Totto arrives at Canaote

Saturday the 17th of June 2006 Totto arrived at Canaote. He is a six year old male Howler and he is big. Formerly he lived with his owners in Caracas. The family and friends brought him here for shelter.
I spent time with Totto on Saturday night and got a mixed reception. I visited him at breakfast yesterday morning and he attacked me. I have a small fairly insignificant bite on my right hand.
I looks as if we will have to embark on a program to pacify him. At the moment he is violent and threatening to me and my staff. He is dangerous. This is the first time I have encountered such hostility in an adult howler. We will show patience and gentleness of course. He finds himself alone among strange people. He feels that he is being threatened so his reaction is not difficult to understand. Howlers do not like being alone and we have a plan to introduce him to a number of possible lady friends but this aggression means that we will go about the introductions a little more slowly. We will introduce them through the enclosure wire at first rather than inside. There is no question that we have a big problem. Fortunately I have the time, the will and the patience to make him happy. We will have to rebuild part of the enclosure. It will be necessary to construct a double door at the front as well as the one that exists at the garden side. The wire on all the 6 windows will have to be reinforced as with his great strength he could break out and that would be an absolute calamity. Anyway the long and short of it is that this is all more expense. Nothing comes for nothing. Do I hear the flick opening of cheque books? I am just about to go and deliver his evening meal and I hope he is in a better mood.
Round one to Toto.
This can become as exciting as the World Cup. (England will surely win) We had a much better evening meeting. I gave Totto his evening meal and additionally he had our special milk. He ate voraciously and drank the milk shake. I noticed that he was a little anemic in his gums so I added iron and vitamin B complex to the drink. He was a great deal calmer. Just at that moment MonaLisa came over to the enclosure and Totto saw her for the first time. I held her in my arms in front of his window and they both made favorable happy noises. This is an excellent first contact. I still think that changes in the enclosure are needed. For the peace of mind of my staff I need to construct a feeding hatch and the ability to close the interconnecting door to the garden remotely, so the staff can enter for the daily cleaning whilst Totto is in the garden. Maybe this is all excessive. As he settles down over the next days that will become clear. But from a legal point of view I need to make these improvements. If not and he bites a staff member I would not have a leg to stand on. Believe me I have already fallen in love with him and will do everything I can to make him happy.
He has started to exercise in the garden. I saw him in the tree in the afternoon. I think he likes the environment but he needs company.