Stitches

Species: White-handed or lar gibbon, Hylobates lar
D.O.B.:   Unknown, 1971??? Gone, but Never Forgotten   June, 2016
Sex: Female

In the Wild: http://pin.primate.wisc.edu/factsheets/links/hylobates

History: Stitches was about 45 years old. She had been confiscated at the Miami Airport back in 1973 when she was smuggled into the country illegally. Placed into breeding programs around Florida for many years, her offspring sold constantly as pets. We will always be grateful to Tim Nast of Nast Roofing for donating the money for the habitat we built for Monkey Boy and Stitches. Until she came to us in 2006-2007, Stitches had not raised one of her offspring. Dobby was born in 2008, her last baby, long after we thought she had passed the age to conceive. He was her miracle child…our darling boy. Today, June 25, 2016, we lost an old friend, a matriarch among our primates…Our beloved Stitches passed peacefully as she sat in the sunshine, holding onto the bamboo pole Matthew Henderson had sanded down with great care and installed for her in her habitat. She had eagerly investigated her breakfast, ate banana and romaine, cherries and grapes. I had given small pieces of blueberry scone and she took both pieces and refused to let Monkey Boy have any. She went back over to the bigger caging, after pausing in the long chute to absorb the sunshine, then moved down to the floor and propped by her bamboo pole. She loved to sit on it and bounce, but today she sat calmly on the cool concrete, basking in the sun, with one arm raised holding on to her bamboo. Then suddenly she was slouching down and then flat on the concrete staring at the sun and she was gone…Tom tried to revive her, but her gentle heart had just stopped…a good way to go, but she leaves behind broken hearts and many tears. Our prayers are now for Monkey Boy her partner of more than twenty years…he is lost and confused…as are we… <3