As the time comes to decide on holiday gifts and year-end tax-deductible donations, 400 animals at Primarily Primates have a holiday wish list well worth supporting.

Keko, Jake, Golo and their respective groups of squirrel monkeys were once pets, and all were abandoned when the novelty wore off. Primarily Primates had housing for them, but the structures dated back to 1983.Today, because of your help, the squirrel monkey groups are enjoying a new living area with two heated sleeping shelters for two separate groups.

This project started last summer and took months of work. But how rewarding it is! A new extension gives the squirrel monkeys 15 more feet of space and greater height, plus ponds, trees, shrubs and plenty of grapevine and various climbing structures.

And now a group of nine lemurs have a new, grass-based outdoor space with trees and shrubs, as well as a new sleeping area to keep them warm in the winter. Their outdoor play area measures 40 feet by 40 feet, and is 40 feet tall, and their indoor bedrooms are 4 feet by 4 feet.

Three years ago, these nine primates were abandoned in a backyard cage near San Antonio. Their owner had moved to Dallas.Your help makes it possible for Primarily Primates to build and maintain this new living area, where the lemurs have foliage and trees as they would in their natural habitat.

Two lemurs, Jordon and Austin, haven't yet been successfully socialized into a group. They have climbing structures, but we are hoping that soon their living areas will be equivalent to that enjoyed by all the other socialized groups of lemurs, so that each and every lemur at Primarily Primates has access to trees.

Your gifts also support chimpanzees such as Rudy, whom a bankrupt circus abandoned at a filling station in a U-Haul van, and Cindy, a chimpanzee kept as a pet in Florida until seized by animal control officers. Your gift allows hope for animals when Primarily Primates makes the difference between being discarded and having lifetime care.

Like Roz, a 5-year-old vervet monkey born in the pet trade. Roz's owner tired of the work and stress involved in keeping a vervet in a house, and abandoned Roz at a roadside zoo. Roz was later transferred to a local rescuer, who in turn succumbed to health problems. Primarily Primates finally offered Roz a home.

Roz lives with Tobey, whose teeth had been filed and who was purchased as a pet for $1,200. Tobey's owner returned to school, leaving this hapless monkey at a Michigan pound.

All of these primates now benefit from a full-time veteri narian, fresh produce, and great care from our expanded staff of caregivers. And now, joined by Friends of Animals, they have advocates prepared to work ceaselessly to see that society will treat them with respect.

Together we are putting a major investment into the building structures, the health care, and the quality of life all our non- human residents need, every day of their lives.

And they all need individual care as well.

Walter is a white-crowned mangabey who should have grown up in western Africa, in or near the Ivory Coast. But Walter was found by animal control officers several Decembers ago, foraging for food in an empty house in Houston.

Walter was likely imported by a university that intended to use mangabeys in a leprosy study. That study was abandoned, and Walter, seen as a rare and interesting monkey, may have been auctioned off in the pet trade before eventually being left in the house whose owner moved.

Today, Walter is housed with Maggie, another white-crowned mangabey, in a living space recently reno vated thanks to the generosity and confidence of our kind supporters.

Allow us to give healthful food and care to these social, expressive refugees on your behalf this season. Or con sider a gift donation in the name of a friend or family member.

A donation in your friend's or loved one's name can mean so much more than a physical item, yet its effect is quite real to a primate at our refuge. And the person who receives your unique and creative gift will be presented with a gift card in our name, and be able to follow along through our newsletter as we put the gift to use.

Please send your tax-deductible gift today, and expect our very best work through the holidays and beyond.

Very truly yours, 
Priscilla Feral 
President, Friends of Animals 
Chair, Primarily Primates Board of Directors