Meet Katie!

I have a friend/neighbor/stitchin’ buddy who is dear to my heart – her name is Connie. Connie and her husband, Larry, adopted a black faced capuchin monkey a couple of years ago. Katie came to them when she was just a tiny thing and quickly became the darling of everyone who met her. Katie requires a lot of care – bottles and specially prepared food, cages and toys and swings, baby clothes modified to make room for her tail, frequent diaper changes, shots for measles and mumps and anything else human children get. But Connie is the perfect mother. She happily does all the things Mothers do; she loves her and scolds her, she feeds her and diapers her, she sacrifices her “alone time” when she’d like to be sewing to play with Katie after she gets off work, she loves on her when she’s tired and grumpy and yells at her when she’s running wild through the house. Katie is in her “terrible twos” stage of development so that means she has to be taught what is acceptable behavior and what is not. Remember those days when you had to watch them every minute? You were constantly saying, “it’s not polite to throw things at people,” “food is for eating, not for smearing on your face,” “don’t run in the house,” “we don’t put beans in our noses,” “because I said so!” Motherhood is typically a term we reserve for those with human children. This is a tribute to all who have monkeys, cats, dogs, bunnies, birds or others of God’s creatures and who love and care for them. Even the first grade teachers with tarantulas and teenage boys with snakes! And especially for Connie – Happy Mother’s Day!