Miss Billy's best friend stays over.

When Miss Billy arrived she was in quite a distressed state. Unwashed she has a strong body odor and her coat was matted. Her crouched appearance told us that she was probably in pain. She was very internalized, not wanting attention or affection. She just wanted to be left alone to sleep. She did not want the company of either me or other monkeys. Attempts to get her to socialize failed. When I allow a newcomer to share my room, almost always they want to sleep in the bed alongside me. Not so Miss Billy.

On her first night I had been unpacking some equipment and the box lay on a sideboard in my room. It so happened that the front of the box was a circular cutout. This made it look cave like. Miss Billy went directly to it, made herself comfortable and it has become her night time home.

Since that time she has improved. Her diet is strictly controlled by me. She has a calcium supplement twice a day to aid in bone recovery and multivitamin with her breakfast. We have constructed a low rise bamboo walkway in one of the enclosures, so that she can sit in the sun during the day. This is all good stuff for creating vitamin‘d’. During this time she has been sharing with other monkeys, in particular, Eslabon, Tutti and Rosita. Well you can’t be anywhere near that joker Eslabon without sharing his games. I cannot say that she is cured because she is not. I can say she is showing a definite improvement. Her mobility is better and she now enjoys the company of Rosita and Tutti, making happy noises whenever they approach her. Quite often Rosita come to see her quite late and stays over, just like young human children do with their best friend. The cameo like photograph was taken last night on such a stay over.
I am tolerated as a means of transport and giver of good things to eat. I have not yet been invited to stay over.