Member Profile: Jake Gagnon

IPPL gibbons provide happy memories before boy’s operation
September 2007

IPPL often gets to make monkeys’ wishes come true. But last May IPPL helped make a little boy’s wish come true. Four-year old Jake Gagnon had been learning about IPPL ever since he was old enough to sit up. His grandmother, long-time IPPL supporter Nancy Hall, would read to him from IPPL’s newsletters and show him pictures of the primates IPPL has helped protect over the years (even better than a “Baby Einstein” video!). Jake loved to learn about the world’s amazing monkeys and apes.

But little Jake was destined for some amazing adventures of his own. When he was two-and-a-half months old, he was diagnosed with a mild form of muscular dystrophy that affected his hips and confined him to a wheelchair. In order for him to be able to stand and walk like other children, he was going to have bilateral hip replacements—at the age of four! Jake’s doctors told his family that Jake should do two things to prepare for the scheduled surgery date in early August 2007: he should gain five pounds, and he should store up lots of good memories—because Jake was going to have to spend two months in a body cast afterwards, and he was going to need a lot of pleasant things to think about to get him through.

So last May Jake and his mother and grandmother visited IPPL’s Headquarters sanctuary. He has always loved watching the wild animals when visiting his grandma’s house in the woods—including raccoons, opossums, and foxes—but he had never seen any wildlife to compare with IPPL’s gibbons! Jake rolled all around the IPPL grounds, faithfully accompanied by North, IPPL’s Newfoundland mascot, who (in an unusual burst of activity) refused to leave Jake’s side for over an hour. Jake was impressed with how Northie enjoyed playing with IPPL’s deaf gibbon, Blackie. The pair put on a fine show: Northie would trot back and forth alongside the cage, while Blackie would swoop down to tug on Northie’s long, shaggy fur, only to scamper away again. Jake was also interested in lively little Courtney, IPPL’s five-year-old hand-raised gibbon. She’s about Jake’s age and she, too, had to have surgery when very young, to repair a broken leg. According to Jake’s mother, Michelle, “Knowing that Courtney had surgery when she was little helped him not be scared, and watching her stand and walk gave him hope that one day he can be like her.”

Jake wanted to know what the gibbons ate, so he had a peek into IPPL’s Animal Care Cottage, where staff members prepare the gibbons’ daily meals of fresh fruit and veggies. Ever since, his grandmother said, he often asks if gibbons eat such-and-such, too, and when she tells him they do, he happily munches on the new food item. After his surgery, while his tummy was still upset, he would still eat half a banana “for Courtney.”

He also liked the gibbons’ songs. Jake’s family is quite musical, and Jake himself likes to make up his own songs and play the drums in accompaniment (he likes religious music and the hard rock band AC/DC; he wants to play in his own church band someday). Jake’s grandmother said she and Jake like to practice singing gibbon songs to each other—“Whoooop, whoooop….” He must have given the surgical team quite a shock when he started doing gibbon vocalizations under anesthesia! His mom had some explaining to do, but the medical staff was coming to learn about Jake’s love of primates: he took a stuffed gibbon he called “Courtney-Boy” into surgery with him, and afterwards “Courtney-Boy” had to be all wrapped up in surgical tape, just like Jake. When he left the hospital after his successful operation, the staff gave him another stuffed monkey to add to his collection.