Stranded

It was a long week, and M and I were both tired. However, last night it was time for the gang to get some play time, so I set up the tent and moved the stuff I needed inside. M brought two pouches to me - two gliders in each. For some reason they split sleeping arrangements sometime during the day. After I coaxed them out, I placed the pouches outside the tent and M came and hung them back in the cage. She headed off to bed, and the four gliders and I were in the tent for play time. They were slow to come up to speed, but before long they were about as active as I had seen them in some time. No sleeping in the boat, no crawling under the sheet on the floor, just a lot of running, climbing, and jumping, and a lot of it on me. After about an hour and a quarter of this, I decided to call it quits. I was tired and had a headache developing. I went to unzip the tent and get the pouch I use to carry them back to the cage, only, it wasn't there. Both M and I had forgotten to grab it when we set things up. Now you are probably wondering why I just didn't let myself out and go get it. If they had been in one of their more quiet moods, maybe I could have done that. There was no way I was going to do that tonight, at least without one or more escapees. As soon as they hear me removing the binder clip the holds the zippers at least two and usually all four of them are there in a flash. The know that sound means the pouch is coming and they are going back to their cage where dinner is waiting. I tried a couple of times to quietly open it, but no luck - they were four furry bodies there immediately. M was already in bed asleep and wouldn't hear me calling. I thought maybe I could wait them out, as usually they wind down at some point, which is usually when we call it a night.

Forty minutes passed and they were still going full speed. My eyes were getting heavy and my head was hurting. I tried sneaking the zipper open again, but failed. I think they were also getting anxious to get out. I clipped the binder back on the zipper to wait some more. As I sat there wondering what to do next, I counted only three gliders. I looked in the boat - nothing. I checked under the sheet - nothing. I checked the tree to see if someone was on the back side out of my view - nope. There were only three gliders in the tent - someone was missing. The zipper was clipped shut, so I couldn't figure out how anyone got out. Until I checked again. I had apparently missed one of the three zippers, and it was pushed open about three inches. That was Virga's M.O., I thought, and checked who was in the tent. CB, Cirrus, Foehn, but no Virga. I didn't hear her running around outside the tent, which had me a little worried. Well, there was not much to lose now, as I had to find her before she got into trouble. With Cirrus crawling up and down my back and shoulders, I unzipped the tent and quickly got out, fending off CB and Foehn as I did. I managed to direct Cirrus back into the tent, and then zipped it up. As I walked into the office to get the pouch, there was Virga climbing on the side of the cage. I opened the door and let her in, then went back to get the others. In five minutes they were all back in the cage, stuff was put away, and I was headed to bed.