We all need a little levity, so here’s an article about the weird trend in 17th and 18th Century Europe of monkeys as pets. Apparently our ancestors had the same tendency to weirdly anthropomorphize animals as we do today, viewing monkeys more as surrogate children than proper pets, a perfectly understandable tendency until the monkey eats your cat or tears apart your furniture. Besides such simian nightmares, it led to some beautifully bizarre art works like the header image by Gabriel von Max, or Edwin Henry Landseer’s noble portrait of a learned primate, The Monkey Who Had Seen the World:

Or, more to the taste of The Avocado, Abraham Teniers’ Barbershop with Monkeys in Cats, showing two of humanity’s most beloved furry troublemakers engaged in advanced grooming techniques.

Enjoy, and try not to make a monkey of your fellow posters!