Hey, hey, I'm a monkey
BY EVAN WILLIAMS ewilliams@florida-weekly.com
A gaggle of shoppers waited outside Pet Kingdom in South Fort Myers for it to open last Sunday, and when it did, at noon, they all filed in past a wide-eyed primate.

"Look at the monkey," a delighted boy said, noticing "Ella," a female Black Capped Capuchin born in Florida, June 20, 2007, who had just leapt up onto the side of the cage and appeared to be wildly intelligent and alert.

"Yea, just like you," the man answered.

The crowd gave the adorable animal its due before converging mostly on the everpopular puppy cages, where the dogs all woke up to excited spectators fawning over them lovingly. Ella continued to leap around her glass house, with displays of joy and energy: sliding across the floor as if stealing second base, moon walking into a back flip, hanging upside down by her tail. One boy got up close to the glass and Ella got a running start and hurled herself onto the glass at eye-level, where he stuck. Then he jumped down and tossed a french fry in the air.

"Hey, hey, I'm a monkey," Ella seemed to say. "Look at me; I can fling myself with abandon at my walls."

FLORIDA WEEKLY PHOTOS BY EVAN WILLIAMS Left, "Ella," a one-year-old female Black Capped Capuchin monkey; top, children at Pet Kingdom get a kick out of Ella; below, Ella displays her charm.

Ella looks like a miniature version of the flying monkeys in "The Wizard of Oz," but with a tiny diaper. Her personable expression, two-toned slicked-back hairdo and jubilant acrobatics are magnetic. She bounces like a ping-pong ball from wall to wall.

"Ella, are you being silly?" the cashier asked the monkey, who responded by hiding under her mat, then dragging it around the cage as if she were wearing a ghost costume.

"Daddy, can we get that?" a girl asked.

"It's too dirty, honey," the man replied. "Too hard to take care of."

Then he tried to reach over the top of the cage to touch Ella's hand.

"I'm sorry, sir," the cashier called out. "That's not allowed. There's no touching the monkeys."

(There's also no tapping or banging on the glass.)

Pet Kingdom and Ella owner Charlotte Hornsby, who also owns a 10 year-old Capuchin named Boomer (also on display at Pet Kingdom) debunked the myth that monkeys are "dirty animals."

"They're as clean as you let them be," she said. "If you take a child and don't clean up after it…they're nasty too. But if you take care of (Ella), she's just as clean as a human baby."

Hornsby baths her, changes her diapers, wipes her bottom, and feeds her from a bottle. Taking care of a monkey is a challenge, Hornsby said. And owning one is a huge responsibility, one which is fortunately backed by a high price tag (Ella is $10,000) and laws which protect monkeys from sloppy ownership.

"Anyone that is interesting in owning a monkey for a pet has to be licensed by Florida Fish and Wildlife (Conservation Commission) and have documented 1,000 hours experience with that particular species," Hornsby said. "They can't just walk in and buy it.

"It's a good thing they're expensive, because it prevents people from getting her just because they want a monkey…because it's a lifetime commitment."

Ella will probably live more than 40 years.

At night, Hornsby takes Ella to her Fort Myers home, where she gets a chance to get out of the cage and play around the house.

"One thing about Capuchin's," she said. "They are one of the most intelligent of the monkey family. They have a lot of human characteristics."

In fact, a group called Helping Hands trains the monkeys to aid the disabled, Hornsby noted. She said she isn't too concerned about selling Ella; she likes having her around, and appreciates her being a big hit at the shop.

"She's an attraction," she explained. "If she doesn't sell, she'll be here."

Also plodding through the isles of Pet Kingdom was Bosley, an 11 year-old African tortoise, who had been surrounded by a gang of elementary aged children near some bird cages.

"Oh, look at the giant turtle, Daddy," one of them said.