To All Of Our Friends:

Some of you who have been around the last few weeks know that our wonderful Lipizzan Stallion, Pluto Pirouette, “Scotty” was attacked by a rogue horse and died several weeks later from his wounds. There were many weeks of intense care and ultimately heartbreak, but after the stress of this ordeal, we had hoped to have time to slow down. But, Scotty’s attack coincided with the arrival of Chi Chi, our new black female gibbon, which dispossessed spiders, Koan and Kelpie. Then we had the wonderful turn out for the cage raising, the welding the following week, a weekend of dressing the cage and finally the spiders were in their new home. The following week of torrential rain damaged the tarp roof, but with some emergency repairs, it is back together. It is our hope to get them a real permanent roof sometime in the near future. During all of this, Stitches was being closely monitored for a miscarriage due to the spotting of blood discovered almost a month ago. The vet felt it was a condition known as a missed abortion which happens frequently with elderly female primates going through menopause…but there is apparently another thing which coincides with menopause and that is a menopausal pregnancy.

Our almost 36 year old female gibbon, (which is comparable to a 60+ year old woman!), Stitches who had been scheduled to be culled because she was too old to breed, gave birth to what appears to be a healthy little baby on Saturday August 9. Stitches has never been allowed to raise her babies because she was a horrible mother, or so the story goes and though we have no accurate records, we estimate she probably gave birth to no less than 15+ babies in her life. She was supposed to have been past the age of breeding and had not concieved at the last two facilities she lived in. I have been assured by the caregivers who delivered Chi Chi, (who surprisingly knew Stitches personally from two other facilities where she had been housed!), that the condition Stitches and Monkey Boy arrived in was typical of their condition. They told me when they saw Stitches and Monkey Boy, on the day they brought Chi Chi, that they had never seen these two gibbons look as healthy, clean and happy as they were that day. In fact, they laughingly said then that it would not surprise them if we were gifted with a baby as a reward for the wonderful new life we have given them I laughed then, but when this little miracle happened on Saturday, and I told our stunned vet of the baby’s birth, her comment, “God works in mysterious ways…” took on a whole new meaning.

Surprise:
Sex yet to be determined. We monitor hourly 24/7!
I want to say to all of our wonderful volunteers that with all of your help and devotion, our primates are living more enriched and healthy lives.  I like to think that because of you all, Stitches and Monkey Boy have given us all a gift of thanks we would never have dreamed possible…

With Love, Thank You All…

Debbie M.