Animal Rentals Blog

I know that Mother’s Day is not for a few weeks yet, but today I wanted to tell you a little bit about our “mama” here at Animal Rentals.  Her name is Mrs. Clean and she really takes care of me and all my exotic animal friends of Mindy’s Menagerie.  She is really loving, sweet, and small.  Mrs. Clean is a Hairless Rat.

A lot of people are scared of rats or think they are unclean or carry diseases.  But rats are actually very clean  and friendly and incredibly smart…maybe even as smart as monkeys!  When I typed that Mrs. Clean just said, “Yes, dear, we are as smart as monkeys but it is not polite to brag about it.”   I won’t argue, we never argue with “mama”.   She is always right and besides that we wouldn’t want to do anything to upset her because we love her so much.

Anyway, Mrs. Clean is like a cross between Mary Poppins and a schoolteacher and the world’s best grandma.  She loves all of us and she is always making sure we are comfortable and happy while we are traveling and that we have and do what we need.  She’s the one that always asks, “Did everyone use the bathroom before they got in the van?”  And, “Did you all remember to wash yourselves after touching the humans?”  And “Does anyone need a snack?  I’ve got some nice fruit and nuts right here.”

Back home at Animal Rentals, Mrs. Clean helps us and reminds us too.  You will often hear her say things like, “Purse, be sure to brush those big alligator teeth so you can keep your nice, white smile.”  And, “Let’s blow a fan on Chi-Chi the Chinchilla so he is not so hot while the rest of us are so cold.”  And “Bugsy, you Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches need to stop stealing Mindy’s cookies when she’s not looking.”  Mrs. Clean is the best!

She loves people, too…especially children.  She really enjoys traveling to all different types of parties, events and locations for our Animal Shows – she thinks birthday parties are the best because she adores kids and cake.  Her favorite part of working with Animal Rentals is meeting all the new people and hugging them while they hold her.  Most people don’t even realize that they are being hugged by Mrs. Clean – she is so light and gentle and soft!  They think they are just holding her but really, she is holding them right back.

That’s our “mama”, Mrs. Clean the Hairless Rat.  She just loves and cares about and cares for  and takes care of all of us.  We are lucky to have her.  Next time I’ll tell you about Mrs. Clean’s favorite philosophy and why “Bald is Beautiful”.

The past few weeks have been sort of strange and sad here at Animal Rentals since my Uncle, Mr. Adam Monk, passed away.   All of my human and exotic animal friends in Mindy’s Menagerie here sure miss him!  But it has been wonderful getting notes from people that knew him.  Uncle Monk was one monkey people never forgot meeting!

Uncle Monk was 43 when he left us – which is pretty old for a monkey.  Even though he lived to a ripe old age, people say that it is never long enough.  The sad truth is, though, that most animals just don’t live as long as humans do.  A lot of my tropical bird friends – like Ruby the African Grey Parrot or Piwackett the Scarlet Macaw – can live 60 to 75 years or longer!  And there are some whales, giant tortoises and other animals that live for more than 200 years.   But most domestic and exotic animals have a much shorter time on earth.  So we should be happy that Uncle Monk had 43 years, and an incredible life.

Dad, of course, misses Uncle Monk the most.  The two of them started Animal Rentals and built the business together.  Of course dad says he did it and Uncle Monk just helped, and of course Uncle Monk said that all the best ideas were his and he was the “real” boss.  I really miss all the great advice he gave me – like when I was learning to be an Organ Grinder monkey and Uncle Monk told me to never take the pennies from people, only the “big money”.  If someone ever handed him a penny while he was working he would actually throw it right to the ground.  If it wasn’t silver or green, he wouldn’t take it.  Lol!

Uncle Monk retired years ago, so he never traveled with us for our College Entertainment shows. But he certainly did his share of touring and working with lots of people and celebrities doing Animal Shows, charity events, theme parties, strolling entertainment, fairs, festivals, corporate parties, birthday parties, commercials, tv shows…you name it and Uncle Monk was there putting on a show and making people laugh and smile.  I am happy and proud to continue the work he started here at Animal Rentals and to carry on his legacy of making people laugh and smile.

Goodbye Uncle Monk…I love you and I miss you!

