Kaiden and 2 monkeys

Kaidens first kiss????

Finally Wednesday came - the day that Kaiden had been waiting for since he knew he was coming to Panama- Hillbilly was taking us to see Bubba his monkey.  Kaiden could hardly sit still on the trip down and did the constant - are we there yet?  If you remember from last year Dave rescued Bubba from some kids when he was only a few days old - the kids claimed they found him but Dave knew they must have killed its mother so he paid them $60 for him and took him home.  He had planned on taking him to a rescue place but fell in love with him and ended up raising him in his apartment for over a year.  Bubba wore diapers - slept inside of his shirt  and became Hillybillys child.  But as Bubba grew older he knew that it was not fair to keep him so a friend offered to let him come to his place where he had other monkeys that he too had rescued but he has  a huge yard - stream etc for them to be in.
We arrived and Kaiden immediately was all smiles when he saw the monkeys just hanging out in the yard.
Dave called for Bubba and out of the trees he comes and into Daves arms.  Kaiden could not hardly wait until he got to hold him but Dave gave him instructions first - let the monkeys make the first move - do not startle them etc.  As you can see from the first pic he did well and evidently Bubba really like him as he immediately kissed him- but then Bubba grabbed his mouth and reached in and took the Kaidens gum.  The look of  shock on his face was priceless and Bubba took the gum stretched it out played with it and then tried to get rid of it but it was stuck on his hands and it was so funny to watch him shake his hands - try to throw the gum etc until it finally came off.  All the while Kaiden is having a fit of giggles

It was then time to meet Lily - Lily is a spider monkey who is 45 years old. She loves to have her arm pits scratched and then will curl up in your lap or in your arms.  You do have to be careful though as she will bite if you do not cooperate with her and Kaiden did wonderful - she would crawl into is lap and just look at him.  He asked if he could share his sweet tarts with them and was told yes and and he would get them out one by one and hand them to both of the monkeys.

It was a lot hotter down off the mountain and Norman just happens to have a pool so Kaiden jumped in clothes and all then wandered around the creek on the side of the land.
He spent  4 hours and most of them with a monkey either on his shoulder or in his arms- me I was in the shade just watching and loving every minute of it.

  It was a great day for an 8 year old Iowa boy. I am hoping it is one he will remember for years.  Learning about monkeys first hand is so much better than a book or a zoo.  His science class is in our back yard for this month.