Baboon update - August baboons

Hi everyone, me chatting again.  I have been a bit chatty this last week its because lots has happened and my staff have been away from their other jobs so they have had time.  I thought I would take this opportunity, before they go back to work, to update you on the August re-homed baboons.

Four baboons were re-homed in August and they went to various places.

The first one went to live in Norway with @happpiii and @bearberkeley, he is called Bob Oom and he seems to be having a fantastic time in Norway.  He came from San Diego zoo so Norway is quite a long way from his original home.

As you can see he has made great friends with @Happpiii and they are both indulging in baboon madness together.

Lucky Bob Oon I'm not allowed to do that!!

The next August baboon stayed in England but went north (actually its very rare for a baboon to stay in England and go south from here unless they are good swimmers)!!

Hubert went to live with @DrRedBear in Yorkshire, there's quite a community of baboons in the north of England now including Yorkshire, Lancashire and Newcastle.

Hubert has really been enjoying climbing with Dr Red Bear.  Dr Red Bear is very patient because he even lets Hubert climb on him!!

What fun!!

The next baboon went to Cambridge, but not in England (although he is a very clever baboon), Dwayne went to Cambridge Massachusetts and I was lucky enough to meet up with him and @GromekCat's mum and dad in Boston last week.  He seems a very happy baboon and is getting well integrated into his new family.

It looks as though he and Gromek are getting on very well.

Here we are altogether in Boston what fun that was with @grrlysquirrel75's Barrett and @LilyLuWhoTo's Petie.

The last August baboon, Cornelius, went to live in Chicago with Milo, Cheeks and Farel, aka @Koosaparty.  Cornelius likes having piggyback rides so he is very happy with his new family.

It looks as though he is getting on very well there too, they all look happy together.

Thank you for reading.  One baboon was sent to his new home in September and he is still travelling so I will do an update on him.  There is a shortage of homeless baboons at the moment, which is really good news of course, but if anyone is interested in adopting please let me know as I will start a waiting list.

I often seen what the rehomed baboons are up to and its always great to get to know how they are doing.

I wasn't able to show a picture of Snuffy Norton's mini-Kolo before so here he is with Tweak participating in the Teddy Olympics hugging category.

Don't they look great together!

Thank you for reading again. HUGS HUGS HUGS

Monkey Haven

As anyone who knows me knows, I love to visit the Owl and Monkey Haven which is on my island near Newport http://www.owlandmonkeyhaven.co.uk/, where @adoptedmonkeys live.

I went this week and had a great day there.  The monkeys wanted me to bring bananas so I started the day by going to the supermarket to buy some.  I decided to have breakfast there too when I found out they do a breakfast banana loaf.

Now does that look yummy.  Yes, OK more coffee, different company same addiction!!  After that I went along to get some bananas and then off to the sanctuary.

The monkeys are interesting because I find some of them come over to stare at me and some just carry on with their business.  I kind of get the impression that they know I am more like them than a human and that interests them.  Either that or they are thinking one of two things: either where did that monkey get his Arsenal shirt and how can I get one, or more likely how did that monkey get outside the cages and how can I do that?

We got to the sanctuary and I went in search of the adopted monkeys and owls and the other interesting chaps.  I am sorry that I don't quite remember everyone who has adopted who so if I don't mention your name with your monkey I apologise.

First I saw my old friend Martin.  He came over to look at me and have a chat about how Arsenal are doing, he is concerned about last season but is happy that they signed Podolski.  We had quite a long chat.  I know that @hi_im_monkey, @kyba and @busybuttons are all Martin adopters.  Martin is a white throated capuchin and we hope he will be able to live with his mate Lulu soon in their new home.

 

 

Martin is a great thinker as you can see.

 

 



After that I went along to see Fudge who is my adopted monkey and also @marleyterrier @hi_im_monkey's grandparents and Monty Baboon who lives with Mrs Fiddlesticks and Tim Kirby amongst others, he is a popular choice maybe because of his hairstyle or the hugs he gives.  Fudge is a very nonchulant primate he doesn't rush over to see people if he is not in the mood.  Fudge is a Javan langut.

He certainly wasn't interested in me!!  He is a handsome primate though.  He didn't come close so I took this picture off their website (hope you don't mind).

I went to see those cheeky pals Bono, Bog and Kajan.  They were playing jokes on me and kept disappearing and prentending they were each other.  I got pictures but don't ask me who is who.

I know that @dane_ray adopted Bog, @yayStella adopted Bono and @marshallsheldon adopted Kajan.  Cheeky bunch!!

We went to visit some other monkeys, these good pals were great fun, one of them kept putting a bucket on his head!!

The singing gibbons are always fun.

They weren't singing but they were interested in looking at me and having a chat.

The marmosets are tamarinds are fun to visit.

Then I went to visit the owls.  Dusty and Hurley adopted Chico and Diamond Bertie adopted Olivia.  The owls are a bit of a problem because they are nocturnal so although I did see them and chat to them about their lovely adopters I couldn't catch them in the photos.  Instead I took photos outside their cage with their information boards to show I had been and how comfortable they are.

This is Chico's home,

and this is Olivia's home.

They were pleased to hear about you even though they didn't want to come to the front of their cages for photos.

I hope you enjoyed joining me in my day at the sanctuary.  I can say all the monkeys are owls are very happy to hear about their adopters and are very comfortable and happy in their home.

Thank you for reading.  Next blog entry will be an update on the August baboons.

Kolo in Boston, The tweet-up

OK this is what you have all been waiting for, the big Boston tweet-up and also the last episode of my trip to the states.

This was a great day.  @LilyLuWhoT's mum drove about 80 miles, in the pouring rain, to meet us.  Thank you so much for coming it was fantastic of you and so great to spend the day with you.  Lily's mum met us at our hotel in Boston and we walked down to Faneuil Hall where we bought a lovely coffee (oh dear that addiction again), and walked over to Quincey Market to drink it.  Here, Leroy and I were able to catch-up with our re-homed baboon Petie who lives with Lily.

It was great to see here and we loved Quincey Market with the foodhalls, awesome.

While we were there we had a lovely surprise we were joined by @Pandafur's mum and a lovely friend of her's Beth, they were a great addition to our day out.

We went for lunch at a lovely cafe that Beth knew.  I had fishcakes with chips and the others had fish and chips.  We were so keen to eat that we didn't get a picture till afterwards.

I tried cornbread for the first time, it was yummy but I was rather full of fishcakes and chips at that stage.  I wish I could remember the name of the resturant to tell you, it was lovely.

After lunch @Pandafur's mother gave us a tour of the North End of Boston, aka the Italian District, we followed the Freedom trail.  We met Paul Revere.  Being a British primate I am unsure of all the details of Paul Revere but I heard that he was a silversmith, a false teeth maker and a great champion of sanitation.  However, that is not why he is well known it is more to do with a ride he did to warn the population that the British were coming.  I hope he didn't mean me.

Petie and I tried to get up high enough to chat with him and find out more but we just weren't tall enough.

Later we tried to catch up with him again by visiting his house.

I think he lived very modestly for such an important man, he is clearly very important in Boston.

We also visited a lovely bakery but I couldn't get pictures there it was rather crowded.

After that we were getting hot and needed a sit down so we walked to the harbour.  At this point @pandafur's friend Beth took a picture of us all.

Left to right this is my people Judith and Stephen, with me, Lily's mum Bonny and Pandafur's mum Katie (or Katy) I am not sure how she spells it.  Sorry folks but its unusual for my person to appear in a picture so I couldn't resist publishing.  Boston harbour was beautiful.

Sadly at this point Katy and Beth had to leave us.  Thank you to both of you for making our day so much fun.

We walked them back to their car and then watched sealions at the aquarium (they are outside so we could watch without paying).

Then, the other tweet-up of the day.  We went to another nice resturant Tia's on the harbour and met @grrlysquirrel75, Michelle and @gromkecat's people Naomi and Noah.  We had a lovely dinner of lobster mac and cheese (macaroni cheese to us Brits).  It was lovely but to be honest I felt a little guilty having my new lobster friend Sebastian in my bag as I had just got him.

Here he is back home with me and I think he is settling in OK.  He still lives near the sea so he should be fine shouldn't he.

One of the treats of the evening was meeting up with some more re-homed baboons, Michelle's Barrett and Gromek's Dwayne, as well as dear Petie.

What a #baboonbonanza!  No Petie is not drinking the wine but it looks as though I am staring at it.  No, coffee was the only vice I found in the states.  It was fun to catch up with a lot of happy re-homed baboons.

Well the people had to be photographed too.  My person and Leroy seemed to manage to get cut out of this one, ummmm wonder why!!

Before we parted Petie gave me a lovely present, a fridge magnet of her with a lovely hyacinth, thank you so much Petie its a lovely momento of the day.  Here it is on our fridge alongside the magnet of me.  @NoCryBabyDogs is fantastic at making fridge magnets.  Thank you so much Petie for the magnet.

The red squirrel wanted to get in on the scene to promote our island where we have red squirrels (when am I going to get a job in marketing?).

Anyway, sadly eventually the day had to end and we all walked back to the T where Michelle and Gromek's mum and dad left us, then we had a little more time with Lily's mum as we walked to her car.  Sadly then we went back to our hotel.  We had had a wonderful day with so many friends.  Thank you to all of you for coming to meet us it was just fantastic, I can't tell you how much it meant to us to meet you all and special thank you to Michelle for helping us out by giving us so much information about Boston (including where to get grilled cheese) and to Lily's mum for driving so far in awful weather to meet us and to everyone for being there and being so much fun.

