The phone rang at 2 a.m., and Carlos Aguaras instantly knew that something had to be wrong. His mother-in-law was on the other line, and she didn’t sound happy. Apparently, she woke up in the middle of the night to a creature cuddling on her chest, but the 99-year-old doesn’t have any pets. Aguaras made his way over to see what the fuss was about.
When he got there, Aguaras found a strange creature in his mother-in-law’s attic. It was later identified as a kinkajou, a rain forest mammal that’s primarily found in Central and South America.
It was family friend Cathy Moghari who eventually was able to lure the animal into a cage by playing some kinkajou sounds via YouTube and offering the timid animal some cherries!
Once in the cage, Moghari took it to the South Dade Avian and Exotic Animal Medical Center, where Dr. Don Harris looked after the 5-year-old kinkajou.
Dr. Harris knew that the animal had to belong to someone nearby. “No undomesticated wild animal like this would curl up on a woman’s chest to go to sleep,” he explained.
After the story picked up steam, the kinkajou’s owner, Ray Fernandez, reached out to the animal center, according to CNN. He said the kinkajou, named Banana, had been missing for about a week. She had been staying at his relative’s house while his home was under renovation. Fernandez was shortly reunited with his pet.
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