"All Things Are Joyful To A Monkey"

The House of the Orange Monkey is a website that I discovered a few months ago while researching something totally unrelated to anthropomorphic stuffed jungle animals (although, I must admit, it has become a weakness of mine...). It is, from all appearances, done by an English couple who received the above-stated orange toy simian, and decided to build a wonderfully intricate storyline based on Mr. Rik's and Miss Carol's travels and interests. 

As taken from Mr. Orange Monkey's bio page:

"Mr Monkey was, apparently, born in China, and brought over to Britain in some form of slave ship. His memories of this period are somewhat confused, and the brand on his label has worn off. What is certain, however, is that he ended up in a box in a shop in Alnwick, surrounded by beanie pigs and cows.
His attempts to escape failed until Mr Rik and Miss Carol came into the shop; while Carol was stocking up on Sloggi's finest, it was obvious that Rik was stalking the front of the shop in search of a birthday gift for her. Recognising this, Mr Monkey used his beanie monkey powers to influence him. This is why Carol didn't get bath foam or an intricate candle for her birthday.
Mr Monkey's manumission was paid to the shopkeeper, and he was smuggled out without Carol noticing. After a couple of days shrouded in paper from an off licence (a period in which he wondered whether he had made an awful mistake), Mr Monkey was unwrapped and was able to take his rightful place as Most Important Monkey in the house."

"It's Ch'o'rnobyl. In Ukrainian it's Ch'o'rnobyl!"

"It was like a Russian party, Arkady thought. People got drunk, recklessly confessed their love, spilled their festering dislike, had hysterics, marched out, were dragged back in and revived with brandy. It wasn't a French salon." *

* Wolves Eat Dogs, Ch.9, pg. 174