Sunday 27 February 2011

Animal Adoptions


For all sorts of reason not all of us can have pets in our homes. However, that doesn't me we can't help with caring for animals. Most of you know that I talk a lot about animal adoptions and you are probably thinking, here goes Kolo again but I think it is an important issue to talk about.


I always used to sponsor donkeys on behalf of friends and @henryandfriends and I have a great day at the donkey sanctuary visiting his donkey Snowy and other donkey friends that other anipals had adopted even though they lived too far away to visit them. Its important that we look after donkeys because some people are not very nice to them.


But as you know, I'm a baboon, you can call me a monkey or a primate whatever you prefer. Imagine how happy I was when I heard that a moneky (and owl) sanctuary had opened on my island. I was very excited to adopt monkeys for friends at Christmas, I know Huntyr (@kyba) has great fun having Martin's adoption from the sanctuary and @marshallsheldon loves Kajan, his adopted monkey very much nad friends of ours in Texas enjoying Martin and Fudge in their family.


On thing I have never thought of doing was to adopt an animal myself. But this week I took the plunge and adopted Fudge from the Owl and Monkey Haven on the island and here I am with my certificate. I haven't passed any exams so this is my first certificate ever and I am very proud because I think it means more degrees or diplomas, what it means is that my adoption feed has gone to help the haven to help Fudge and other adoption fees go to helping Fudge and his friends have a fulfilling life and I think that is important.


Most sanctuaries and havens send news letters by post or e-mail to keep you up to date about your animal and the adopted monkeys Martin and Kajan have even been tweeting with us as @AdoptedMonkeys on Twitter, that is really cool don't you think!! Yes OK they tell us they are throwing poo around but they're having fun and its great talking to them.


There are all sorts of animals that can be adopted, in the past my people have adopted dogs from the Dogs Trust and a friend adopted a river otter on our behalf. So its up to all the individals to decide what sort of animal they want to adopt or sponsor and I am sure they can find a sancturary that will enable them to do that.


I am lucky because Fudge, Martin, Kajan and their friends live near me and I am going to visit them soon with @henryandfriends. If anyone wants to adopt a monkey from there I can visit them on their behalf, but otherwise, if you want to help animals and cannot have pets at home or have as many pets as you can cope with, remember that another way of helping animals is to adopt one in a haven. Its great fun and you really feel part of something.


The on the Isle of Wight have a great website:
http://www.owlandmonkeyhaven.co.uk/ have a look they have fun videos and stories about the animals. If monkeys and owls are not your thing I am sure you can find animals to adopt that suit you by searching the internet or talking to people locally.

Tuesday 22 February 2011

Missing a dear friend


It has been a long time since I have written anything on my blog and that is because I really wanted to write this post but it has taken me a long time to do it because it is a sensitive thing for me and I haven't been able to think about it clearly until now.
Most people know how fond I am of our dear friend Mookie and we all miss our strawberry blond friend badly.
Mookie first introduced himself to me when he was in the world final of the voting walls that we all used to be familiar with. He told me, in a Mookie way, that he was the only German in the competition. Well of course as soon as I got to know him I wanted to vote for him. Anyone who met him would want to vote for him.
Everyone who knows me and Mookie know that we are both football mad! Only English and German people would know how difficult it is for English and German people to discuss football in a friendly way, the rivalry is such that it is almost impossible, but with Mookie I could do that and we regularly discussed football. During the World Cup England played Germany and lost badly (as usual), Mookie was so gracious in victory that I acutally supported Germany in their next games. We also used to discuss our clubs and supported each others teams in our national leagues which was fun. Most fun of all was playing football with Mookie on Twitter. He always won but then he is German and I am English.
The picture above is one of my favourites of Mookie and how I like to remember him, dressed up for the world cup as a committed German fan. He so enjoyed the world cup and made a German flag pizza to match my flag of St George pizza for England. It always makes me smile how much Mookie likes Wayne Rooney because they are both strawberry blond.
Of course football wasn't the only thing we had in common we talked about lots of things and found out a lot about each other's countries. He extended that by generously allowing his friend Lippe to come and visit so many of us of it was wonderful to have him here.
I miss Mookie terribly and hope he will tweet from OTRB sometime because we all love him and his mum so much. We know his mum must not be rushed into doing this and we are sure she will make a decision when things feel right.
But on behalf of all your Twitter friends Mookie we love you and miss you and hope to see you again one day when you are ready. For now I am sending you and your mum lots of Kolo HUGS HUGS HUGS!
FOUNDING MEMBER