Meet Dexter!

So. . .maybe we missed the session in our CRWM training entitled "10 Things New Missionary Families Should Never Do," but we bought a monkey. Sort of. Here's how Dexter the white-faced capuchin monkey came to be in the Ippel household.

Our neighbor Nathan, the director of the association of the three NCA schools, travels frequently to Matagalpa, a community in the forested mountains of Nicaragua. It isn't uncommon for him to see monkeys and parrots for sale along the side of the road. Ruth has often joked with Nathan, "Next time you go to Matagalpa, just buy a monkey for us!" Well, evidently Ruth joked a few too many times. Nathan called us on Wednesday evening and said, "I'll be by your house in 30 minutes. I have a monkey in my car. You can keep it or if you don't want it, we'll keep it." (Nathan grew up in Brazil and always had primate pets as a child, so I think he was glad to have an excuse to make this happen).

So, 30 minutes to make a decision that is sort of a big deal. Where does one go to seek advice in this situation? GOOGLE! 30 minutes of finding page after page of saying that monkey ownership is terrible, sinful, that your life will be over, that the monkey will eventually kill or maim all of your children and burn your house down. Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating, but the general tone of internet discussion is that we should NOT own a monkey. So we decided to go with Google, and were prepared to tell Nathan "thanks for your impulsiveness but no thanks." We'll enjoy being neighbors of crazy people who own a monkey.

Well, Nathan pulled up to the house and Ruth and I went out to look at the monkey and to let Nathan know that he was the proud new owner of this monkey. Then the monkey climbed into Ruth's arm, and Ruth said (without looking at me), "We'll take him!" Yeah. Just like we DIDN'T decide! But for those of you who know Ruth (or her mother Jan), you probably aren't that surprised.  So suddenly we have a monkey in our house.

He's a boy, about 1 year old. Very clingy and loves to grab on to your forearm and just stay there all day, preventing you from doing dishes or changing your shirt. Dexter (his name is from the monkey on Night at the Museum) is on a short leash, but it isn't needed right now. He won't go far from us, though he is beginning to explore a bit. We need to construct some kind of house outside for Dexter. Right now, he is sleeping in a small room that had bikes/stroller in it, but as he hates being alone, his little cries echo through the house until he is sleeping. And yeah, monkeys do smell a bit like BO, so for that reason too we'd like an outside cage. He doesn't mind showers, though! We are experimenting with "preemie" diapers right now while he is inside. Yes, we slice a little hole in them for the tail. Ridiculous.

The kids LOVE him. . .Charlotte the least (love from a distance) and Henry the most (first thing Henry does in the morning is get Dexter from his room and play with him). We know it isn't going to be all fun. We are now the crazy neighbors with the monkey. And supposedly monkeys get less loving when they hit puberty. And they smell. And you can't do dishes or change your shirt when he is attached to your arm.

We know ALL pets take some time and energy, but yet we do NOT want pet ownership to take away from ministry opportunities that surround us. So while we are thankful that our kids have this fairly unique experience of ACTUALLY OWNING A MONKEY AS A PET, we have our hesitations and our excitement is tampered with a reality that this monkey is a fun thing for our family, but that monkey ownership won't dictate or consume our lives.

Our neighbor friend Taelor is the monkey's official aunt, and she spent all day with him today while we were at a Love and Logic seminar at my school. We are pretty sure the principals we learned today will not work on Dexter. "I see that you are hungry. I am so sorry that you feel that way. But I only give bananas to monkeys that clean up their poop off of the couch." Taylor is already planning on monkey-sitting the whole time we are in Michigan and New Mexico this summer, so we are thankful for that!

Anyway, I'm sure you'll hear more adventures about life with a monkey. Or, if we end up realizing that the internet was right all along, we'll let you know who the lucky new owners of Dexter are! Thanks, Grandpa Bandstra, for providing the Christmas monkey. . .I mean money. . .for this new addition to our family.