BLEARY-EYED motorists on the N11 in Co Wicklow have had their morning rush-hour journeys disrupted by all sorts - but until yesterday they had never been able to tell the boss an escaped monkey made them late for work.
Traffic came to a standstill on the southbound carriageway at Kilmacanogue shortly after 8am when Gina, a pet capuchin monkey, got loose on the road.
One motorist quickly rang the AA Roadwatch hotline to put the word out. It was one of the more bizarre traffic delay reports received by the motoring body, a spokeswoman admitted.
"By 8.35am we found out there was a place nearby that keeps monkeys, so we thought it could be true," she said.
"By 8.45am the gardaí in Bray confirmed there was a monkey on the road but he was caught, caged and cleared by 9am."
Gina's temporary owner, Edward Drew, who is currently minding the three-year-old primate and her sibling for a friend, said he had immediately gone to her rescue when contacted by gardaí.
"I got a call to say, 'One of your monkeys is on the road'. We went down with the quad and a net and caught her straight away. She was tired and completely disorientated. Someone had pulled up in a jeep and given her a banana so she was eating that."
Motorists stopped their cars to take in the extraordinary morning scene on one of the State's busiest rush-hour stretches of road.
"There was nearly a three-mile tailback," Mr Drew said.
"I think the people up front knew what was going on but the people behind hadn't a clue and were wondering what was going on. I think at that hour of the morning people would say to themselves, 'What did I just see?'
"The capuchins run along on all fours with the tail up so they could look like a cat maybe."
Gina was quarantined in special heated quarters after her ordeal yesterday to help her recover. Mr Drew said he would prepare a high-protein lunch and sugar drink to restore her energy.
"She's fairly stressed out at the moment so I have her in heated quarters to help her relax a little bit," Mr Drew said. "She has no cuts or bruises and she didn't cause any accidents."
Gina is one of nine monkeys currently in the care of Mr Drew, who runs Copsewood Aviary in Kilmacanogue. Along with Gina and her male sibling, both of whom will be returned to their owners, he also has squirrel monkeys and tamarinds. He effectively inherited his monkeys from two elderly women who owned the farm premises 20 years ago. "Some people keep dogs and cats," he said.
Asked if capuchin monkeys made good pets, he replied: "No. You can't house-train them and they need to be kept at 60 degrees at night time."
But perhaps the gentleman who keeps the bananas in his vehicle should come better prepared next time he plans to drive in the area.
Mr Drew says that apart from bananas, the capuchins enjoy "a lot of protein - hard-boiled eggs, brown bread, a special dried monkey chow, toast, mealworms, crickets, locusts, bits of chicken and meat".