July baboons update

Despite the summer break and all the renovations a few baboons have been rehomed in July.  Some lovely Twitter friends have offered homes to homeless baboons.  Thank you to all of you.

The first July baboon was rehomed by BearBearD who won the right to rehome a baboon in the Jubilee competition.  Bear called his baboon Bobby to retain his English roots.

I am sure Bobby is very happy living in a sunny state near the beach!

The next July baboon was rehomed by Jeego (SeattleP) who offered a home to a baboon.

Jeego had a competition to name her baboon.  The winner was Mario who suggested Ringo because of the ring of yellow wiskers that he has around his chin.  I know Ringo is settling in well and will enjoy his new life.

Yoshi (@CarpetScooter) had a really amazing rehoming experience.  Yoshi and his mum were interested in having a baboon and also love slothes.  When I came across a baboon and a slothe who were looking for a home together I knew exactly who would be the right rehomer for them.  What a coincidence.

Cheeks the baboon and Slowpoke the sloth are clearly making good friends with Yoshi.

The next baboon went to live with @JigsawBear in Kansas, we think he must be the first baboon in Wichita.

Jigsaw and Busu (meaning kiss) are getting to know eachother and Busu is keeping Jigsaw company while ArchieSteiff is away.

Tommy Pug kindly offered a home to a baboon

You can see that Tommy greeted Austin and they are making close friends.

Finally, for July, @SouthseaBear won the Olympic rehoming.

SouthseaBear and Kenneth (so he has initial K like Kolo) look to be very sweet friends.

Well thank you to everyone who has rehomed a baboon.  Three more have been rehomed in August but one is still on his way so I will blog about them in September.  I am planning to meet up with some rehomed baboons in Texas and Boston this year.

One quick update from June is that Oatuling's baboon finally arrived in Canada and has already set off on a road trip.

Here are Oatuling and Ozzie (Osbourne named after Osbourne house on the island where Baboon HQ is situated!  Getting ready to go on their road trip.

I love hearing about all the baboons and seeing pictures and thank you to all of you for your intrest in baboons.







Grogpaws

Hi I have never been to blogpaws but I had a real treat yesterday, I went to the Aussie version, grogpaws.  Despite being Aussie grogpaws was held in London so Leroy and I had to get the train to get there.  We got the hovercraft too but did manage to get any pictures on there.

 
You can see I am wearting my Union Jack t-shirt that is cos the Olympics is on and I am supporting TeamGB!  I had a whole seat to myself on the train.  Leroy sat with my person cos he is small and was wearing red so somebody might have sat on him.

We got to London and we had a little time to spare before grogpaws so we had coffee on the South Bank and then crossed to the North Bank (more familiar territory for us Arsenal fans)  we crossed on Waterloo Bridge so we got good views of London and the Olympic rings hanging from Tower Bridge.

I had my picture taken with this griffin but as my person is too short we seem to lose most of the griffin's body.  Occupational hazard of having a short photographer, be warned pals!

Then we walked along to St Paul's where the Corporation of London had kindly prepared a set for me to have a rest.

I had a little snooze before crossing the Millenium footbridge over to the Globe Theater where Leroy famously re-wrote Shakespear's plays last year, to include more anipals.  Glossing over that little episode we walked down and found the pub where the grogpaws meet-up was to take place.  We meet our dear friend Lexie (@dogstoyeveksy) who my person managed not to get a picture of with me this time.  You just can't get the staff!

On the way I managed to meet up with the Olympic mascot Wenlock and got a picture.  Yes same problem lost some of his head, short photographers, need I say more!!

Anyway eventually we met up with @borderpup's person and @bridietheborder with her people and then @WallasEKatt arrived all dressed in Liverpool kit!

Now as you can see Wallas is a really cook guy and we had lots to talk about football, the Olympics, cricket, its OK Wallas has English sympathies so we got on great.  Apparently it was the first time Wallas had been near Arsenal fans but Liverpool and Arsenal fans get on OK so no problems.  We had a great time chatting and doing what the name grogpaws suggests. 

Leroy and Wallas got on well, not sure what they were planning in this next picture but they didn't get up to anything bad so we will assume they were just comparing hoodies.

Despite Walls being from Liverpool and Leroy being a bit of a cockney they seemed to understand each other well enough!

I was very sorry when we had to leave to come back to the island and I was also sorry that my person managed not to get pictures of me with the BTs, but other people did so no doubt you will see those on Twitter I'm sure.

I am known for my hugging so I gave Wallas an enormous hug before we left.

Wallas is a great guy and we had a fantastic time.  After we left we went along to Borough Market and bought some nice bread for dinner, I would have taken a picture but it didn't last that long.  Then we got the train and the hovercraft and got home in time to watch Mo Farah win another gold medal!  Well done Mo, great Arsenal fan! Go Mo!!

It was a great day and we hope to meet more of you very soon.  Specially we hope to meet Karen as we had to leave before she got there but we are Londoners, we can't say away for long so we will meet her soon no doubt!

Winner of the name the baboon competition

I'm sure you remember Jeego's (@SeattleP) competition to name her baboon.  Thank you all for entering, you make competitions so much fun by entering into the spirit of them.  Well anyway, we have a winner.



It was hard for Jeego to choose the winning name and we did have a conference about it, all the names were great and you all have such fantastic ideas. So, after a long, long discussion and lots of tea and cakes it was decided that the winning name was Ringo because of the ring of yellow fur around his neck and he also looks like a Ringo although I don't think he plays the drums!

So the winner is @Mariodacat.  Well done Mario you picked a great name!  Your next step is to contact @SeattleP on Twitter.

