The Monkids Are Alright: People Who Raise Monkeys As Their Children

“SHE was a little, bitty, teeny thing staring up at me,” says Lori Johnson, 58, who lives in Deltona with her husband and Jessica Marie, a 5-pound capuchin monkey she calls her daughter. “She was enough to steal anyone’s heart, she was.”

In the Orlando Sentinel, Anorak learns of “a growing group of monkey lovers who pay big bucks to diaper and dote on their primates. Some even raise them as surrogate children.”

These are the “monkids”. Some have pierced ears, monogrammed clothes, a seat at the dinner table and their own bedrooms.

Johnson pushes Jessy around in a toy-filled red pram. “Hey, it’s a real monkey,” says a child. “That’s not a monkey; that’s my kid,” says Johnson.

Johnson sounds like the woman in the precinct who talks to the stuffed cat she keeps in her shopping trolley. But unlike her, Johnson is not alone.

Camille Dorian publishes San Diego-based Monkey Matters Magazine, a community for monkey lovers. People like Julie Staup who makes and sells monkey fashions, including holiday formalwear and nappy covers that say “Mom’s Heart”, short for “Mom’s Heart Monkey Turds”.

Anorak

Posted: 7th, April 2008 | In: Anorak In New York, Strange But True Comments (2) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink