If 20 years is the projected outset of a good, healthy squirrel monkey lifespan, then it would seem that monkey years translate to human years in roughly a 1:4 ratio. So monkey menopause probably should probably occur at around age 12. And, for Edith Anne, it did. What a little grump!! For a couple of years there, we (none of us) could do anything right! The smallest unintended infraction could and often would elicit at the very least a snit…involving that prickly little I-might-bite-you warning sound…and at most a major meltdown involving teeth. As mentioned in a previous blog, squirrel monkeys have rows of straight-pin-like teeth with four rather nasty canines. Also as mentioned before, Edith slept in bed with us. Suffice it to say that rolling over during the night was, for that couple of years, a risky business. My husband and I were sound sleepers, but the first suggestion of that irritated little voice could send us vaulting from the bed in midair! Usually we were able to clear the imminent danger. But, occasonally….well, you know the rather fleshy area just behind your armpit? Yeah! Once the shrieking quieted down and the lovey chirping began, we could carefully and gently climb back in and settle down to sleep.
Oh, the joys of sleeping with a monkey child!