This Is More Like It

The last few nights of tent time have gone well, but we have had a few "adventures" outside of that. On Sunday our son visited with his glider Molly and we had them all in the tent together (supervised, of course). Molly was all over the tent climbing and jumping, while CB and Foehn remained in their pouch, watching but tentative. They eventually came out and the three of them were checking each other out. As long as it was one on one things were OK, but when both Foehn and CB were sniffing out Molly at the same time it got testy. There was some hissing and brief entanglement but no damage was done. That ended that. We'll have to try a different tactic in the future.

M had them both on their blanket most of last evening. I left for a few minutes to take the trash to the curb, and when I returned M appeared to be searching for something. That something was CB. They had been scooching over to the side of the blanket, and when M saw that they were avoiding droppings, she tried to clean the blanket while still keeping them under control. CB saw this as the perfect opportunity to go on an adventure. He climbed up M's arm, ok, that was a good sign, jumped to the arm of the sofa, oh oh, bad sign, then hopped under the sofa. Scooping Feohn up in the blanket, M struggled to her knees only to see CB investigating the floor outlet under the sofa! Bad idea. When I came in she was trying to keep him corralled under the sofa (it has high clearance) to no avail. He wanted to explore - again. Into the dining room, back into the great room, and down the hall into the guest room. I was a little concerned because there was a lot of stuff in there, especially in the closet, which is of course where he headed. After trying to tempt him with his favorite meal worms to no avail, he scooted under the bed.. equally bad idea, as the bed has very low clearance... When he finally slowed down after 20 minutes I placed two pouches near him. He contemplated these for awhile. The lure of a familiar place and mealworms as his reward for the correct choice was too strong, and when he crawled into one of the pouches the game was up.

Waiting to come out and play

They have had their usual running and jumping in the tent the last three nights. They are becoming more comfortable each night climbing on me and using me as a launch platform. CB in particular is a hoot to watch. I usually sit with my legs folded. He will climb on my leg and run up on my knee. There, he scrunches down, wriggles his butt into position, and then launches himself to the side of the tent. He climbs up and around, jumps down, an does it again. They both also like to shinny up a 10-inch piece of 1-inch PVC pipe that we use to hold a water bottle. Once they get to the top they jump off to the side of the tent.

The best thing that has come out of the last few nights is that it appears we all now have agreed on how to end play time. When I start to see them slow down, I place one of their bonding pouches on the floor of the tent. The last three nights they both have been in the pouch within 5 minutes. I then gather them up and we let them out into their cage where dinner is waiting. We think they have started to figure out that when the pouch appears that dinner is not far behind. It sure is a lot less traumatic than trying to gather them up in a big piece of fleece - for all of us.

Foehn and CB enjoying dinner