Zelda's Release

If anyone else told you this story you probably wouldn't even believe that it was true. Zelda has been asking me to release her for a long time now, her recovery has been very slow but very successful. When she was rescued from the fire by the fireman, her face was a little bit indented and she was definitely missing a few screws in her head. She wasn't able to coordinate her body, and was completely out of it at all times for weeks. Luckily for her, we had Merlin the baby owl that was with us since he was a baby and was very accustomed to being raised by our animal family, and he spent much of his energy spirit and time alongside me to help Zelda get through her recovery.

Today was the day, like I said, Zelda has been asking to be released for many weeks now. And this past week she has really been asking more and more to be released back into the wild. Zelda has told me, that she wants to be back in the wild, and her words were, if she makes it she makes it and if she doesn't she will be happy to also die in the wild. This was her choice and her free will and who am I to not honor that as her rescuer? Animals have free will, and are highly emotional and sensitive not to mention intelligent!

Today, after my long day of work I had planned to release Zelda just as the sun was going to set and bring her to my property where I'm building a house for our animal family, where she could be released into the woods and the forest. So after work, I came home, and I had to capture Zelda as she was free flight inside my house at the time. Normally it's a nightmare trying to catch her and it will take me at least 45 minutes just to put her back in the crate for the evening. Today, when I came home, she was surprisingly sitting on top of my coffee maker, which is a very unusual place for her to sit because it's very close to me. She already knew that today was the day that I was going to keep my promise and release her. As soon as I saw her, I told zelda, today's the day, but first, I need to put you back into the crate just for a short time so I can take you to the house where you will be released. Zelda was very cooperative! It only took me 5 minutes to get her into the crate! She wasn't very happy about the crate but she was willing to go in.

It was about 5:20 p.m. in the evening, Zelda was in her crate, Popeye and his buddy Figaro came with us and we all got into the car. Less than 1 minute from leaving my house, we drove past a very chaotic scene on the side of the road. I couldn't see what was happening, my friend Hendrick told me there was some emergency happening and some animal was on the floor and it looked like a dog. I was keeping my eyes on the road and I tried to see the chaos that was a cloud of people with cameras filming something and crowding around something dark on the floor. I pulled the car over immediately to the side of the road, kind of blocking traffic, Zelda Popeye and Figaro were inside the car and we ran out to see what was going on and where we could help.

It was a very strange moment for me, as I was running up to the crowd 100 m up ahead. I started to ask everyone that was standing around what was going on, whose dog is it, where's the animal, because there were so many people I couldn't even see the animal! The strange thing was, all the human standing around didn't feel real to me. It was almost like they didn't even see that I was standing beside them or talking to them! It was very clear that I was on a different vibrational frequency than the people that were filming and checking out the situation without helping. Eventually I moved myself through the crowd even though I'm pretty sure I could have walked through these people as if they were ghosts because they were not on the same vibrational plane as me. I found an older gentleman and I realized he had a monkey in his arms! This was just on the side of the road outside a restaurant. The monkey had apparently grabbed one of the electrical cables and got electrocuted, she tried to grab a second electrical cable to get herself out and got electrocuted a second time falling to the ground and died. The older gentleman had done CPR on her and bought her back to life and that was when Hendrick and I had showed up at the scene. The older gentleman didn't have a lot of money, he barely even had shoes, he picked up the monkey, which he had brought back to life, and was walking down an alleyway, I guess heading home not knowing what else he could do. I ran after him frantically, and asked him if he needed a veterinarian or any help. He immediately turned around and said yes! So I told him "come! let's go! my car is up ahead, I have dogs in the car so you may have to sit in the back of the truck". He said "that's totally fine let's just go!" So, we raced towards the Veterinary Clinic, Hendrick helped me call the clinic as I tried to call Popeyes vet and the clinic finally answered and said they will wait for us. We made it just in Tim, all the staff there were literally standing at the reception waiting for us to arrive with the monkey.

The monkey was in a lot of pain, I could feel her, and more than just the pain, she was very terrified! She didn't know where she was, she was away from her family, she felt so much fear I think that hurt more than the actual pain she felt through her body being electrocuted twice. Luckily for her she had no physical burns on her body or her hands, so the vet was able to administer an injection for her pain, and also took some stool samples as she was studying monkeys for her PhD as well.

The monkey was a girl, she was very skinny and so terrified that, we gave her one of the gloves so that she could bite down on it very much just like how a human would bite down on something when they're in pain. She was also screaming in both fear and pain. I had covered her in white light, and bubbled both the man and the monkey the entire ride to the clinic and even during the time she was with us at the clinic. It was so chaotic, it took me a while to calm down my own nerves, and connect with the monkey to start calming her down. I made eye contact with her, gently held one of her hands and told her everything was going to be okay, and she was going to go back to her family and she immediately started to calm down. Her screaming completely stopped, but she was still biting on the gloves naturally, as I was sure she was still in a lot of pain, and also a means to self soothe her fears as well. Finally, she was no longer crying and trying to attack the clinic staff and the veterinarian. She knew she was being helped. I'm still a little rookie at this whole animal communication thing, but it was something I was very proud of myself for having been able to do and help the monkey and the people around to help the monkey.