The other day was bath day here at Animal Rentals, and I got some great pictures of my dad and my uncle, Mr. Adam Monk.  I love seeing the two of them together, and dad loves reminiscing with Uncle Monk about “the old days”.  Uncle Monk is over 45 years old!  And he and dad have been together a REALLY long time…working, traveling and playing.  Uncle Monk doesn’t travel with us doing Animal Shows or College Entertainment any more, he says his days of being on the road are done and he just wants to relax and enjoy his retirement.  I LOVE traveling and don’t think I will EVER want to retire!  But Uncle Monk and I are completely different.

I guess Uncle Monk is really more of my brother than actually an uncle, since he was dad’s first monkey son.  But he is old and sort of crotchety – which dad tells me is a nicer way of saying cranky, lol – and certainly more like an uncle than a brother.  So he is Uncle Monk to me.

Uncle Monk has had an amazing life – even before he met dad.  He was born in the wild in the jungles of South America, and he was captured and kidnapped and SOLD when he was very young!  He traveled from village to village in small, bamboo cages being sold and traded until he finally came to America and met dad.  Dad likes to say that it was NOT love at first sight – lol.  But he and Uncle Monk grew to first respect then love each other, and together they built Animal Rentals from a highly demanded Organ Grinder act to a business that focuses on bringing people and exotic animals together in an educational and entertaining way.  I even think that it was Uncle Monk’s idea to do our Petting Zoos and Pony Rides. At least, HE says it was.  Dad just rolls his eyes and laughs whenever I ask him about it.

Anyway, I guess after such a long life filled with work and adventure Uncle Monk deserves to relax and be pampered in his retirement.  And he sure does love his bath time!  I don’t blame him, I do too!  What about you?  Do you love bath time too?

HAPPY NEW YEAR everybody!

I am tired but happy from my big New Year’s Eve night out with dad and lots of fun, dancing and new friends.  I would love to be sleeping right now, but dad says I need to make a New Year’s Resolution and share it with everyone so that I stick to it…so here I am, writing to you all about my New Year’s Resolution.

Ok, honestly, I don’t get the whole New Year’s Resolution thing.  Dad says it’s a promise you make to yourself so that you have a guideline and a plan to follow for the upcoming year.  Well let me tell you, a monkey brain doesn’t work like that.  Lol!  We live for the day…actually we live for the moment.  A monkey’s motto is “Do whatever feels good!”  We don’t do a lot of planning.

The above was written on January 1st.  Today is January 27th.  This is the perfect illustration to my point.  I have been “doing whatever feels good” for the last few weeks and totally forgot about finishing my blog post!  Talk about living in the moment – hahahaha!

Dad says I have the emotional maturity of a two year old child.  I’m not sure that’s a compliment, but I suppose it is true.  Us monkeys get easily excited and easily distracted.  It is such a big, wild, wonderful world out there how can anybody NOT get caught up in the thrill of the moment sometimes?  It is so easy to do!

Ok so back to the New Year’s Resolution.  Mine this year is to spend more time telling you all about my wonderful exotic animal friends and family at Animal Rentals and about all the fun we have living and playing and working together.  Sometimes I get so busy traveling around with dad to our College Entertainment shows, or working locally doing our Animal Shows, Petting Zoos and other fun events, that I forget to get online and share our stories with all of my wonderful human friends out there across the country.  Bad Mindy!  Lol.

The really exciting news that you may have already noticed, is that this year I am sharing my blog space with my human and exotic animal friends of Mindy’s Menagerie, and letting them post here too!  So one day you might read a post from me, another day a post from someone on our staff, and another day maybe even one from Casper the Albino Burmese Python or Cleopatra the Serval Cat or Mrs. Clean the Hairless Rat.  You never know who is going to want to pop in as a guest star here on my blog, so be sure to check back often and get to know us all better in 2015!

If you like hugs, then you are going to LOVE my friend Sahara the Fennec Fox.  She gives the best hugs ever, and she loves to cuddle.  She is a great cuddler.  And she’s cute.  Cute, cuddly, and huggable…no wonder everyone at our different types of Exotic Animal Shows love her so much!

But don’t let her quiet moments fool you.  Sahara is also an absolute bundle of energy when it is play time.  She and I have so much fun running and playing catch and jumping and wrestling around together!  She is only a year old so she still loves to play just as much as I do.   And she’d rather play with one of us than by herself.   That makes her a great friend and one of my favorites to travel with around the country doing our College Entertainment shows.

