Meet Oona, The 5-Year-Old Behind The Missing Monkey Posters On Cortelyou

When Oona, who is five and three-quarters years old, lost the stuffed monkey she has owned since she was a baby yesterday, she didn’t dissolve into a puddle of tears like many of us might have.

Instead, the Ditmas Park resident returned from her day camp in Park Slope and set out to work. With her mom, Shannon, Oona put black and red marker to paper to draw picture after picture of her monkey (which was lost after it fell  from a moving school bus, though Oona isn’t exactly sure where the bus was at the time of the stuffed animal’s departure).

Then, she and her mom traipsed up and down Cortelyou, posting signs that Oona hopes will bring back the stuffed animal – named, aptly, “Monkey” – to her.

“It makes me fall asleep – he’s super cuddly,” Oona said when we met up with her and her mom at Lea this afternoon. “He’s too cozy.”

For Oona, drawing so many pictures wasn’t a draining task – she’s long been an artist.

“Even when I was a baby, I was an artist too,” she said. “I did rainbow scribbles. Flower scribbles.”

If anyone does indeed find the stuffed monkey – which is a tan color and has “some holes in him because he’s so old,” as Oona explained – you can email us at editor@ditmasparkcorner.com and we’ll pass on the information to Oona’s mom.