The Canton Monkey is always moving but never touches the ground. Wearing a slight milk moustache, he clambers up a drainpipe and perches on a first-floor windowsill before hurtling back down. He leaps from the front of the house and onto his owner's shoulder, then zips from car roof to door handle.
A woman in her 60s is walking along the pavement when she stops suddenly at the sight of the Amazonian squirrel monkey, whose name is Koko. Beaming, she says: "Isn't he lovely?" The owner Osman Roap mentions that Koko might show his affection by jumping on her, which prompts the passer-by to give a wider berth, but her smile remains.
Koko has been putting smiles on faces in Canton for years. The west Cardiff neighbourhood lacks rainforest treetops but on the morning we spend with Koko he could hardly seem happier as he roams a landscape of curtain rails and cupboards.