Fennec Foxes are really cute small animals with great big ears.  Their ears are like ten times the size of their heads.  Ok, not really, but they are really big.  And believe it or not those big ears aren’t just for hearing – which is so good that they can hear other animals moving around underground.  They actually act like air conditioners in a way, radiating their body heat away from them to keep them cooler in the desert heat.  Sahara and her relatives are actually from the Sahara desert and other very hot areas in North Africa.  But the desert can get pretty cold at night, so Fennec Foxes have a thick coat of fur to keep them warm.  So when the rest of us exotic animals are arguing about whether to turn on the air conditioner or the heater, Sahara is happy either way.

Sahara is one of the most popular animals at all of the parties, carnivals, college shows, corporate events, grand openings and all the other types of events our traveling zoo full of friends go to.  If you look at the pictures on my Facebook page, you’ll see lots of pictures of her cuddling with and hugging all the new people we are so lucky to meet all over the country.  Dad says that Sahara is all “sweetness and light”.  I’m not sure exactly what that means, but people sure do love her!   What do you think?

When you live with a bunch of different exotic animals from all different climates around the world, you argue a lot about where to set the thermostat.  Here at Animal Rentals we have temperature wars all year long.   A lot of my friends and I are from warm or tropical climates, so like it nice and toasty warm at home and we love the summertime.  But one of my friends likes it so cool that the rest of us think it is downright chilly!  I’m talking about my friend Chi-Chi the Chinchilla – who should have been named Chilly Willy!

Chi-Chi is a really nice guy with a great big family that he supports by working with us doing our Exotic Animal Shows, Petting Zoos, College Entertainment shows and Animal Displays.  Chi-Chi, his wife Camille, and all of his kids have the most beautiful fur coats I have ever seen.  And they are so soft!  Chinchilla fur is the softest fur of any animal.  But it is also really thick – which means Chi-Chi gets hot easily – which means Chi-Chi likes it cool outside – which is just the opposite of what I like!

Chinchillas are originally from high up in the Andes Mountains, where it is pretty cool all year round.  That’s why they need that thick, soft coat – to keep them warm.  People also like to stay warm with Chinchilla fur, and Chi-Chi’s ancient relatives almost became extinct because of it.  I’m glad they are still around – because they are really cool animals and Chi-Chi is a really good friend.  Chinchilla fur belongs on Chinchillas, not people!  Some people still raise Chinchillas for fur, but at least it is illegal to hunt them in the wild now.

Chi-Chi is looking forward to traveling around to colleges, parties, festivals and other events with us this fall as the weather cools down.  In the mean time, we help him out by cranking the air conditioning up whenever he gets too warm.  Helping each other be happy is what friends do, after all!

My friend Ruby the African Grey Parrot is the smartest bird in the world.  Well, at least she thinks that she is.  Dad says that African Greys are geniuses.  They understand what they are saying and can even put ideas and sentences together.  Some birds simply repeat words that they hear just to get attention, but Ruby and her relatives can ask for things and tell humans what they feel and think.  Dad even says that some African Grey Parrots are smarter than some monkeys.  But I’m sure he wasn’t talking about me!

I think Ruby is definitely smart, but she’s also kind of a party pooper.  I mean, many of my exotic animal friends here at Animal Rentals are much more fun.  I like to run and jump and get excited about everything.  Piwackett the Scarlet Macaw likes to talk and yell and dance.  Sahara the Fennec Fox likes to chase the ball and roll around and wrestle.  But Ruby thinks it is silly to be loud and wild and spend too much time playing.  All she likes to do is learn and think.  She says that is that is called being an intellectual.  Ruby likes to use big words that most of the rest of us don’t understand.   I say that is called being annoying!  Ha!

Even though Ruby doesn’t play much, she can actually still be fun to be around.  She teaches us new words sometimes, and she once made up a trick that is really funny…she does an impersonation of a Thanksgiving turkey where she lies perfectly still on her back – like she is going to be served for dinner.  She can lay there without moving for a really long time!  She still does that trick, and the people that meet Ruby at our Animal Shows or College Entertainment events love it.

So who do you think is smarter, monkeys or African Grey Parrots?  You know what my vote is!  What is the smartest animal you’ve ever met?  What kinds of things did they do to make you think they were so smart?  What kind of animal do your friends think is the smartest?  Let us know in the comments below!

