I have a certain fondness for monkeys,chimps,apes...
all primates in general. Alive OR Stuffed. Gorillas In The Mist OR Sock Monkeys. It's all good.

Anyway, I recently moved to Palm Springs, California and discovered from a local resident that Cheeta (yes, Tarzan's Cheeta) lives in Palm Springs too. Apparently he's retired from acting and become a painter. In fact, we had recently BOUGHT a painting from him on his website (http://cheetathechimp.org/). Of course. Well, our friend actually knew Cheeta's home address. It just happened to be on the way to our local grocery store. He actually lives in a residential neighborhood in one of those mid-century modern, Jetson's/Flintstone houses. Very appropriate for a retired movie star cum artist.

First thing my husband Dan and I did after our friend left was to run to the store for supplies. A little wine..a little dinner. Of course, on our way home, we decided we really SHOULD do a drive by of Cheeta's house. I know...I know. Weird. I felt like a stalker. But it was SO funny. We were laughing the whole way there and it IS on the way home (sort of). Anyway, we pulled up and the front gate was open and there was a guy taking out the trash. I rolled down my window and said, "Hi! We're fans of Cheeta. We bought one of his paintings." And he said, "Good. You want
to meet him?"

So of course we parked the car and followed him into his garage
that was very dark. I kept saying, "Are you sure it's o.k.?" because there was
one animal in there making a horrible, scary racket and he said, "Oh, yeah.
They're just antsy because they had to come in from the rain." I guess they
usually hang out in his backyard, but it's been so stormy here so he brought
them in. Yes. THEM. There was a baboon in the first cage who was really quiet
and cute and small. Then there was someone named Suzy who was shy and wouldn't
come out to say Hi. Then...right there in the middle in a big ass cage was
Cheeta. There was a sort of one foot square opening, and his face was right in
it, and he is BIG. The owner (who is coincidentally named Dan) said to stay
back cause he can reach out his long arms unexpectedly. He then said to Cheeta
to make a funny face and he totally 'raspberried' us. WE HOWLED!

Now, the whole time there is this ever increasing BANG BANG BOOMIMG from a dark corner in the back and it was SCARY so I said, "What the heck is that"?!! Cheeta's Dan said it was Cheeta's grandson. I'm telling you it was WILD! Literally.

So I just tried to ignore the raging, teenage chimp in the corner and I told Cheeta that I was a big fan of his painting, which I'm sure he appreciated as he had left a successful career
as an actor to pursue his true passion, which is art. I'm actually positive he
appreciated it because he gave us another raspberry. And then....as the BOOMING in the corner was raising to a fever pitch.....I put my hands in the air and bowed down to him
in homage, and his crapper grandson spit water at me from like 20 feet away!
Cheeta's Dan said I had been christened. I jumped 60 feet into the air. It
scared the poop out of me! It was GREAT!

He said we should come back on a nice day when they are all out in the backyard. I can picture it now...all of us just basking in the sun around Cheeta's swimming pool while he sits at his easel painting plein air style. Only in Sothern California......