Today was Deepavali and that makes it a holiday in Sri Lanka. Between the Buddhist, Catholic, and Hindu holidays, workers surely get a lot of days off. We hadn't planned on doing anything special for the day.
We ended up having monkey trouble. The same primate whom I shared on Facebook yesterday, became the victim of an accident today. Lal's property abuts the back of a police station here. There are some enormous mango trees as well as other a great deal of vegetation. We watch the birds, squirrels, and an occasional mongoose in the front yard. In the back, it's the monkeys.
At mid morning, we heard from the caretaker of the house next door that a monkey had fallen. Actually, the story goes that there were two which fell together. One however was badly hurt. He must have hit either the wall or some sheet metal and cut himself. He was bleeding. He might have been dazed and in shock too. We went to see. He was lying on the top of the wall between the houses and the police compound.
The police sent a couple of guys and we tried to call the wildlife department. It was a struggle but one officer calmed the monkey enough to leash it and put it in a burlap bag. They took it to the compound and started dressing the wounds. After a while, the wildlife personnel showed up and they caged him and took him away to rehabilitation centre under the care of vets.
That was our monkey problem today. It was a little sad to witness but heartening to see so many people ready to come to the aid of the unfortunate animal.