I later learned from the older gentleman that he used to be a tour guide which studied the howler monkeys. So he knew a lot about them and also knew a lot about this particular monkey's family that lives close to his house. He had said that there has not been a lot of food, so the monkeys have been suffering, and due to the lack of food, the monkeys have not been able to reproduce, this female That We rescued is not a baby anymore but she has not had babies because of the lack of food in the area.

On the drive home, there was a lot of traffic! So close to where we had found the monkey, the older gentleman yelled from the back of the truck and said " help me get out of the truck here! It will be faster for me to walk!" So even though we were in the middle of the road, I stopped the car, Hendrick ran out and helped the man off the back of the truck cuz he was holding the monkey in a box. We literally stopped traffic going both ways, because there was not a lot of space for any car to pass due to all the construction on the road. Luckily a big giant bus stopped right beside me on my left and literally blocked traffic going the opposite direction even though he could easily pass. As the man was getting out of the back of the truck, the monkey jumped out of the box and escaped and ran underneath my car! I put the blinkers on and we blocked the entire Street, as the older gentleman ran under my car, Hendrick was on the other side, and I jumped out as well to help! It was almost like time had froze just for the three of us and the monkey! I had ran to the back side of my truck to block the monkey from running off, Hendrick was near the front, and the older gentleman was underneath the car already.

I told the monkey," hold on girl, please don't go yet, it's very dangerous and we're trying to help you get back to your family! Slow down!" That was when she came out from under my car, turned around and looked at me, and I had immediately grabbed her tail! " I'm so sorry girl! I don't mean to grab your tail, but, this is the only way I can hold you and we'll get you home!" She immediately laid down, and as she was laying down, the older gentleman had got out from underneath the car, and came over and grabbed her by the shoulder and neck to secure her. Hendrick came running over with the box, and we were all in the middle of the road in front of the bus trying to put the monkey inside the box! The older gentleman said it's fine, he just picked her up and started walking towards the park, Hendrick followed him, and since I was blocking the road I had to get back into the car and unblock the street so that everyone could start moving again. When I said that it felt like time froze it really did! Because not a single person honked their cars, everyone was patiently waiting including the cars way back who didn't even know what was going on! It literally felt like time had Frozen for a moment for the three of us to save the monkey. Hendrick walked with the gentleman up the busy street to the park where they were able to find the monkey's family. She quickly climbed back up the tree, and rejoined her family, she's going to be just fine!

In the midst of all the traffic, I finally reunited with hendrick, this was 2 hours after our planned hour to release Zelda. Zelda was actually very calm in the car, she knew I was going to keep my promise and release her, and she didn't have a fuss about being in the car with the two dogs, mind you, she was in a crate safe. Plus, Popeye was there to protect her from anything outside the crate anyways!

Hendrick later Found Me by the park, so we got back on track to release Zelda. We drove back to my property, by now it was pitch dark and the moon was out! Zelda was having an oh shit moment! Normally, as soon as I open the crate Zelda will come flying out without delay! Tonight, we placed her crate on top of one of my roofs by a very large tree, under the moonlight, and I opened her crate, and lo and behold, Princess Zelda did not want to leave! Popeye was even ready to sing her a song wishing her well and best wishes to be on her way, but she never left the crate! We found some green mesh around my construction site to wrap the crate so that she could be protected from the Sun the next morning in case she didn't leave! It took her a very long time, and she was just sitting at the back of the crate absorbing all the sounds and recalibrating to the outdoor environment. So, it might take her a couple hours before she would be ready to leave, I left her one tiny piece of raw chicken in her crate, left the crate open, we said our goodbyes and good night, and left her there to leave at her own leisure. Zelda definitly had second thoughts about the whole ordeal, "shit, she actually took me back to the wild, I'm not sure I want to go, where's merlin?" 

Zelda is like the emo teenager in the house! The entire month that she's been with us, she had been saying "you're ruining my life!" or "I hate you, just leave my food there, don't touch me!" or "leave me alone in my room!! Can't you knock?!" I love Zelda very much! Even with her attitude! She won't miss our family that much, but I know she is grateful for the time that she was with us. If and when she finds a mate and has babies, I will now be part of her stories to be passed down generation after generation as the white witch who saved their mother, grandmother, great-grandmother. 

So, when Hendrick and I got off work at 4:00 p.m., we had planned to release Zelda at 5:30pm, we ended up getting stuck in traffic, rescuing a monkey that got electrocuted twice,  brought back to life with cpr, went to the clinic, came back into town, chased the monkey through traffic, before we were able to go back to my property to release Zelda at 7:00 p.m. - you wouldn't even believe that this was a true story if I told you, but the reality is, this is basically my life every other day! Animals cross my path for help, and I almost never say no to an animal that asks me for help!