Back to Normal

When we last left our gang of four, they were spending the night as two gangs of two. On Saturday evening we attempted to reintroduce them again. W first had them out in the office with some crabbing. I was holding Cirrus and CB in  pouch when they started crabbing at each other. Foehn, who was on the floor at the time, came bounding up my leg and to the pouch, bound and determined to come to the aid of her brother. I didn't think any good would come of that so I tried to keep her from going in the pouch. She let me know she was none too happy about that and sunk her teeth in to my finger, drawing blood. Hmmm, this was going well.

We decided the best approach would be to reintroduce Virga and Foehn  Once Foehn calmed down, I took Foehn and Virga into the bathroom to the controlled environment of the bathtub. There was some crabbing, but in 15 minutes they were running around and tolerating each other.  I went into the office  holding a pouch with two very quiet girls inside.  I took Cirrus from M, who had her and CB, and into the bathroom we went.  I proceeded to reacquaint Cirrus with Foehn, with Virga there to "mediate". Again, there were a few moments of crabbing, but in about 10 minutes the three of them were running around the bathroom having a grand old time. I rapped on the wall (the bathroom shares a wall with the office) and asked M to bring CB in. For the next hour and a half or so all four gliders climbed, jumped, and ran around the bathroom and me. There was a blanket on the floor so they were safe and comfortable.

It was time to put them in the cage. We had been communicating with another glider owner whose advice we respect and her suggestion was to let the gliders work out their differences and re-establish their pecking order. This meant that we would have to let them crab and chase each other without interfering. Easier said than done, since we were both more than a little concerned for Virga and Cirrus, not wanting them (or CB and Foehn, for that matter) to be injured. So, we placed them in the cage, and it was calm for all of 15 seconds. There was angry crabbing and gliders being chased around the cage. M was a mess about this and said she wouldn't be able to sleep. The most scary part was when Foehn and Cirrus "balled up" on one of the wheels. All we could do was watch, and in a few seconds one of them went leaping out of the wheel.  I told M I would stay up with them but she wanted to be out there and set up a blanket and pillow on the floor of the great room. I was dozing on and off in an easy chair and got enough sleep to keep me going for awhile. There were periods of quiet in the cage, interspersed with angry crabbing and the sounds of gliders being chased off a wheel or being kept away from one of the kitchens. Any time there was a disturbance I would go to the cage to observe and make sure nobody appeared injured. M fell sound asleep at some point, and about 2:00 a.m. I woke her and told her to head to bed. She would be very sore if she spent the whole night on the floor.

When they weren't crabbing at each other, there were gliders on both wheels almost the whole time. At 3:30 a.m. they finally decided to take a nap, and so did I. At 4:15 a.m. they were up and at it again. The crabbing encounters were still occurring, but less frequently.  I dozed off in the chair, awaking when there was a disturbance in the cage. I woke up about 6:45 a.m. and it was quiet. I went to the cage to check on their sleeping arrangements, figuring they would be in at least two separate pouches. We had three in the cage to give them more options. To my surprise, they were all in one pouch! Success!  At that point I went to bed to get a few hours of uninterrupted sleep.

By Monday morning M had recovered from our long night, and you would have never known the gliders had been separated for two weeks and we had gone through a stressful reunion. Things were back to normal.