We've finished a room

You won't believe it but we have actually finished a whole room, well two even if you count the en suite bathroom.

Now we see that the lighter carpet goes with the blue walls.

We baboons couldn't resist a bit of climbing, there was lots of work carpeting, putting the furniture back in reassembling the bed and dusting it all so we felt entitled to a bit of relaxation.

The  en suite bathroom is done too:

But the man person was in the shower and for some strange reason he wouldn't let us photograph in there.  Oh well! People are like that!

You really, really, really don't want to see the rest of the house.  We hope to finish the kitchen tomorrow, it was meant to be done today and its all a bit of a mess in there oh dear!!

But at least we can sleep in our bedroom again!

Renovations week 3

Well you may think we baboons have been quiet well that's partly because Twitter has been temperamental with us but also because we have been hard at work renovating (and watching the Olympics of course).  So this is week 3 of the renovations, its a 4 week programme so not finished yet but some results to show.

Finally we managed to finish the kitchen, all the doors and draws are fitted and we are close to back to normal in that room.

We are quite pleased, we will be laying the new flooring on Monday, a nice grey tiled look and then our people can clean it and get the knick knacks back up.  I think they are pleased with our work.

We have done all the rest of the painting as well over the last two weeks.  That is all the house except the guest area, that will be done another year.  Today we inspected the bedroom, that will also get its new carpet on Monday.  I think my people will be very happy to get out of the guest bedroom and back to their own so that is a priority.  The en suite bathroom is finished as its not having new flooring.

Yaya was in charge of carpentry and today he revealed the wardrobe doors he made and painted.

He is very proud of them and he's done a great job.  The louvred doors will be great because the wardrobes are built into the old chimneys and although there hasn't been a fire in them in 100 years at least, they still smell sooty sometimes.

We inspected the bedroom from above.  We are baboons so climbing is second nature to us.

I think we are very happy with the job he has done.

Well all work and no play isn't a good thing so we took timeout to do some climbing on the stacked up furniture.

Well we work hard but we need to relax too, we're just kids really.

So carpets next week.  We are looking forward to that although it will be hard work moving furniture as well as fitting, but with the blue walls and floors it feels like the aquatic centre.  Then there will be lots of cleaning to do.  Our people will need to help with that I guess.  So by this time next week I should be able to show you the finished house.

Start thinking of names!

I was very excited that our dear friend Jeego (@SeattleP) offered a home to a homeless baboon.  Her baboon has arrived and they look as though they are getting on well together.

Looks like fun!

Jeego has offered a prize to the person who comes up with the ideal name for her baboon.  The baboon is a cool sort of a guy who likes to hang on doors and watch the world go by.

So if you can think of a name to suit this cute, cool baboon you might win a prize.

Enter by leaving a comment on this blog, you don't have to be a member of blogger, or even following this blog, to leave a comment.  If you have trouble leaving a comment tweet to @SeattleP to leave your idea. 

The contest will close in one week's time, on Tuesday 7 August, so get thinking and leave your ideas here.

Good luck and thanks for your help!

Olympic competition winners

Now for the biggest event in London 2012 so far, forget the opening ceremony, beach volley ball etc, here is the moment you have been waiting for!

I always feel sad annuoncing competition winners because it means that somebody else didn't win but as @OllyTed said about the #TeddyOlympics, you are all winners for entering.  I hope you will all enter other competitions and the good thing is that more and more of our friends are winning prizes all the time.

So here we go, prize winners are:

1. The Owl or Monkey adoption prize goes to - come on Leroy draw it out!  To, to, to thank you Leroy at last, get started on the next one while I type this one, we can't wait all day.  Right back to business, the owl or monkey adoption goes to number 4 which is @DiamondBertie.  Wow, that is great, well done Leroy I know Bertie was specially interested in an owl.  Bertie please look at http://www.owlandmonkeyhaven.co.uk/products/adoptions.aspx and let me know which owl or monkey you are interested in.  Well done Bertie!
2. OK Leroy have you done the next one, wow, he actually has, the next one is the cat adoption prize donated by @Mr_Pie and the winner is, is, is, come on Leroy, is number 34, @MariodaCat.  Mario, please have a look at http://www.countrycats.org.uk/pgSponsorUs.htm and choose a cat and then let @Mr_Pie know by DM which one you would like to adopt, its alright you won't have to look after the cat, the farm will do that for you but you will be its adopted dad!  Well done Mario!
3. Right Leroy are we ready with our next prize winner for the T-shirt or mug from rabbit rescue in Germany (I'm waffling here because Leroy is not ready), Oh here we are he's managed it, its number 19 oh that is a rehomed baboon winning another prize, Otto from Berlin who lives with Greg and Burnie from Can Be Social.  Well done Otto, 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 size if its a T-shirt.  Wow this is great, Otto was a prize in a previous competition and his look-a-like is the next prize coming up if Leroy ever gets to it.  Well done Otto!
4. And finally, if Leroy ever gets to it, number, number, number, this is the baboon prize, number come on Leroy I haven't asked you to climb a mountain, its number 11, and number 11 is Southsea Bear wow he will be able to wave to us from his new home.  Southsea Bear I will DM you.  Well done Southsea Bear!

So that is the prize list for this time.  I have not planned my next competition yet but I will let you know as soon as I have and I hope you will all enter again.  Well done to the winners and the people who didn't win blame Leroy, no sorry, just joking, what I really mean is better luck next time.

Thank you for your interest in my competitions and the causes.

Lots of love and enjoy the Olympics love Kolo and Leroy