It’s a jungle, exactly the kind of scenery she likes.
A 3-year-old spider monkey named Tikki made a funny special appearance recently in the Bronx, wearing a diaper while frolicking around his owner’s tow truck.
“Everybody wants to take a picture with her,” “Junior,” 40, told The Washington Post on Monday, referring to his lanky friend who sometimes accompanies him at CBC Automotive, a Bronx towing company.
Junior, who did not want to give his last name, said the unusual companionship was the realization of a childhood dream.
“I’ve wanted one ever since I was a kid. It took me three years, but I finally got it.”
Tikki tends to attract attention wherever she goes and recently became a bit of a hit after a playful video of her jumping in and out of the window of Junior’s work truck went viral on the Internet on Sunday.
“A guy asked me to do a video for her yesterday and now the calls are coming in nonstop,” Junior said, acknowledging that her sudden fame has been both good and bad for the couple.
“If I had known her video would go viral online, I probably would not have allowed it,” he said.
In this adorable video posted to X by Citizen NYC, Tikki is seen having the time of her life, lying on top of a car door, checking herself out in the truck’s side mirror, then crawling tail-first back into the car.
“She’s very spoiled and likes to be on top of me all the time,” Junior explained. “She’s very overprotective and starts whining if she can’t be left alone. They’re like babies, so you have to give them a lot of time.”
Junior said the snowy bird-watching primate splits his time between New York and Florida “depending on the weather.”
While Florida allows people to keep monkeys as pets with a special permit, the New York State Department of Health says monkeys are not allowed in any of the five boroughs.
