INNISFAIL - It was a cold and wet morning late last month when Serena Bos was making her rounds at Discovery Wildlife Park to do chores around the animal enclosures.
When she opened the door to the monkey house, the home of Sonny and Sierra -- a pair of Japanese snow macaques, there was instant shock and disbelief.
There was a tiny kitten resting in the snow monkeys' straw bed -- "all nuzzled in, nice and warm."
"I stood there for a good minute, kind of dumbfounded to be honest, because how is there a kitten in the monkey house? It didn't seem physically possible," said Bos, the park's head zookeeper. "It (kitten) would have had to come in the enclosure from the outside through the chain link, and the monkeys would have had to take it into the house, which is very odd, very unusual because by nature Japanese snow macaques are actually quite an aggressive type of primate.
"It was very shocking to me that there was a live kitten," added Bos, noting it was obvious the snow monkeys readily cared for the tiny shivering kitten when it showed up at their house.
"They (snow monkeys) would have had to have cared for the kitten because they took it into the house. It was in their straw bed sleeping when I found it."
Despite the shocking discovery Bos immediately picked up the tiny black and white kitten and took it to a park shelter and gave it food, water and a litter box. She and other staff members determined the kitten was female and about five weeks old. The tiny little feline was also quite thin and appeared malnourished.
Bos also believes the kitten must have been abandoned near the monkey enclosure by a desperate human. She said the kitten was small enough that it could have walked through the chain link in the actual monkey enclosure, and they (snow macaques) accepted the tiny feline into their house.
Nevertheless, Boss and her staff knew the kitten needed a proper home, a forever home where she would never have to find herself abandoned again. Zookeeper Jacob Gregoryk stepped up for the kitten and adopted her. Kitty had her new forever home. She also had a new name. The little feline now has the moniker of Monkey.
As for Bos and her staff, the discovery of the kitten was another lesson for everyone that more public education is needed on the proper and humane treatment of all animals.
"To know that somebody cared so little for a kitten that they had to have abandoned it is devastating, to abandon it that way and in such a dangerous situation technically," said Bos. "There are shelters out there if you are not able to keep them yourself."
Bos is reminding the public that if any citizen finds themselves in a situation where he or she is unable to properly care for an animal there are many easily accessible humane and rescue societies that will provide assistance.
"They are willing to help anybody with the pets they do have, because why should animals suffer because people are uneducated," said Bos.
