Monkeys And Duck Feathers

While we were still living in New Mexico Babysitting was one of the many tasks Cindy took on everyday, one of the children she watched was a little girl named Emily, we were actually at the hospital when she was born as her parents were good friends of ours and Cindy started watching Emmy when she was three weeks old, funny how much like Cindy Emmy turned out to be and how many people in our town actually thought she was our child, the things we went through with this child I think we actually thought she was ours also.

Once when Cindy's parents were in town visiting us from California, we decided to show them around the area a bit, they had never been to Ft.Sumner, NM to see Billy the Kids grave and Museum. So we decided to spend a day with them in Ft. Sumner. Emily was all excited about making a trip with Nanu & Papa (Nanu is what all the kids call Cindy’s Mom) somewhere during the ride Emily started talking about going to see the Monkeys, Cindy's Mom was enjoying the excitement coming from Emmy as she told stories to her and all the while listening to Emmy talk about the Monkeys (that only she saw evidently). It was a fun trip listening to this wide-eyed little girl telling Nanu about all the Monkeys, and Nanu pretending to see them and carrying on a long conversation while we drove down the road.

We pull in to Ft. Sumner and stop at the Museum first, We make our donation and spend a long time going through every exhibit, and making the necessary stop at the gift shop, before going out back to the graveyard where Billy the Kid is buried. This is an old time cemetery with wooden crosses, faded marble headstones, and a lot of graves with no markers at all. On the backside in the middle is Billy the Kids grave, here he is buried between two of his companions Tom O’Folliard and Charlie Bowdre. This grave is completely covered with Iron bars to prevent vandalism and or theft (The headstone has been stolen a couple of times but that’s another story).

We walk up to view these graves inside what looks like a big cage, And the drama begins, Nanu is carrying little wide eyed Emily and they are looking at the graves, When all of a sudden she throws her little head back, places her hand over her heart, and at the top of her lungs yells "Oh My God!! The Monkeys Are Gone!!!" Cindy’s Mom nearly dropped Emmy right there. I was laughing, Emmy was still yelling "Look The Monkeys Are Gone!!” Cindy is trying to help her Mom hold on to Emmy, and the whole crowd is looking at Emmy trying to figure out what is going on. We take Emily back to the car to make our exit while she is yelling at everyone as we pass, The Monkeys Are Gone The Monkeys Are Gone!!!

Needless to say we had to plan a trip to the Zoo the first stop was at the Monkey cage, Emily was satisfied with the fact that the Monkeys had returned, and we went on through till we ran into the Duck, Emily was about 3 yrs old at this time, and being the shy kid she is (ha ha), Was afraid of getting close to the cages to look at the animals, I was calmly trying to get her to take a closer look, and not having much luck.

Next thing I know I turn to see Emily standing face to face with a duck in the middle of the path, The duck opens his bill and makes a noise I can’t describe, Emily takes a step backwards wipes the front of her shirt, then leans forward and proceeds to give a PHHHBBBBTTT!! Right into the ducks face. I yelled for Emily, She yells "He spit on me!!” and the chase was on! OK picture this, Duck running up the path, followed closely by Emily, who is followed closely by Cindy, I couldn’t help much due to laughing so hard, Seems as if everyone else at the Zoo were standing with one hand over their mouth and pointing with the other.

The duck did win the race, Thanks to Cindy being able to catch Emily just before she got a grip on the tail feathers. The story from Emily after that was how this duck had spit on her new shirt. I'm glad we went that day, We had a really good time, laughed a lot, and Emily is not afraid of the animals now, The biggest thing I am glad of is. We are still welcome at the Zoo!