The next day we left Boston after our trolly ride, Starbucks and grilled cheese.  We had a fantastic time in the US and thank you to everyone.  HUGS HUGS HUGS to all the lovely people of the US who were all so nice to us.  We'll be coming back now y'all!!

Kolo in Boston - Part 1

OK now for Boston.  I know that what you are all waiting for is the big tweet-up in Boston.  However, I am going to keep you waiting a little longer for that.  I have too many pictures for one entry and the tweet-up is so special that I am going to give it its own entry tomorrow.  So this is the stuff that we did on the first and third days.

We arrived in Boston hungry so after we booked into our hotel we went to the California Pizza Kitchen just around the corner and had pizza and a grilled vegetable sandwich, both very yummy.  We watched the Monday night football at the same time.

Now is that yummy or what????  Just what a travelling primate needed.  You can see I am looking at the sandwich with interest but I bet you can guess which one I went for!

The next day we went out to explore Boston, it was a bit wet (our old friend Hurrican Isaac again I am told), so we didn't get as many pictures as we would have liked, but walking on Boston Common (beautiful) I did get to see the founding of Boston in 1730.

This is a lovely memorial to the event.

We went on a trolly tour around Boston on the third day, that was fun, it was so quick that I didn't really get to take many photos but it was really interesting because I saw what I want to see when I go back there again.

I also got into Starbucks when I was in Boston, I had two in one day, does that count as an addiction?

This one was on the beautiful Boston Harbour.  Come to think of it that cup of coffee does look rather large for me!!

I met some new friends in Boston, one of them came home with me, Sebastian the lobster, but I found these ones quite friendly.

Well actually, come to think of it I look a little scared here, well wouldn't you, have you seen those claws?

Leroy had a great treat in Boston, he used to watch Cheers with my person years ago, so it was a great thrill for him to have a pint in Cheers.  Obviously he wanted the occasion recorded!

He looks pretty much as though he has had a pint of beer doesn't he!!

Amongst the many things I wanted to do in America was to have a grilled cheese sandwich.  I did, on the last day in Boston, boy it was bigggg!!!

Now who wouldn't want to eat that!  It was yummy, we have toasted cheese in England it is not the same thing, both are nice but I definitely like grilled cheese!

So, one more entry, the big tweet-up in Boston.  I promise to do that entry tomorrow.  Bet you can't wait!!

Kolo in San Antonio

From Austin we went on to San Antonio.  I was very excited about going to San Antonio and you will see all the reasons why.  Not only is it a very exciting place, but I was also meeting a lovely Twitter pal there.

We arrived in San Antonio and checked into our lovely hotel, Hotel Indigo on North Alamo,  highly recommended for the discerning primate, you will see why later on.  It was extremely hot, they said this was because of Hurrican Isaac, but we still decided to go for a walk.  Leroy had been before and he took me straight to see the Riverwalk.

People say San Antonio is like Venice, I have never been to Venice but if its anything like San Antonio it will be on  my list for a visit.  Just look at how beautiful the Riverwalk is.  We had a nice drink there and some banana cake.  Leroy was right it was beautiful there.

In the evening we had a really big treat coming, we were meeting lovely Twitter pals, @CheshireK and @NutmegTorby's lovely person, Robin.  Well of course Cheshire and Nutmeg did come along to enjoy crab cakes with us in the fantastic Liberty Bar in San Antonio.  Of course @hi_im_monkey was there too, so quite a tweet-up in Texas.  We had lots of fun and say a massive thank you to Robin for driving up to see us.  HUGS HUGS HUGS to her, Cheshire and NutmegTorby

Sadly, eventually our lovely evening had to end, but there was still more fun to come.

Have you ever had a Texas waffle?  When I ordered it even Monkey, who lives in Texas, did not know what was coming, and this is one of the things that make Hotel Indigo so special.  Here is the Texas waffle.

There now, how is your geography?  It is the shape of Texas (and nearly as big).  What a treat.

After we were full of waffle and berries we went out to explore the Alamo.

We were not allowed to take pictures inside the Alamo but here is the outside and the inside is well worth a visit if you are in the area, we learned alot about the Texan struggle with Mexico and how it came to be a state.

Watch out if you are visiting the Alamo, it is perfectly safe inside but the garden is full of these things.

Yes, giant cacti, take care they are very prickly, I was careful to stay on the stones.

Well eventually we had to leave San Antonio after a lovely lunch in Central Market (anyone going to Texan cities, Central Market is awesome, visit, shop and eat there you will love it).

On the way back to Austin we stopped at Bucee's which we in England would call Services, it is not a truck stop but a place for families to stop on their journeys.  I am sorry I didn't take pictures it was awesome, you could get anything there, you could live there.  However, the real draw in Bucee's was the bathrooms, awesome.

