New Arrangements

Finally, after a couple of years, I am getting my home office "done" - new floor, paint, and at some point, new furnishings. Last weekend we moved the gliders' cage out of the office and into the great room. It's now in the same spot it was originally when we acquired Foehn and CB. M has not been looking forward to this move, since it has a major impact on her morning routine with them. For the last several months she has been getting up in the morning to give them their yogurt treat. In the last two months or so they have looked forward to a free run of the office at that time. In fact, they now often bypass the yogurt initially to go off and explore - they are out of the cage as soon as M opens the door. With the office door closed they are contained, and once they have had their fun they come and get a few licks of yogurt and then climb into their pouch in the cage to sleep. With the cage in the great room we can't take the chance of them getting out into the rest of the house. Even when the office is finished this arrangement will be permanent, but for another reason. We have ordered a new cage for them, one that will be twice as wide as their current age, and it will not fit in the office. It will give them a lot more room to play and run around, perhaps even room to glide a bit.

The first morning the cage was in the great room M gave the yogurt thing a try hoping to keep them in the cage, but Foehn was out and exploring before M could stop her. Fortunately Foehn headed right for the office, where we corralled her into a pouch. M was hopeful the morning routine could continue as that is her time to bond with them, but not if they are intent on leaving the cage. However, things may work out in the long run. With the switch to Standard Time, we wake up an hour later in "sun time". Generally they turn in by 6:15 or 6:30 a.m. now because the sun is up and it is getting light. The last two mornings M has been able to take them from their cage in the pouch to the now almost empty office. They generally aren't quite asleep yet, and they have come out to get their yogurt and play. If we can keep this up for a few days we hope they will figure out that this is the routine, and M will still have her time with them.

The last two days M has carried them around in her outer shirt after their afternoon snack to get some more bonding time with them. They usually snuggle in to sleep - most of the time. Virga occasionally grooms M rather aggressively and M has a few marks to show for it. In general, though they are quiet and sleep until it's tent time sometime between 9:00 and 10:00 p.m.

Cirrus sleeping inside M's shirt