Rox’s story. How it ended

I see that you got curious about Rox and wanted to know how his story ends.

Don’t get me wrong. Being curious is good!????

Although in Spain there is a saying: the curiosity killed the cat. There is also a saying back: at least the cat died knowing.

You don’t have to die to know the rest of the story

So…where did we leave it?…

Rox arrived at the VMF and started his recovery in the quarantine cabin aka Neverland.

We keep the baby monkeys in quarantine for three days. During those days we can assess their physical and mental health.

We just do a simple body check to see if they have injuries, fleas, suspicious spots, etc.

We check their muscles and mobility. Then we take a fecal sample and check if they have any parasites (I know it sounds gross BUT we don’t want that other babies get parasites).

THESE THREE DAYS ARE CRUCIAL.

That is because during those days we can see how well they move around, if they eat and drink good, and check their mental health. Basically if they are happy or not.

Only in critical cases we have to give them fluids or give/inject other meds.

But, most of the time they are physically good. They just need to get over their trauma of losing their mum and get used to being with humans (that is still a lot).

With Rox it was more complicated.

He was not able to move around because of his broken legs. He also was very traumatized and didn’t look for physical comfort.

He was not happy with us.

And that is perfectly normal. Humans killed his mum and left him alone.

But, we were not giving up on him.

He just needed to get better and then he could meet his new mum and he never would be around people anymore.
The thing was…

Because of his severe physical wounds he needed to stay longer in Neverland.

And although his wounds were healing, he still refused to drink milk.

THAT WAS TERRIBLE NEWS.

You see…

Vervet monkeys drink milk for almost a year (A year!), so it is a very important part of their diet.

Normally when a baby monkey doesn’t want milk we dilute it a bit more or we add a bit of honey to make it taste better.

But Rox was not having it.

He just stared at us and the milk bottle.

So we tried something else.

Sometimes, the babies struggle drinking from the bottle, so we put the milk in a dish.

He was still not interested.

His only happy moments were when we arrived with the food plate and he could eat his apple and banana.

Then we tried mixing the milk with rehy. We make the rehy ourselves with himalayan salt and honey.

Still nothing…

Finally, the third day, mixing around things, I came up with the perfect one for Rox!

It was so easy, but at the same time very specific.

What he wanted all along was banana milk. It sounds a bit weird, so let me explain.

Recipe for Rox’s perfect banana milk.

You need:

• 1 banana
• baby milk powder
• protexin
• filtered water
• a bowl
  

How to make it:

• First you have to put the banana in a bowl and smudge it
• Then, make the baby milk: add two spoons of baby milk powder and a bit of protexin to 60ml of filtered water and mix very well
• Now, pour the milk in the bowl with mashed banana and let it set for at least 10 min. The longer the milk stays in the bowl, the stronger the banana flavour is and the more Rox liked it.

Once I filtered the milk that now tasted like banana and gave it to Rox, his face changed.

He was surprised how nice this mix actually was. He could not stop drinking it!

Finally his recovery would go faster. He also started to trust us more. Probably because he saw how hard we were trying.

When his bones healed we could take him to Disneyland. No, not actual Disneyland, but the playground for baby monkeys that we call Disneyland.

And the big day came for Rox. After one month more or less, he was ready!

He was going to be introduced to his foster mum and his new family.

In this troop we already introduced two orphan baby girls, so we knew that this was a good family for him.

Rox’s new sisters were so happy to meet and play with him. And although Rox was a bit more independent, he played back.

But of course, Rox had to be different, he didn’t want only a foster mum. He also wanted a foster dad.

One of the sweetest males in the troop fell in love with Rox and not only became his foster dad, but also his bodyguard.

Now Rox is safe and happy with his new family.

When you see him jumping, climbing and playing around with his sisters, you can not imagine how much he suffered.

Hopefully he has forgotten his first months of his life, but we will never know.