monkey.
What you tell us about your neighbour and his fighting cocks doesn’t surprise me. One of the things I have against Filipino culture is the attitude to animals there. Have you ever seen a pig trussed up at the back of a jeepney or seen it being slaughtered in somebody’s backyard? On that score Thai culture is far superior. Buddhism has taught them respect for animals. I used to live behind a temple there where people as a matter of course brought the the kittens they couldn’t keep – instead of drowning them. Unfortunately the monks couldn’t feed them on much more than rice.
Thanks Adrian!
I have another monkey. A Filipina discovered its harsh treatment, living on a pole with very little food and no cover from the weather and bought him and gave him to me.
Her name is Juliet and she’s still recovering but doing much better. She was in pretty bad shape when we got her. She’s still not back to full strength, she’s very thin around her waste but she’s got some injuries in that area. She may not get much better. Compared to where she was though, she’s doing great though I think she’d like a little more time out of her cage!
I’ve written more about her on my heyjoe.ph site. Check it out if you have the time!