Runaway spider monkey found after 24 hours in Mississippi

Sept. 28 (UPI) -- A Mississippi couple said it was a tense 24 hours before they were reunited with their unusual escaped pet -- a spider monkey.

Cameron and Kaitlynn Cuevas of Biloxi said they adopted the monkey, named Kenzie, when she was just 6 weeks old about two years ago.

"She's with us every single day," Cameron Cuevas told WLOX-TV. "Just like a baby. All she knows is us, our family and our three kids. She's one of our kids."

The couple said they dropped Kenzie off at Cameron's mother's house, where the monkey escaped ran into the nearby woods.

The family put out a call for help on Facebook, and soon volunteers were searching the area.

Ben Ward took his hunting dogs along to sniff out the runaway exotic pet and was able to locate Kenzie about 24 hours after her escape.

"Ben called me and said, 'Cameron, we got her. She's in you mom's arms right now,'" Cameron Cuevas said.

The couple wrote on Facebook that Kenzie is "tired, scared, weak but she's home!"

They said the monkey had a bath and a blow dry before settling in for a long nap.