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“You are the Monkey Mom,” Ms. Magic gasped, embracing Yasmin Nakhuda, the would-be owner of Darwin the monkey, the shearling-coat-wearing-primate who rocketed to international celebrity on Dec. 9 after he was spotted monkeying around in a busy IKEA parking lot and was seized from Ms. Nakhuda by Animal Services.

“If they ever tried to take my dog, they’d be dead,” Stella Magic nodded. “You have my full support. I hope you get Darwin back.”

On Thursday, the Darwin saga shifts to the Superior Court of Justice in Oshawa, where Ms. Nakhuda and her lawyer filed a lawsuit alleging that the seven-month-old rhesus macaque is being “unlawfully detained” by the Story Book Farm Primate Sanctuary in Sunderland, Ont., the monkey’s home since the IKEA incident.

“Darwin belongs to me,” Ms. Nakhuda, a Toronto real-estate lawyer, said. “He was not an animal in distress. He did not need to be rescued. The sanctuary says they are there to protect animals, to prevent them living in fear.

“Darwin was not living in fear. Darwin was a very happy little monkey.”

Ms. Nakhuda refers to Darwin as her “son.” (The Guardian newspaper in the U.K. refers to him as the world’s most “fashionable” pet.) His former owner has already bought little Darwin some new outfits for Christmas, a Santa suit, a Christmas dress and a bow tie to wear on New Year’s Eve.

What is unclear is where the world’s most famous monkey will be ringing in 2013. It is illegal to keep Darwin as a pet in Toronto. Ms. Nakhuda claims that she has signed a rental agreement on a cottage in Kawartha Lakes, a jurisdiction that currently has no bylaws covering monkey ownership. She also said she is preparing to buy a permanent “domicile” and perhaps uproot her family to Kawartha Lakes, should the judge rule in her favour and send little Darwin, ah, home.