Five hours and many bananas later, the animal control officers dispatched to capture the monkey finally met with success (via a humane cat trap). They brought the tiny capuchin monkey to the Humane Society of Santa Clara Valley, where our Special Needs Department had a cozy, warm enclosure waiting for her. A few phone calls to the local zoos enabled us to offer a proper diet to our tiny charge.

By the next morning, I noticed that the monkey was coughing and sounded congested. A trip to exotics veterinarians Chris Sanders and Diana Welch confirmed by chest x-ray that indeed, the monkey had some fluid in her lungs. What surprisingly turned up as well on the x-ray was an identification microchip, which, when scanned and later researched, revealed that the monkey had been sold by a veterinarian in Mexico to a San Jose man and brought to California illegally. The vets determined that the monkey also had a condition called osteoporosis, most likely due to a poor diet.

After several days, the “owner” came to the animal shelter angrily demanding his monkey back, saying she had been stolen from his garage. We carefully explained, that in the state of California, primates are a restricted species and not allowed to be kept as pets without the proper permits. In this state, permits are only issued to educational facilities and zoos, not private parties. I promised the owner I would find a permanent home for the eighteen-month old Rita, where she would be socialized with other capuchins, not just kept in a small cage in a garage and fed snails as the staple of her diet.

I researched many sanctuaries before deciding to send Rita to Jungle Friends, after having many long conversations with Kari Bagnall, its director. Jungle Friends sounded like the perfect environment for Little Rita, offering lots of enrichment for their charges and groups that could socialize together. The next hurdle was to get Rita from the West Coast to Gainesville, Florida.

Because of the September 11th tragedy, all the airlines required every customer to be a “known shipper,” in order to fly an animal anywhere. We were not. We came against stumbling block after stumbling block for the next several weeks as none of the airlines wanted to cooperate. I was just about ready to pack Rita into my car and drive across the country, when Kari came up with an idea. She called Delta Airlines and learned we could simply fly Rita to Florida as my pet!

The rest is history … Rita and I arrived at Jungle Friends on the following Saturday red-eye. Kari had a hospital suite waiting for Rita. She timidly stepped into the large enclosure and headed straight for some munchies. She spent her first night in the indoor/outdoor hospital kennel, and was noted checking out the other monkeys (and they her!) a short distance away. She actually decided to spend her first night outside, as close as she could get to the other monkeys.

By early the next morning, we decided it was time to introduce Rita to some of the other capuchins, which were, incidentally, waiting eagerly to meet this new girl. We nervously watched as the gates separating the enclosures were opened, and immediately the others rushed in to join Rita. Gizmo, Buddy and Connie closely examined Little Rita, as she sat submissively in a corner.

A few minutes later, Rita started following the other monks from place to place, and would throw herself in front of the guys, on her back, as three of them started preening and grooming her. A happier monkey, there never was!

Rita now resides with her “flock” of friends at Jungle Friends. She has adjusted faster than any other monkey, according to Kari. The moral to this story is that these creatures do not have a place as pets in our society, and should not be sold as such. Rita is one of the lucky few, who actually get to live a monkey’s life of leisure. One has to ask how many unlucky little ones are scattered across America, crowded into small filthy cages, kept in dark cellars or banished to live alone in someone’s backyard enclosure, when they become mature and more aggressive.

Rita is the third monkey I have had the opportunity to rescue over the last several years. All have found permanent sanctuary at wonderful places. We are fortunate in California, to have very strict laws regarding exotic animals in captivity. My hope is that other states will soon adapt more stringent laws and ban these wonderful creatures from being sold to the pet trade.