Announcing the winner

Hi everyone, another competition has been and gone and we have four winners.  If you are not a winner this time please do not despair another competition will be along before you know it!!

Marley Baboon did the draw as our first choice drawer was very busy.  He did a good job I think although like me he wanted everyone to win.  We had 45 entrants so that could not be possible.

Congratulations to the winners, they are:

1. The first number to come out was number 1 and that was Bijntje, who wins the monkey or owl adoption from the haven on my island.  Bijntje please look at http://www.owlandmonkeyhaven.co.uk/products/adoptions.aspx and choose a monkey or owl to adopt and let me know who you would like and where to have the pack sent to.  Send me a DM on Twitter to let me know.
2. The next number to come out was number 6 and that is LilyLuWuTo,  Lily you win the bunny T-shirt or mug.  Please look at http://www.hasenfarm.com/pages/de/motive/kaninchenrettung.php and let me know whether you want a T-shirt or a mug, what colour and if it is a T-shirt, what size and where to send it.  Send me a DM on Twitter to let me know.
3. The next number to come out was 37 and that is Oatuling.  Oatuling wins the mug from the Owl and Monkey Haven.  Please let me know where to send it.  Send me a DM on Twitter.

 

  4. The final number to come out was number 12 and that is JazzydaCat.  Jazzy wins the donation to Marley's fund and I will arrange that for you Jazzy.

Mystery at Baboon HQ

Well as you all know Marley Baboon arrived on Saturday and he I am happy to tell you he is settling in well.

Marley is quite a shy baboon but he is loving being part of a baboon family and he and Edward get on particularly well.

But the mystery remains.  Where did he come from? Who sent him? We are no nearer to finding out.  We have eliminated @jazzydacat from our enquiries, it is the sort of kind thing she would do, but she has a water tight allibi.  No other suspects have been identified.

I was thinking of getting @spencerteddy, our resident Twitter detective on the case, but actually if the friend who sent him wants to remain anonymous then they have every right to do so, so I won't enquire any further.

What I do want to say is, whoever you are, I hope you are reading this.  Thank you so much, we love having Marley here, he is a lovely baboon and I know he is happy to be here.  All the baboons and human helpers here love him and we are so happy you did send him.  Thank you and if you want to remain anonymous I will not make any further enquiries but if you ever want to say please feel free to.  The most important thing is that Marley is happy and he is where he belongs.



A tail of the unexpected

Well just one week ago I agree with our manperson that Baboon HQ was full-up.  Apart from rehoming nearly 70 baboons, we have managed to acquire a community of 16 baboons who are permanent residents at HQ.  Well that was last week.

From 2003 to 2010 I was the only baboon here.  Yaya joined me in 2010 and it was just us two for over a year.  Last Christmas we were six baboons here, well during this year Baboon HQ has unintentionally grown out of all proportion.  So you can see why the manperson was discussing the situation with me.

Well forget that because this morning there was a ring on the doorbell. Yaya opened the door and found a baboon outside.  One look at this baboon showed that he was rather depressed.  He looked unhappy and was stooping, not like the rest of us.  We invited him in and he told us that he had been sent to live with us at Baboon HQ. Well my first thought was 'what will the manperson say now'?  My second thought was this baboon needs us.  Baboons like me and Edward were only made for a short time so he must be as old as me, but his fur was pristine, no cuddles and his face was still dark, no sunlight.  No wonder he was depressed he has had no love.  He told me he had been kept in a cupboard since 2003.  Well of course he is moving in with us, as yes he is a large baboon like me and Edward.

So yes, there is a new baboon at HQ.  Usually it takes me quite a long time to find a name for a new baboon, but this one was obvious.  He had had no love and care, so I decided straight away that he should be named after a special friend who was well loved by everyone, no only does that honour our friend, but it should change this baboon's luck and start his new life of love and support at Baboon HQ.

So we hope Typist won't mind if we call him Marley Baboon.

Christmas Competition

Lots of people have kindly sent me lots of lovely Christmas cards.  Thank you very much for that.  I am sorry that I am not going to manage Christmas cards this year.  My person is so behind with everything since having measles lately and we have left everything too late.  I have lalso spent lots of the Baboon HQ budget on rehoming baboons.

I decided that I would have a Christmas competition instead of sending cards this year and there will be four first prizes.  Everyone is welcome to enter even if you have won a prize before and please encourage all your friends to enter as well.

What are the prizes?

1. An owl or monkey adoption from the Owl and Monkey Haven on my island http://www.owlandmonkeyhaven.co.uk/products/adoptions.aspx
2. A T-shirt or mug from our dear friend @RettetKaninchen's rabbit sanctuary in Germany.  http://www.kaninchenrettung.de/

     3. A mug from the Owl and Monkey Haven on my island.

http://www.owlandmonkeyhaven.co.uk/products/shop/omh-merchandise/mugs.aspx

    4. A donation of £10 in your name to Marley's tribute fund for Terrier rescue.

http://www.terrierrescue.co.uk/?page_id=2028

How do I enter?

