The Barbary macaque (scientific name Macaca sylvanus) is a so-called "Old World monkey". This is a success story – but not one without its ups and downs. Dozens of times it brought me to the last stronghold of the wild Barbary macaque: the Atlas Mountains in Morocco. First at my job at AAP, then as an independent wildlife conservationist, and finally as a wildlife conservation expert at IFAW. How Rizzly and many of his peers ended up at AAP was a question that kept me occupied for 20 years. Unfortunately, Rizzly was not in the cedar forests of Morocco, but at an animal shelter called Animal Advocacy and Protection (AAP) near the Dutch city Almere. I had never heard of the species before and in fact, had no idea that there were primates living in Northern Africa. With that, I felt more hope – I was doing one small part to help dogs deserving of love and care.The first time I saw a Barbary macaque was twenty years ago. I thought about my love for her and off to the day’s work I went. As I walked through the shelter and met all of the dogs currently in the shelter, I thought about things like which kennel was she in? How big was she? Did she have siblings? How quickly did Rescue Road pull her from the shelter to send her north? I closed my eyes briefly – now with the sun shining on my face. Then, meeting the animal control officer and the lead volunteer – Babe Free – and knowing all the work that Last Hope has put into that shelter over the years, I knew that Jayden was loved from the time she stepped foot in that shelter. Someone cared enough and loved the dogs enough to create that artwork. But like Jayden popping her head out of the car window that day back in 2013 with a glimmer of hope – I cracked a small smile when I first noticed the artwork on the outside of the shelter. It was pouring rain when we got there – a common challenge the Arkansas shelters struggle with in their mostly outdoor shelters. Pit Bull mix, Cartmen, originally scared of us in the morning, licking faces and playing with other dogs by the afternoon! He reminded me so much of our Jayden. Of course, my eyes immediately welled with tears when I thought about how Jayden was likely in a stranger’s car driving up to the shelter on that same driveway without any idea of what was happening and certainly without any hope to her future. Weeks later, I’m driving up to that very shelter – Stuttgart Animal Shelter – with a pack of like-minded Last Hope volunteers to do what we could to help in a day’s work. One quick post and Last Hope jumped into action and found which shelter Jayden was rescued from and even her southern foster. I wondered if I could learn something – anything – about Jayden’s path to me. I didn’t know much about Jayden’s ‘backstory’ when I adopted her. To date, this has included working with Last Hope in fostering some amazing dogs, volunteering at adoption events, and fundraising and joining the annual service trip in Arkansas. I was desperate to find any way to connect with my girl – the answer was reconnecting with the very organization that saved her. Sadly, Jayden passed away a few days before Christmas 2022 when she unexpectedly lost her fight to cancer. That was in 2013 when I adopted our Last Hope rescue pup, Jayden. I remember it like it was yesterday – a sleepy 5-month-old black and white “pittie” mix managed to pick her head up from her northern foster’s lap to see what I was all about.
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