Springtime walk

Yesterday my person had a day off work.  We have noticed some Spring flowers around Ryde so we decided to send Mini-Kolo out to look for signs of  Spring.  He may not have chosen the absolutely best part of the island to investigate.  We have seen flowers around here in the sheltered east of the island but Mini-Kolo went west where it is more exposed.  He had a great day though.

He asked our people to drive him to Freshwater and he started by climbing (aka being carried) up a steep hill.  From there he could look on one direction and see Freshwater Bay and in the other direction he could see the Downs and Freshwater town.

Next Mini-Kolo 'climbed' Tennyson Down, named after the Victorian Poet Laureate, Alfred Lord Tennyson, who had a house in Freshwater and walked the downs regularly.  This was  long slow climb.

On the way he stopped to look at the mainland.  This picture looks towards Hurst Castle which is joined to the mainland by a sand-spit.

He looked over at Dorset and waved to our pals Lillie and Archie and Chalky and Cuddles and their baboons Hairy Harry, Truffles Ruffles, Cocoa Bean and Joe Baboonosa.  Sadly is was a misty day as it often is in Spring.  But he could see the mainland.

Finally he got to the top.  We know it is the top because this is the Tennyson Memorial, set up to commemorate Tennyson.

After reaching the top we climbed down the other side towards the Needles. You can't see the Needles on this walk but the white chalk at the end of the land mass is just above the Needles.

He also looked towards the north where we could see Headon Warren, the down opposite to Tennyson Down.  It is covered with heather.

He had not seen any flowers yet, apart from flowering gorse, but we did see some caterpillars.  Mini-Kolo stopped and made friends with one of them.

He carried on towards the Needles where he came across a staircase in the downs.  You make think this is unusual, and you would be right.  These steps lead down into the Needles Old Battery, which is below and guarded the entrance to the Solent from Napoleon.  The National Trust look after it and you can pay to go in, but not by these steps.

At the end Mini-Kolo turned around and came back, greeting his caterpillar friend on the way.  He couldn't quite remember how far it was so he climbed a tree to see where he had got to.

Actually he did know where he was but he is a baboon and climbing is second nature.

Eventually he left the Needles Downs and got to the bottom of Tennyson Down.

Yes Mini-Kolo you did have to 'climb' back up.

Back at Freshwater Mini-Kolo had cheese scones and set out for home.  He did see Spring flowers on the way but couldn't stop on the narrow roads for all of them.  However at Chale Green he was able to pull in and have a look.

From his vantage point in a tree he could see what he was looking for.

So he went to have a look - crocuses

and daffodils.  Happy St David's day to all of our Welsh friends!!

We will look for snowdrops and primroses that we can photograph tomorrow.

February rehomings

More of our dear friends have been kind enough to take baboons into their homes.  For some it is the first baboon and others they are joining other baboons.

The first baboons to arrive at their new home didn't have to travel far.  On the right, in the yellow T-shirt,  is Hairy Harry who has been living with @lillieandarchie since March 2014.  They love Harry so much that they wanted him to have other baboons to be with .  This is Truffles Ruffles, what you possibly can't see that Truffles Ruffles has a tiny baby, Cocoa Bean.  Harry has been looking after a family of bears but now he has other baboons with him too.

Harry is going to be busy with all of these friends.

Next to arrived was Oliver.

Oliver is the one on the right.  He has gone to live with @PumpkinPuddy and their baboon Barnabas, on the left in front of Pumpkin's face.  What a handsome family they are.

Finally a first time adopter, our dear friend @myownshadow100 (JB) adopted Mac.

Mac has only just arrived as he had a very long journey.

We can see that all of these baboons have been welcomed and are settling in well.

Thank you to all of the baboon adopters, both old and new.  The rehoming has been going on since November 2011 and so far 116 baboons have found new homes, with two more underway.

My aim was to rehome 100 homeless baboons but its just grown and grown, thanks you all of you.  I should mention that we have 30 baboons living at Baboon HQ now, including me.  That is a large troop I need to manage!!

Happy Valentine's Day

I want to wish everyone a very happy Valentines day.  I sent out cards to all of those whose addresses I had but I'm sure I didn't get to all of you.  I have never sent Valentine cards before but I see that our US friends send them to all their friends, not just romantic connections, so I thought I would do that too, to show all of you that I love you.  If you didn't get a card from me it is not that I don't love you it is just that I don't have your address, or the postman hasn't got to you yet.

Some friends sent me pictures of themselves with their cards and I thought I would share some of them with all of you.  Again, if I have missed your picture it is just because there were so many but I love all of them.

Cards got as far as:

The Netherlands

Hungary

Even Australia

and Canada

And as near as:

the North of England

and hey just round the corner in the south of England!

Thank you to everyone who sent pictures.  I hope everyone has got their cards by now but I know what the post can be like.

The main message is that I love all of my friends and that means YOU!!  I hope you all have a happy Valentines day and that your humans do too.  Remember that you don't need a special love of your life to have a good Valentines day, just remember your friends who love you.

Autumn and January rehomings

I updated you on the autumn rehomings but I was not able to download the pictures at that time, now I have solved that problem, so I thought, while I was updating you on the January rehomings I would show pictures of the autumn ones as well.

Here is Sid's Lisa's Aldric on his road trip!! He looks really excited to be in the car.  I hear he is getting on very well in his new home.  In the previous blog our HQ baboon Barnaby stood in for Aldric as a body double!

Another baboon that we could not show pictures of was Sugah's @sugarmice's Benny.  Here he is with Sugah and family.

Our HQ baboon Ozzie was his body double in the earlier blog.

I told you about one baboon that had just arrived and had not been named yet, this is Beauregarde who has gone to live with lovely @EllieandEdmund, who do so much for anipals.

I obviously don't need to tell you how happy he is, look, he has pizza!  Baboons love pizza!!  Oh did I say that before??  Ozzie also doubled for him last time.

Now for the January rehomings:

The first baboon to arrive this month was with our dear friend @SirScamp.  Meet Bernard!

Here is Bernard with his new family.  Yes, his hoodie does look a little familiar!  Well this is because it is similar to the ones that a few of our HQ baboons wear.  Note I said similar, not 'the same' this is because his is a Liverpool FC hoodie not an Arsenal one.  That is fine, we Arsenal fans respect Liverpool and I am quite happy for a baboon to join a Liverpool family!  I think Bernard has had quite a good time watching his new football team so far!!

In my last blog I mentioned that we had a mother and baby baboon to rehome.  Lots of our lovely pals offered a home.  I conducted a draw on 15 January and Fred @summerstormum was the lucky pal.

Meet Honey and baby Andrew.  They look very happy in their new home.  They joined Fred's existing rehomed baboons, Jim and Little Jim!

As you can see they are much bigger than Fred's other baboons, but Honey and Andrew are very gentle, so it will be fine.  Little Jim looks very little compared to these two but he looks confident.

Four more baboons left HQ just yesterday.  Another mother and baby baboon to join @lillieandarchie's baboon Hairy Harry, a baboon like Fred's Jim (right of this picture), left to join @PumpkinPuddy and Barnabas Baboon, and another baboon left to live with our lovely JB @myownshadow100 as a first rehomed baboon there. This will make 116 rehomings overall.

Thank you for reading and being interested in the rehomed baboons, and massive thanks to all of our rehomers!! HUGS HUGS HUGS!!