When I was a child my father piloted boats on the River Thames. Seamen on the big boats often took animals from one of their various destinations as pets to relieve the long days at sea. My father loved animals and animals loved him and he sometimes brought home animals that seamen had to dispose of.

One night my sister and I were woken and told to go downstairs to see what Dad had brought home for us. We ran downstairs and were told to watch a jacket of Dads that was on the mat. Slowly from one arm piece a little head appeared and two bright eyes looked at us. Gradually the little creature edged his way out and looked around. It was a small monkey. We were very excited and eventually had to return to bed. Dad decided to put Joe in the scullery for the night because he said the monkey was mischievous. During the night I awoke (I think I was 10 or 11 years) to the smell of gas. (1922-23.)

I woke my parents and we all went downstairs. The smell got very much stronger so we had to wait while Dad went to discover what as wrong. We heard him enter the scullery and open the window and door. My mother went to help and we heard her gasp.

“Oh my goodness what a mess; is the monkey dead?” At that we ran forward in great concern for the monkey who was unconscious and was taken out into the air. In the scullery was our gas cooker and along the other wall was a copper and a tall wooden mangle. On a shelf above these were some tins of paint. Joe had turned all the gas taps on and had overturned the tins of paint and so various coloured paints had run down onto the copper and mangle. We looked in horror, wondering what our washerwoman would say when she saw the mess.

Joe was not dead, so Dad made him a bed in an empty chicken run outside. We found Joe very amusing and he soon got to know which was our bedroom on the first floor and then made a habit of climbing up and tapping on our window for attention.

He took a real liking to our next door neighbour Edith and loved it when she came to the fence to talk to us because she had beautiful long black hair and he enjoyed picking it over looking for fleas while she fed him with fruit. Her hair was often left in a sticky mess!

Our neighbour on the other side Joe really disliked. One day when Dad was talking to this man (who at the time was dressed in his dinner suit) Joe was playing with us in the yard and he quickly picked up an egg from a chicken run and threw it at our neighbour. It hit him between the eyes and, oh, what a mess! My sister and I were scolded because we laughed so much. Our neighbour was furious. He was dressed ready for a special 
meeting and now he was covered in egg and Joe was jumping up and down with joy and satisfaction.

One day later on, some blankets were pegged on the line to dry and the next time we looked, they were down on the ground. Nobody could think how that had happened as there was no wind. So they were again pegged and we watched from a window and saw Joe run along the line throwing the pegs in all directions!

We had lots of fun with Joe but his mischievous ways eventually made Dad decide to give him to a friend who ran a Public house in the country, where Dad decided Joe’s activities would not cause so much inconvenience. Joe enjoyed the life there and men in the bar loved to watch his antics and they gave Joe beer until he was drunk. Dad was disgusted with this and he next heard from Joe’s owner that Joe had climbed a huge tree and refused to come down.

So Dad was asked to help. When Joe lived with us he was very friendly with our dog and they romped together so Dad took the dog with him. Joe was high in the tree and came half-way down when Dad called him, but would not come right down.

Our dog ran around the tree barking at Joe, but even then it took some long time before he came down to play with the dog and they were able to catch him.

Joe had another friend when he lived with us; Nancy our pet goose. Nancy reigned supreme in the yard, and every morning she tapped on our back door until she received her breakfast. She layed beautiful eggs which when fried filled a dinner plate. Each member of the family took turns to enjoy her eggs.