Another Scare

Sunday is usually "weigh day" for the gliders. We wake them up for some yogurt, coax them out of their pouch, and weigh each of them.  This Sunday was no different, except that we got a late start and did get around to weighing them until around noon.  Often we have to turn the pouch out to get each of them out, usually Foehn and CB. I had weighed Cirrus and Virga, and M said I might as well scoop the other two out. I reached in and eased CB out of the pouch, but he was the only one in there. Foehn must be in the other pouch in the cage.  I went to get her and found that pouch empty.  Odd.  I checked a fabric tunnel hanging in the cage (part of their February Valentine theme accessories) and it was empty.  OK, maybe she was in the pile of blankets on the floor of the cage. As I shook out each blanket without a sign of a glider, a horrible feeling swept over me. I checked the cage doors and they were all closed and latched...except one door on the end next to the wall, I had cleaned the cage Saturday and when I moved the cage back into it's spot I didn't latch that door. It could only open about an inch because of the wall, but that's all the room she needed. I went into the office and told M what I found.

In past "adventures" we had discovered their escape early enough that the gliders were still active. In this case it was after noon, and Foehn, wherever she was, was probably curled up asleep and would not be out and around until after 10:00 pm.  We started our search upstairs.  Their winter theme cage set was on the floor waiting to be washed, and I was hopeful that she had found her way to the familiar smells there, but that would have been too easy. No dice. Assuming the worst, we headed downstairs to the basement. There were signs on the stairs that she had been that way. Finding her in the middle of the day among all the stuff down there was a needle in a haystack proposition at best. Although we didn't say anything to each other at the time, both M and I felt this might be the time that wasn't going to have a happy ending. We started looking through boxes of fabric that M has downstairs, and through other boxes that she might have climbed in.  I headed over to the utility area to check the sump well, and was relieved to not find her there. The last time she and CB headed downstairs she was over on that side of the basement.  However, it was going to take hours to try and go through everything systematically, and even then we could miss her.  M came over to my side of the basement and we were not quite sure where to begin. M noticed droppings near a shelf, so we started checking the boxes.There was box of M's old clothes on a shelf and as she started going through it I heard her exclaim "Well, there you are!"  Foehn was curled up in a box of M's old clothes, probably a familiar smell to her. M said she looked up at her as if to say "What took you guys so long??"  We gathered her up and brought her upstairs to join the rest of the gang.  She was a bit dehydrated, so we got her some pedialyte and juice which she readily lapped up for the next hour or so. She was glad to be back with the rest of the gliders and they all happily went to sleep once the excitement was over.

We were very fortunate, first that we found her so quickly (about 30 minutes of looking) and second that she was the only one to leave the cage.