Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-11-05
Keeping a kinkajou
Affords Excitement

get a kinkajou.' said an Old
~ correspondent on the Row to a
Star man the other day.
Don't know what q kinkajou Is? Then
you are sunk in barbaric ignorance. 1 ac-
cumulated one some time ago, and my home
has not been the same since. kinkajou
is sort O. night monkey. 1t has some of
the traits of a monkey, three times Its in
genuity for deviltry, and is a rather more
cuddlesome engaging little beast
II used to be on terms of intimacy with a
kinkaj ou that they had out at the zoo, an
I wanted one for a long time before I got II.
Finally, friend of mine got hold of some
young ones that landed with their mother
and cargo of bananas down on LOUISIANA
avenue. ! grabbed off one of the young
sters and took 1t home.
when kinka jou reaches years of indiS-
erection he is more less like medium
sized cat with a sharper nose, iuffier fur
and prehensfle tail about twice as long
as his body. He Is amiable and harm. less
in the daytime because he Is usually asleep.
When he once gets his nose buried in the
middle of his stomach and his tail wrapped
around him like rubber band on bundle
you can't wake him up and make him take
any interest in life; but let the shades of
night softly fall and his kfcklets get busy
! right away. He wakes up then and starts
to make things interesting for the family
THE one got was of very tender years,
| or, more likely, months. He was a soft
slim tailed, appealing little beggar. nd he
spent most of the time in a box of cotton
| batting, waking up irregularly to take
pull a baby's bottle that we fed him out
of and later taking an active interest in
| bananas, lettuce and other light refresh
ments AT first We thought that his cher
| danger was from a big white cat that we
| had. Later we found out that the cats
chief danger was from the kinkajou. We
| did not count fox terrier that makes up
| part of our happy home. because the fox
| terrier can't climb and the knkajou can.
I'VE called him Jerry for no particular
| reason, and he was the quickest thing
! about growing up that you ever saw. We
| soon found to our surprise that the cat
| rather took to Jerry. Apparently rhe
| thought he was some new sort of a hitten
| with an exaggerated tail. She had lately
lost batch of kittens through the medium
of the ash man. and the first we knew she
| had adopted the little monkey and was
| nursing 1t and licking its fur into chape
just as though it belonged to her; but she
was like a hen that has Matched out duck
ling and finds to her amazement that it
can swim.
That kinkaou could give the cat pointers
on elm bing from his earliest youth. He
would shin up the edge of a curtain and
make faces at her from the top of the cur
tain pole. and when she tried to restrain
him by putting her foot on his stomach Re
| would box her jaws with all four feet at
| one time and pull her tail with his prehen-
sle tail simultaneously. By the time she
got over her surprise he would be sitting
on the back of the rocking chair and daring
| her to catch him. II she was rash enough
to accept the challenge he would take q
| leap onto her back, kick her on top OF. the
| head as he went past and escape to the
corner of the mante before she got organ
| lied to chastise him.
"You know cat is not very slow the
| move, but that monkey could go around
| Dinah, the white cat, like a Jap torpedo
| boat around Russian cruiser He would
! make her look like she was anchored In
shallow water, and not be in a hurry over
| it, either.
| cause l would always find him up and
| doing with a heart for any fate whenever
l got home after midnight. But he got me
going one night when | got home late and
| found a strange cat curled up on the CEN
| ter table in my wifes work basket. where
Dinah slept when Jerry would let her.
She a polka dot cat that never had
seen before. But when l walked her up
and tried to shoe her out of the room,
| she responded by purring and wanting to
| be affectionate Then 1 was next, espe
cially when I saw overturned ink bot
| tie on the other side of the table. Jerry
| had gotten busy as soon as Dinah got to
sleep and spread the ink over her in large
handfuls The little rascals paws were all
| black to the elbow, where he had been dip
| ming into the ink bottle and he had deco
| rated that cat from head to tail. and then
| had thrown away the bottle. 1t took my
| wife about month to get the worst of the
ink spots off the cat, which was the pride
of her life. and some of the spots are not
gone yet.
get home, and as soon as Jerry found out
what the game was, he used to come around
and help me. He fell afoul of the paste
not one night before l got home, and 1t
| I'LL ha of he np JTith
all the busters that 1 could find to get any
Of the chairs so you could sit In them
without sticking. Then l locked up the
paste and ink, but l left fountain pen on
| the desk one afternoon, and when I gel
home l found that Jerry had been expert
menting with 1t to see how 1t opened. He
found out all right l didn't think foun-
tain pen held so much ink. He had man
aged to get it distributed from the front
door to the back kitchen. And, of course,
| I had to clean that up, too.
|
AFTER that I kept everything locked up
very carefully. But Jerry was not going
to pass a long. lonesome evening without
any amusement. 1 came home not long
afterward and found my better half sitting
at the top of the stairs arrayed in night
gown and a bad scare. She informed me
In a stage whisper that there were burglars
| in the back OF the house and then begged
me not to go back to look for them Just
like a woman If she did not want me to
imperil my bright young life looking for
burglars she ought to have kept quiet and
not said anything about it.
when she called my attention to it, 1
could hear something out in the kitchen
chat sounded like lot of second-story men
| packing up the cooking utensils. 1 asked
her how long it had been going on and she
said about two hours. That settled 1t. l
knew IT would not take burglars ten min
utes to pack up everything we had in the
kitchen, so started back boldly and found
Jerry sitting the end of the stationary
wash tub pounding his tin drinking pan