Off Duty, Military Health and Fitness - Navy Times

Monkey do

About a year ago, the Semper Fi Fund helped connect Tim, a former Marine injured in Iraq, with a new aide — someone to fetch things he cannot reach on high shelves, pick up stuff he drops on the floor and sit on his shoulder to wash his hair.

The grooming comes naturally to Webster, a 7-pound capuchin monkey, but his other skills are the result of years of training with Helping Hands, a nonprofit that provides no-cost monkey helpers to people with grievous injuries.

Tim, who lost his legs and the use of one of his arms to an improvised explosive device, is the first veteran of Iraq or Afghanistan to receive a monkey from Helping Hands, but the group hopes he will not be the last.

“We’d love to extend our services to more veterans,” said Andrea Rothfelder, its director of development and communication.

Tim, whose last name was withheld to protect his privacy, came to the group’s attention through the Semper Fi Fund, a nonprofit that serves injured Marines. Helping Hands is also developing relationships with other vets groups.

Working with the Marine has helped them gauge what kind of services a vet needs and what injuries are beyond their help, Rothfelder said. A severe traumatic brain injury, for example, might make it hard for a vet to give a monkey the care and direction it needs, but more mild cases, including Tim’s, need not be ruled out.

Capuchin monkeys are more versatile than even the most advanced prosthetic. When Helping Hands’ monkeys graduate from “Monkey College,” they can be trained to unscrew a drink cap, load a CD player, flip pages and answer a cell phone.They can also can be trained to do specific things their recipients will need done.

But no matter how carefully they are trained, the monkeys need to develop a bond with their partner. Matching monkeys and humans is “half science, half dating service,” Rothfelder said.

Tim, she said, has the personality needed to handle Webster.

“Webster is a very smart monkey, and you can’t have someone submissive,” she said.

What the monkeys don’t need to be taught is how to provide companionship.

“If it were not for Webster, life at home would be very down,” Tim explained. “I’ve had this little fellow for almost a year now and we’ve grown to have a bond of understanding each other. He’s become my best friend.”

For more information about Helping Hands, including videos of the monkeys in training, visit www.monkeyhelpers.org.