There are three ways to enter this competition:

1. Leave a comment on this blog saying you want to enter.
2. Send me a DM on Twitter @Kolo_Martin
3. Send me a private message on Can Be Social website.

When does the competition close?

All entries must be in by 9 am on Christmas Eve, 24 December.

When will the competition be drawn?

I am going to ask our dear pal @Henryandfriends to do the draw and let me know the four numbers by 10 am on Christmas Eve.

How will I find out who has won?

The winners will be announced on this blog as soon as the draw has taken place.

I will also DM all winners on Twitter or send them a private message on Can Be Social.

I hope this will be a good way of celebrating Christmas with my friends.  Please enter and good luck to all of you.

Missing a dear friend!

It has taken me a few days to write this because I am so upset about our dear pal Marley.  We are all devastated but, for the second time only I wanted to write something for one of our friends who has gone OTRB.  It is all to sad to write about him, it took me months to do that for Mookie (@schnille) and I didn't want to wait months to do something this time because those of us that can can do something practical, many of you already have.

So I wrote a Twitter Christmas song for Marley.

On the first day of Christmas my true love sent to me pancakes and waffles with @hi_im_monkey

On the second day of Christmas my true love sent to me chips with my friend Henry @henryandfriends

On the third day of Christmas my true love sent to me Baileys with @bijntje and Lexie @Dogstoyevsky

On the fourth day of Christmas my true love sent to me cakes with dear Olly @OllyTed and @mogsbear

On the fifth day of Christmas my true love sent to me cheekiness from our Jazzy @jazzydacat

On the sixth day of Christmas my true love sent to me a detective movie from @spencerteddy

On the seventh day of Christmas my true love sent to me a silk scarf made by Kathleen @pasikas

On the eigth day of Christmas my true love sent to me a Boston lobster for lunch from Lily @LilyLuWhoT @Pandafur @gromekcat@grrlysquirrel75

On the ninth day of Christmas my true love sent to me some baking from Bertie and Reddy @Bertie_Junior @bertie_cat @reddy1408 and Welsh cakes from @CloonfourMegan

On the tenth day of Christmas my true love sent to me some honey from Julie @tim_kirby and @MrsFiddlesticks

On the eleventh day of Christmas my true love sent to me cookies from our friend Zachary @ZackRabbit @Petiethecat @jedbramwell

On the twelth day of Christmas my true love sent to me a donation to Terrier Rescue in memory of Marley @marleyterrier 

and if you want to add to Marley's fund here's how http://www.terrierrescue.co.uk/?page_id=2028

I am sorry I wasn't able to include all my friends, I wanted to but it you are not in this song you will be in another.  NO PRESSURE TO DONATE!!

HUGS HUGS HUGS

Kolo in Chichester

I was quite envious when I saw my German friends going to Christmas markets.  Then I found out that some of our bigger cities have them too. We know there is a big Christmas market in Winchester, we love Winchester my person's grandmother used to live there so we know it well.  Would we go to Winchester?  Salisbury is a lovely city and that has a Christmas market for the first year.  We could go there but it is a longer journey.  What about Chichester, its another lovely city nearby.  We can see the cathedral from our kitchen window on a good day and my person knows it a bit but man person was interested in visiting and its probably the nearest, so we chose Chichester.

We had to take the car on the big ferry.  This is not like the hovercraft because I could climb up and look out of the window.

The ferry is big and has a shop and a cafe as well. We took around 35 minutes on the ferry, then we drove to Chichester.

Now, you may remember that I went to Chichester to see a Christmas market, but I didn't spend a great deal of time at the Christmas market because I got distracted by ...

Yes you guess it, cakes!  Just look at those cakes!!!

After look at those I needed to satisfy my coffee habit, so I sat looking at the cakes and drinking coffee.

I don't think our manperson realised he could be seen in the mirror!!

Then we went on and what did I find ...

Yes more cakes.  I went in for a further look.

What more could you want, just look at those cakes.

Then I went to have a look at the Christmas market and I did meet some donkeys.

I went to have a look at the cathedral too because that is what we can see from home.

 

If you think I look at bit grumpy you are right that think I was sitting on was cold and dirty.  It is a beautiful cathedral though.

Then we had some lunch in an interesting cafe.  It seems like a church and it is so near the cathedral that I wondered whether it was actually part of the crypt, maybe somebody who knows Chichester better can tell me.  It is called The Buttery in South Street.

This big stone pillar was by our table.  They had cakes too that looked nice.  I think maybe #caykclub should visit Chichester it seems to be the cake capital of the south of England.

