"Life with Scotty"

by Walt Gresham

To begin with I worked at a small zoo and one of my duties was to care for all the needs of the primates. Scotty was just a few weeks old and the decision was made to remove him and hand raise him. It was my duty to tranquilize the parents and go in the enclosure and remove Scotty. I did this without my heart in it because I knew I was pulling a family apart. I carried Scotty home that night and all he did was hide in the very back of his carrier. I made no attempt to push myself on him and allowed him to decide when he wanted to accept me. After three days he screamed and ran from his carrier and attached himself to my leg where he remained for the most part of the day. Luckily I was off that day. 
After only two weeks, I returned Scotty to the zoo area where his parents were he just hugged me and his parents acted as if they did not know who little Scotty was, he never looked back. He did have an older sister at the zoo who I would bring home from time to time and let them play and they bonded quite well. I had no intention of making Scotty part of my family at this time, but as it would become clear to myself and everyone around me Scotty was going to be part of the family. 
When he was about 5 months old it was determined that he was to sent to a new owner out west. The deal had not been completed but I was told to bring Scotty in to prepare him for a plane trip out west. That morning Scotty and my two other children were at the breakfast bar eating. Scotty was between my son and daughter when I told him to come on. He was use to the trip to work because he went with me to work or anywhere I went. But today seemed different he first hugged my daughter and them my son, but would not let go of my son for they had already become like brothers in the short 3 months we had been together. Well, on the way into work I lost it and knew it would be very difficult to let him go. To make a long story short Scotty missed his flight and now calls our home his home. One of Scotty's first duties at the zoo was that of good will ambassador, which he was really great. We survived on donated produce and other goods, which were quite expensive, that I believe were given because of the fact Scotty was always with me he was quick to give a hug or kiss to the giver of before mentioned goods. On one of these trips I was running late and left Scotty in the van with a lion cub and went in to get he produce for the zoo. Someone asked to see the lion and while I had the lion out Scotty just sat in the van and watched the world go by, or was he? He had watched the people going in the store and coming out with bags of groceries. Well, then it happened as I was putting the lion back into the van Scotty jumped out and started into the store I guess to get his own produce. A lady that must have been in her 70's was, the first to see Scotty and I will tell you it did not make her day nor her husband who was standing near her. You could have heard her for 5 city blocks. I did not know a 70 year old woman had the lung capacity to holler like that. I am not sure who was more afraid the woman or Scottie. Well, Scottie took off down the can good isle screaming and the woman headed for the door. I just knew that it would be the last pickup I would do at that store. Scotty was climbing over the shelves screaming and trying to find me. I finally called to him and he lunged about 10 ten into my arms and we headed to the front door double quick. Much to my surprise the store manger met us there and handed Scotty a bunch of bananas and just smiled. So much for our first shopping trip.


When Scotty was about 2 year I had an occasion to take him with me to a construction company in order to work out some plans on some new enclosures. As usually Scotty was the center of attention. He came into the building and went around to all the employees to see what they were doing. He soon found a hard hat and put it on. The hat came down over his eyes and he was unable to see where he was going but he would not remove the hat. After he had run into several pieces of furniture and wall, he started walking erect with his hands out in front of him feeling for and obstacles that might be in his way. The entire office staff was laughing which only encouraged Scotty.
The owner of the company set Scotty up at a desk with the name plate of the president of a competing construction company and took several pictures to go in a local publication which went out to all organizations within our area dealing with construction. The president of the other company even thought it was a neat idea, he actually got a lot of free publicity out of it.
The idea of the hat lead me to an idea to video Scotty with a hard hat on walking around like a blind man. Scotty took it a step future. He would put the hat on and then place his head on the driveway and run down the driveway sometimes getting a head of himself and flipping over the hat. I got the idea of setting up bowling pins in the driveway and it only took Scotty a few runs to figure he could knock the pins down with his head. Scotty became the first live monkey bowling ball.

Scotty and Richard
(A Medical Student) 

This story is about a friend of mine and the influence of Scotty on him more than on Scotty himself. Baboons when they are frustrated of otherwise upset make a loud grunting noise and general repeat it several times. This friend of mine was a medical student at the time and we all had pickup different sounds that Scotty would make. When we would be together it was not even noticed that we would make the same sounds that Scotty made. Picture this setting a room full of medical students and their professors in a lab with many cadavers with 2 students per body. Well, this friend, who is quite a good surgeon now, was working on the nerves in the hand of his cadaver when he became quite frustrated and made the Scotty scream and I might add he did it very loud. You could have heard a pen drop, after that the entire room stopped and all were looking at my friend, who was quite embraced. It got worse while he tried to explain the reason for the scream and where he had picked it up. Not many people own baboons or even know someone who does so he was not doing well with the dr. there. He called me later and asked if I would bring Scotty to the medical school to prove he was not loosing his mind. I went down with Scotty and an eight month old lion that I had at the time. I was raising the lion for the zoo and is in fact the mother of the lion I now own. As luck would have it, Scotty took to one of the female medical students and when her boyfriend tried to put his arm around his girl Scotty let out the scream just like the one the students had heard a few days before in class.

Scotty's Dental Story

I had taken the day off from work the day that we planned to do the work on Scotty's teeth and the doctor who was doing the work had closed their office to be sure that they would have plenty of time with no interruptions to finish the work. Their were 4 people working on Scotty for 4 hours. I had to put him down before I ever left home with him. He would have never allowed someone other than myself to give him the shot he had to have. He was soooo funny. I gave him the drugs and he was drunk in just a few minutes. He came outside and staggered to the car getting in his seat. I placed the seatbelt on him and to the doctors office we went. I pulled up next to some police officers who freaked out when they saw Scotty, they looked again and then raced up to make sure they were not seeing things. Scotty was obviously drugged and they could tell it. Upon arrival the Dr. had me take Scotty in and then asked that it might be better if I waited in the waiting room. I said sure just let me know if they needed any help. Well, in the middle of the surgery Scotty's heart rate slowed and they reduce the amount of gas that was keeping him down. Well, he started to wake up and they decided that it would be better for me to be in the operating room. I went in and everyone else but the Dr. left. Scotty went on back out while I held him and the Dr. and her helpers finished their work. Scotty came home with no signs of pain, but, I had shots for pain that I gave him just to make sure. He never acted as if he was ever in pain during or at anytime since the surgery. I really feel lucky to have a very loving and caring Dr. who really saw to all of Scotty's needs.