I had always thought orangutans were horribly ugly creatures--until I saw Growing Up Orangutan on Animal Planet. Most infant primates are cute, but I really fell in love with these buggers.

I began to joke about how I wanted a baby orangutan as a pet. And when Olive started to mellow out and leave Celie without a playmate, Josh began to joke about getting Celie a playful little baby orangutan.

We were out shopping, and I came across a little stuffed cat toy. It was marked "monkey", but it's clearly a great ape as it has no tail. Its round head and protruding lips and ears lead me to believe it is an orangutan. I can't tell the difference between Bornean and Sumatran orangs, and I don't see anything in the toy to distinguish either, so we're just going to go with the genus. (See the table below for images of the seven living species of great apes.)

So now Celie has an orangutan. I've named her Mei Mei. "Mei" because that's the only vocalization Celie can make and "mei" again because many of the orangutans at the Nyaru Menteng Rehabilitation Center have double names: Cha Cha, Chen Chen, and Oyoy, to name the ones that have appeared on Orangutan Island.

Species	Image	Where to send your money to help.
Human, Homo sapiens sapiens		UNICEF
Bornean Orangutan, Pongo pygmaeus		Bornean Orangutan Survival International
Sumatran Orangutan, Pongo abelii		Sumatran Orangutan Society
Western Gorilla, Gorilla gorilla		World Wildlife Fund
Eastern Gorilla, Gorilla beringei		World Wildlife Fund
Common Chimpanzee, Pan troglodytes		The Jane Goodall Institute
Bonobo, Pan paniscus		Bonobo Conservation Initiative