We had a nice day and then we came home on the ferry again.  It was quite cold but we enjoyed ourselves.  But a day at a Christmas market turned out to be a day of cake distractions.  I must go back and investigate these cakes further.

That working thing

As most of my friends know I keep disappearing because my person keeps saying they are so busy at work that they don't have time to help me and when they come home they are tired.  I thought I would investigate this as it sounds a bit fishy to me.

I got ready to go and went to work on the hovercraft.

I really wanted to climb up on the back of the seat and look out of the window but when I started the hovercraft man shouted at me to sit down.  That didn't seem fair because when Leroy (@Leroy_Sealion) went on the catamaran he climbed right over everything.  I guess the hovercraft is more disciplined than the catamaran.

When we got off the hovercraft we had to walk to work.  We came across some odd people on the way.

I think they are pirates so they are locked up in prison behind these bars. I was already beginning to think that going to work is a strange thing.

I got ot work and met Richmond (@study_monkey) who is a very clever monkey who works at the university helping the students with their academic skills.

Richmond gave me some training as an academic skills tutor using this very important study skills book.  He is very clever and knows all about these sorts of things.

After that, being a trained academic skills tutor I was ready to give some support to students.  Richmond said I could do some of the online support for the distance learning students, while he saw some students who were coming to the office.

Giving online support is actually quite easy for a trained academic skills tutor like me.  Its just like typing really.  I needed my big cup of coffee though cos people at work always drink big cups of coffee.

You can see my screen is blank.  That is cos I had to turn it off for this photo.  We trained academic skills tutors are very concerned with confidentialness so that means I can't let you see what is on my screen.

After that I got a bit tired of doing work so I had a look at the Christmas decorations.

By the time I had done all that it was time the most important thing that working people do in their day.  Having lunch with friends.

I met our dear friend @Henryandfriends for lunch.

We had different lunches but we both had chips.  As you can see they are square chips, but hey a chip is a chip and who cares what shape they are they were really yummy.  Henry has very good manners and uses a fork and a napkin when he is eating.  I am a baboon so I eat with my fingers.

Well we went back to work after that and did more support but after that it was time to go home.  It was quite a cold day but very sunny and sitting in the sun was nice so I did sit and look at the sea for a while till the hovercraft came.

I could see the island where I live and all the Solent forts and boats and things in the sea.  Eventually we went back on the hovercraft.

So well I am not sure what is so tiring about working.  I quite enjoyed it really but I guess I don't have to do it every day so maybe its easier for me.

Thanksgiving competition results

Well thanksgiving has been and gone and the competition has been drawn (a week and two days late but it has been done.

Congratulations to all the winners and if you didn't win this time please look out for my Christmas competition to be announced soon.

All the prizes are first prizes and here are the winners which were drawn using a random number generator, by Leroy Sealion (@leroy_sealion)

1. The Owl or Monkey adoption prize goes to - number 33 which is @Smokey8, Smoey please look at http://www.owlandmonkeyhaven.co.uk/products/adoptions.aspx and let me know which owl or monkey you are interested in and where you want your adoption pack sent to.  Congratulations Smokey.
2. The bunny T-shirt or mug has been won by number 27 who is @SeattleP. Please look at http://www.hasenfarm.com/pages/de/motive/kaninchenrettung.php and choose a T-shirt or mug and let me know what colour and the size if you choose a T-shirt.
3. The winner of the beautiful baboon picture painted by @CheskhireK and @NutmegTorby's Robin is Otto from Berlin who is on Can Be Social, its so cute when an adopted baboon wins a prize.  The picture is of Robin's lovely girl baboon Amani.  Otto I will put you in touch with Robin who will send the picture directly to you if that is OK.

Well done to all the winners. The rest of you, next competition to be announced soon.  I wish you could all win.

Thank you all for entering and for your interest in the monkeys, owls and bunnies.

November Baboons

Hi five baboons got to their new homes in November.  Two took a long time to get there and should really have been October baboons, the other three were really quick to arrive.

One was sent to our friend @wirednerves (Killa, Kermit and Liz), this baboon has not given him a name yet or sent any pictures as she is recovering from surgery and the baboon is helping her and the gang.  We are so happy to have a baboon helping somebody like that.

The other baboon who took a while to get to her new home was Brandy who lives with Phi @3phibotticelli.  Brandy is a girl baboon and we can see that she and Phi are getting on really well.

I think they are chatting a lot.

The other three baboons to find their new homes in November all found homes in the UK, England and Wales.

One found a home in England and Wales, lucky baboon.  Artie or Art has gone to live with @Bertie_Junior in England and is visiting @bertie_cat in Wales.

Artie is a very gentle baboon and he gets on well with both Berties.  It is hard to choose which pictures to show there are so many lovely ones.