What an exciting and exhausting Spring it has been!  Dad and I have been busier than a centipede at a shoe store, and loving every minute of it.  I just made up the centipede at a shoe store line…I thought it was hilarious but dad just rolled his eyes.

Anyway, this has really been an action-packed season for us.  We have done more College Entertainment shows this year than ever before…26 colleges from January through April!  We have been in or driven through practically every state east of the Mississippi, and some to the west of it too.  My exotic animal friends and I have also done several Animal Shows and private parties in the Chicago area.  But the big news is the all the new things that dad and I are working on, including my very own “Mindy the Monkey’s IQ Zoo”.

My IQ Zoo will soon be on our website – which dad and I have been working furiously on updating over the past several weeks. At the IQ Zoo you’ll have a chance to online-meet and learn about all of the different exotic animals that I live and work and travel with.  It’s a great way to learn more about me and some of my Animal Rentals friends that you may have already met at a fair, festival, convention or trade show, or to discover which animals you’d like to meet in person when you book an animal show, display or petting zoo for your next party or event.   It’s also a great way to learn about animals you may never have even heard of before – like a Fennec Fox or a Geoffroy Cat.

Stay tuned for more updates and the exciting grand opening of my “Mindy the Monkey’s IQ Zoo” on our website, animalrentals.com.  I’ll keep you updated as we go along.  I’ve got to get back to work now!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Today dad and I are taking a break from our animal shows and college entertainment tours.  I am at home at Animal Rentals with my friend Tom T Turkey.  We are sharing the things that we are grateful for – like I am grateful for the chance to meet so many wonderful new friends through my job as an Animal Ambassador, and Tom is grateful that he is not on someone’s Thanksgiving table as dinner!  While we were laughing about that and talking, Tom told me some really interesting things about turkeys that I never knew before, so I thought I would share them with you.

Did you know that the turkey could have been our National Bird?  Not just for Thanksgiving, but for every day.  Benjamin Franklin felt that the turkey was a more noble and appropriate symbol for the United States than the bald eagle.  Turkeys were also original natives of America, while eagles were found in many countries.  Of course, we love the majestic bald eagle, but it is interesting to note that Benjamin Franklin, at least, was a big fan of the turkey.

Have you ever met a turkey that can fly?  I haven’t, and I always thought that turkeys couldn’t fly.  But while it’s true that domestic turkeys stay grounded, wild turkeys can fly fairly fast for short distances.  And though they can fly high if they want to, they usually stay pretty low to the ground.  Except at night, when they often sleep in the treetops to protect themselves from predators like coyotes and foxes.

And have you ever heard a turkey gobble?  Did you know that only the males make that noise?  They do it to attract the females – which are called hens (just like chickens!).  That gobble can be heard up to a mile away!  The hens make noises too, but more chirping and clucking sounds – not gobbles.

These are just a few of the tidbits of turkey trivia that Tom told me.   I hope you enjoyed learning them as much as I did!  And I’d love to hear what you are thankful for today!

Dad and I stay pretty busy all year long doing hundreds of different animal shows at parties, fairs, festivals and other events, but our real cross-country traveling starts in the fall with our college tour.   Sometimes we are on the road for weeks at a time driving from campus to campus before getting back home for a few days.  I love getting to see so much of the United States and meeting so many different people from all different places.

College campuses are really cool – kind of like a whole little town within another town.  There’s usually a cafeteria or coffee shop to eat in, a bookstore to shop in, dorms to live in, a gym to exercise in, an auditorium to see plays and concerts in, and thousands of people from all over the world.  Most colleges have sports teams that you can cheer for, and lots of them also have fraternities and sororities and other social clubs. There is always something fun and exciting going on.

Most monkeys and some people never get to see any colleges, but I am lucky that I have been to many of them.  Just within the past two months dad and I have traveled to Iowa, Virginia, North and South Carolina, Florida, Texas, Georgia and Illinois…and there’s lots more to come over the next few months.

When we go to a college, we always set up in a big area with plenty of room for all the students and faculty that come to meet us. Everyone gets to meet and interact with me and all of my animal friends, while dad teaches the students about us, conservation, and responsible animal ownership.  It’s always great fun to see who is brave enough to pick up my friend Cuddles the tarantula first, or hold Purse the alligator. It’s kind of like a big party and everyone has a great time – the people and the animals!  Maybe one day I’ll get to meet you at one of our college entertainment shows.