CB - the Explorer, Part Deux

I was fully intending to post last night, but ended up being otherwise occupied. It was a long day, but ended with about an hour of tent time. M turned in early, so it was just me and the gliders. The ending tent time thing really is working. When I need to end it, I bring the pouch in, they climb in within a minute or two, and off we go to the cage where they can have their dinner. Last night went as usual, except that I was holding the pouch closed rather than having zipped it. They are both pretty squirmy in the pouch when they know dinner is soon. Well, as I was placing the pouch in the cage a glider streaked out of the pouch and onto the side of the cage. I thought it was Foehn, since the glider in the cage was already getting settled in the sleeping pouch, and that's CB's M.O. However, we discovered that it in fact was CB that had escaped but only at the end of this long escapade. He far surpassed his previous adventure.

I was unable to coax or bribe him into a pouch, although I almost had him once. He scampered into the dining room, which adjoins the room their cage is in. I was pretty successful in keeping him corralled there, or so I thought. He was under the dining room table, and I was trying to move his pouch close so he would see it and hopefully go in. I don't know exactly when, but he seemed to just disappear. I looked all over and listened. After ten minutes, I realized that he was either no longer in the area or hiding quietly. I went in and told M, who was just falling asleep, that "Foehn is gone and I don't know where she is!" We searched everywhere upstairs. We made sure all the toilet seats were down, looked behind the stove, under beds, in the cushions of the sofa. M thought that since we couldn't see him investigating anything he might have gone downstairs into the basement. When I could not locate him initially I immediately checked the basement stairs but did not see him and assumed he didn't have time to get down there without being seen. After a half hour or more of searching upstairs I was feeling pretty bad for letting him get away and wondering if we would ever find him. I was standing at the top of the stairs and thought I heard something. I told M to stay still, and sure enough I heard some rustling in the basement. I shined my flashlight into the basement and saw a long tail move out of the light! He was down there. The good news - we knew where he was, but the bad news was that he was in the basement, and the basement is full of "stuff". To top it off, he made a beeline for the worst area of the basement, the "utility" area whee the sump pump, well tank. and water softener are located, and which is currently packed with more stuff including wood I use. It is dusty and generally a mess and hard to get around, in addition to having tons of places for a glider to hide. Once we found him in the basement, it took at least an hour to finally grab him. We would lay a pouch down with a meal worm or yogurt treat. He would go halfway in, grab the goods, and back right out before I could grab the pouch. Finally, he exposed himself enough where I was able to grab him with a fleece blanket. He was scared and dusty and bit me hard. We had him, though, after more than two hours of searching and chasing. It was when M was wiping him down to get the dust and dirt off that we realized it was CB and not Foehn.

Typically CB is laid back and calm. Here's a photo of him settled into my pant leg during tent time - that's the "normal" CB. However, once he gets a taste of freedom he is a different animal...CB, the Explorer.