Oh dear I am beginning to sound like an advertising agent for Texan hotels, shops, resturants and motorway services.  Oh well, it was all so great and I always say give praise where its due.

We left San Antonio to go back to Austin and Dallas and you have read all about that, so next stop Boston.

Kolo in Austin

When we headed off from Dallas on our road trip our first destination was Austin. You cannot get from Dallas to Austin without going through Waco and that is a good thing because that means you have to stop off at the Health Camp cafe.  Now if you are into lentils and wholefoods, the Health Camp is not for you.

Although you might want to stop just to marvel at it.  They do serve my type of food!

 



You may wonder why I was not photographed inside, well there was a very good reason.  I was wearing my Longhorns shirt and the cafe had flags for another university.  Furthermore there were people in there from another Texas university football team and as I am a baboon who likes to avoid trouble I stay quiet and didn't draw attention to myself.

 

 

Now behind me you can see the sign for the Austin motel.  This motel has a nickname, but as a polite baboon I will say no more and leave it to your imagination.

Breakfast is important in Texas and the place to go in Austin is Kerby Lane cafe.



My photographer didn't do too well here but we had lovely omlettes with fried potatoes and pancakes, what more could a baboon want?  Actually we went there and had their omlettes twice!!

 

 

Now Austin is a beautiful city so we went for a walk despite the heat and I wanted to show you the Austin skyline so I climbed a tree to get a good view.

 

 

One of my biggest thrills in Austin was to visit the Longhorns stadium.  I was very lucky because I managed to get there before the first game of the season when everyone was there having bbq's and beers before the game.  I thought I might stay and run a catering stall there.



 

 

 

I met the Longhorn's mascot Bevo.

 



 

Now this picture is flattering to me it looks as though I am as big as Bevo, but to tell the truth even in my full size he is much much bigger than I am.  It was great to meet and chat.  I was so happy to see the stadium and meet some other fans.  All the people there seemed pleased to see me.  As we drove out of Austin there were Longhorns fans everywhere.  I really felt at home.

 

So what next, well next is an exciting Tweet-up in San Antonio and some sightseeing too.  Hope to blog that tomorrow. 

 

Thank you for reading. HUGS HUGS HUGS oh and hook 'em horns!!

Kolo in Dallas

Now there are three things to know about before I start telling you about my holiday.

1. The rumour that I was in Dallas as the young love interest in the new Dallas series was not true.  I was asked but I declined.
2. I am writing my blog in at least four installments because we did so much so this installment is just about Dallas.
3. You all know that I am far to big to travel and used to send Leroy instead.  However, I have now found a way to travel as little Kolo, about 1/4 my normal size.

So we arrived in Dallas on a Monday night after a long and delayed flight and our dear pal Monkey (@hi_im_monkey greeted me with a TexMex dinner.

I thoroughly recommend enchilladas, black beans and nachos.  This was not the last TexMex feast I had in Texas but the only one I got pictures of as I was far too hungry to bother with photography the other times.

Then we went back to the airport to pick up Monkey's friend (and now mine and Leroy's friend) S, (@stufftedart).

The next day, after an enormous breakfast of French toast that I didn't photograph because I was too hungry to bother with that, we went to the Dallas arboretum and saw an exhibition of art as well as plants.

In the arboretum I had the chance to do some tree climbing, well I am a baboon after all.

 

 

We also managed to take part in a real Texas adventure!

 



 

It was very hot and humid that day, as a result of Hurrican Isaac, so after some walking and climbing we went to the wonderful Highland Pharmacy for a drink.

Its a wonderful sofa fountain, I loved it.  By the way when I say drink I mean iced tea.

The next day we went for breakfast and I had banana pancakes.  Look at this, what baboon or other primate could resist this!!!

After that we dropped @stuffart at the airport and went off to Austin and San Antonio.  I will write about that separately.

When we got back to Dallas we had more adventures.

While celebrating Arsenal's victory over Liverpool, at Norma's diner, I learned a very important piece of information.  Look at the menu, it says 'Life is Short, Eat Dessert First'!  Remember that folks its there in red and white so it must be true.  Just look at those desserts (puddings to us Brits of course).

 

 

The next day I learned something else important about diet.  At a cafe we saw on Sunday it said that a balanced diet is a cookie in each hand.  Another important fact.

 

Well talking of desserts or puddings, everything is bigger in Texas and Leroy found a carrot cake that was bigger than he is.

 



Just look at that!!

Well eventually we had to reluctantly leave Dallas.  It was Labour Day, sorry I mean Labor Day!  Leroy and I found a flag that was just the right size for us.

We are patriotic Americans after all!!!

Well off we went and flew to Boston, but that is another story, or actually a number of other stories.  Next installment will be my trip to Austin.

Thanks for reading.  HUGS HUGS HUGS