Summer of the Monkeys

Last week Kade had a Mutual of Omaha: Wild Kingdom moment on a walk back home from his buddy Trent's house. While he was walking along the 200 meters or so between our two houses he was accosted by a long tailed macaque. This particular monkey is the smallest of the monkey varieties we have here on camp. The picture above is the species in question. We have often walked right through the troupes of monkeys like this without them even paying any attention to us. For some reason right now they are showing much more aggression.

When Kade left Trent's house knew there were monkeys out so he picked up a rock just to be safe. We have never had a monkey do more than make mean faces at us so he was feeling pretty confident. Luckily he did pick up that rock because a male monkey jumped on Kade and grabbed his left arm. Kade reacted by taking the rock that was in his right hand and smashing it into the monkey's head. This got the little guys attention and he retreated. Kade then ran back to Trent's house.

Kade ended up with a small red mark on his arm from the encounter that faded a few hours later. He was pretty freaked out but we were proud of the way he handled the situation. Once we got him settled down he went to a friend's birthday party. When we told people why we were a little late Kade was like a rock star. He ended up feeling pretty good about himself. We now carry a little league bat with us when we go on walks around the neighborhood. I am sure that this won't happen again but we just want to be on the safe side.

Now Kade has a good story to tell when he wants to impress the ladies.