First he met Bertie Junior and he gently stroked her.  They had adventures together as well.

They like climbing together.

Then lucky Artie went to visit Bertie_Cat in Wales and he got on well with him too.

He also stroked Bertie gently.  He is a very gentle baboon and very popular with both Berties.

They also got outside.  Artie likes the outside a lot.

What a contented pair they are.

The next baboon to find his new home was a certain Vincent, who loves baking.  We found him the perfect family where we knew he would be doing lots of baking.  Again, lots of pictures to show.  I have chosen some favourites.

Yes Vincent is a baboon so the first thing that he and @Reddy_1408 did was to make pizza.  You know all about baboons and pizza.  Don't you just love Vincent's chef outfit.

Making pizza wasn't enough for them, they also made brownies.

Vincent does all the sorts of things that baboons do, including climbing and hugging.  He cuddled Redinald and his wife when he arrived.

and he has been climbing, of course he has.

Do be careful of the guitar Vincent, they are not meant for climbing on.

Vincent has gone to a Manchester City supporting household so Redinald always says he is good Kompany which is the name of Man City's captain.

Finally, only yesterday another baboon found his new home in Wales.

Dafydd ap Mwnci has arrived to live with @cloonfourmegan in Wales.

First he met Megan and they seem to be getting on well together.

Then he met Ori

 



That seems to be going well too!  As you can see Megan and Ori have beautiful coats that take a lot of brushing and Dafydd is going to learn all about grooming to help with that.

 

I understand he was greeted with Welsh cakes that he loved!

 

So five happy baboons in their new homes.

 

As always thank you to everyone who has given a home to a homeless baboon and to everyone who takes an interest in the rehomed baboons.

 

HUGS HUGS HUGS - Kolo

Lunch at the abbey

Today I decided that it was time for me to be little Kolo again and go for lunch with my grannie who was visiting from Kent.  We went to Quarr Abbey which between Ryde and the ferry port at Fishbourne and it is a beautiful place.

There is a nice cafe and shop there.  When we went in there I saw some interesting, funny vegetables.  Baboons are good climbers so I showed off a bit climbing on them when the shop ladies weren't looking.  Oh dear caught on camera and they were a bit nobbly to sit on so perhaps I needed to get down quick!

Well we were there for lunch and there is only one thing that I fancied, chips!!

Shame about the wholemeal bread sandwich, I let the our manperson eat that!

It was a lovely sunny day so we went for a walk around the abbey grounds and I stopped on a bench to chat to my grannie.

It was very sunny and nice.

It was a very nice day out and I think my grannie liked me even if I did show off abit with my climbing on veggies.

Thanksgiving Competition

Please see two edits both in red.

Hi y'all, well as I've already told you I am as American as apple pie these days so I'm going to celebrate Thanksgiving with y'all.  Well I will have to celebrate it the weekend after because you don't get the day off in England booo!!  So I thought I would do a Thanksgiving competition!

Edit 1: I realise I have got the date of Thanksgiving wrong as I thought it was always the last Thursday of November, sorry about that but I will stick with the dates I announced.

What are the prizes?

As usual all the prizes are first prizes and I hope you will all join in.

This time there are three first prizes.

1. A monkey or owl adoption from the Owl and Monkey Haven on my island.  http://www.owlandmonkeyhaven.co.uk/products/adoptions.aspx don't worry the haven will continue to look after them for you.

2. A T-shirt or mug from our dear friend @RettetKaninchen's rabbit sanctuary in Germany.  http://www.kaninchenrettung.de/

3. The other first prize has been donated by our dear friends @Nutmegtorby and @CheshireK, it is a beautiful painting done by their dear Robin, of their baboon Amani (which means peace).

It is such a beautiful picture that any baboon or art lover would really love to have it.

Edit 2: Please note the picture is 9 inches by 12 inches.

How can I enter?

There are three ways to enter and all entrants will be numbered in the order they enter regardless of which method they use.

1. Leave a comment on this blog saying you would like to enter.
2. Send me a DM on Twitter.
3. Send me a private message on Can Be Social.

When do I have to get my name in by?

Entries will be accepted up to 9.30 am on Saturday 1 December.

When will it be drawn?

It will be drawn on Kolo Thanksgiving Day which will be Saturday 1 December, at 10 am GMT, which is the nearest weekend to proper US Thanksgiving, although @hi_im_monkey and @leroy_sealion might argue that Thanksgiving can as easily be held in April.

How will the draw be done?

@Leroy_Sealion's little brother Henry Sealion, who is a very fair minded lion will do the draw by using a random number generator.

How will I know whether I have won?

Winners will be notified after the draw by DM on Twitter, personal message on CBS and I will also blog the results for all entrants to see who won.

Thank you for entering and good luck.  I hope everybody wins.