In this way, CATS’ ads—all of which can still be seen on his campaign website—are both a delight and a perfect representation of the candidate they were designed to sell. They worked, even though they didn’t. They were expensive, but too knobby and odd to hold much of a polish. They failed, but they were baffling and wonderful.

Since 2009, Yates estimates that he has gone after the animal on roughly 100 different occasions. The monkey was his white whale. He claimed to have darted it at least a dozen times, steadily upping the tranquilizer dosage, to no avail. The animal is too wily — it retreats into the woods and sleeps off the drug. A few times, the monkey stared Yates right in the eye and pulled the dart out.