The Great Escape

OK, this escape wasn't a great one with respect to some of the others we have experienced, but at time it happened last night The Great Escape (the movie) was showing on TCM.

The little ones were not being cooperative at the conclusion of play time last night. When it was time to call it quits, I rattled the zipper on the pouch and dropped it on the floor.  On most nights, at least two, if not all of the gliders come from all directions and crawl into the pouch. Last night Virga was the only one that entered the pouch, but after a few seconds crawled back out when nobody joined her.  On night when I don't get their total cooperation, I will usually take the two or three that climb in the pouch and take then to the cage. I eventually got CB and Virga to climb in the pouch, and took them to the cage.  I then came back and fetched Cirrus, who typically likes to curl up in a corner when she has had enough play time. After I placed her in the cage, I came back into the office to look for Foehn. Sometimes they do like to hide out and run around if they aren't ready to quit, so I wasn't too worried. However, after ten minutes looking in every possible place she could be I was becoming concerned. I suspected she may have slipped out of the office when I left to put CB and Virga in the cage. I always try to be careful about this and never have had a problem with one of them sneaking out in the past. Closing the office door behind me just in case she was still in there, I started looking for her in the great room, where their cage is located. Out of the corner of my eye I saw her dash under a bookcase just outside the office.  At least she wasn't downstairs in the basement!  Of course, when I looked under the bookcase she wasn't there. Within seconds I heard the rapid "ptap ptap ptap" of a glider running in the dining room. She saw me - I saw her and placed the pouch on the floor. Thankfully, she crawled right in the pouch and that was that. Elapsed time was about 10 minutes - nothing like her last escape. 

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.

A Bit of a Scare

I was still in a morning haze in bed Wednesday when I heard M calling me from the family room. She had gotten up to bring the gliders into the office for their morning yogurt and exercise (sounds like a spa, doesn't it?). As is often the case, Cirrus was still out and about the cage. Cirrus climbed on to M's robe, which normally is followed by a short trip to the office. Well, this time Cirrus had other ideas. She quickly jumped to the outside top of the cage and then crawled to the bottom where M could not reach her. Virga was already out of the pouch and climbing on M, so she decided to get the three of them into the office and come back and get Cirrus. The trip to the office and back is 30 seconds at most. When M came back out to get Cirrus, she was nowhere to be found. There was no scurrying of little feet or other sounds that would point to a likely location.  That's when I got the call.

Typically when one of the gliders is loose you can here them running around. As I slowly went through the family room and adjoining rooms I didn't hear a sound. That was not good. Cirrus is a very active glider and she especially has a good time in the morning, so it wasn't likely that she hunkered down to sleep in that amount of time. With some dread I went down into the basement to see if she might be there. I checked the areas near the stairs and did not see or hear anything. I headed back upstairs to look around some more, but no luck. On place I did not check in the basement was the area we discovered Foehn in during their summer "breakout".  I went back downstairs and checked the utility area. Within seconds I heard and then saw Cirrus climbing around the stuff down there. She was not about to come to me or let me grab her - she was having far too good of a time. I dashed upstairs and grabbed a pouch and went back down. I held out the pouch and she crawled right in. She joined the rest of the gang in the office moments later, but not before she got a little bit of a talking to by me. That leaves Virga as the only one who hasn't headed to the basement, and we'd like to keep it that way.

It still amazes me how fast the gliders can move. It also amazes me that they can get down the stairs so fast. Getting down the stairs is the easy part - getting up the stairs appears to be more daunting.

The basement stairs - a tall order for a small glider.

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.

Flirting with Disaster

Early last Saturday morning, hours before we were scheduled to leave on a week's vacation in northern Wisconsin, I woke to M yelling "They are out!".  I jumped out of bed, threw on some clothes and slippers and headed to the office where the cage is.  M had come in to give them their morning yogurt treat and found the bottom cage door open and three gliders missing.  Only Virga remained in the cage. I had left the bottom cage door unlatched the night before. There was no telling how long they had been out or where they were.

As I came into the family room M heard a glider running in the room. It turned out to be Cirrus, and she was pretty easy to gather up and get back into the cage. Now to find the two youngsters. They could be anywhere, and with their bed time coming up we had to locate them before they found some place to curl up and go to sleep. We checked all the rooms, looked in and under the couches, and then based on our previous experience with CB went, with some dread, to check the basement. Almost as soon as we stepped off the staircase we heard some rustling - it was CB. I had a pouch with me so I set it down in front of him, and he crawled right in. Two down, one to go. I headed quickly to the other side of the basement to check the utility area where the sump well is located. As I turned the corner at the end of a wall there was Foehn. I offered her the pouch and she crawled in to join her brother. All in all the roundup only took about ten minutes, but it was ten minutes filled with anxiety and worry. CB and Foehn can get down stairs, but it is not likely they could have climbed up the 14 oak stairs from the basement.

M was checking them out after their little adventure and noticed that Foehn's pouch was inverted. It did not look irritated or infected, but it was something that had to be checked out. So, I headed into the vet while M called ahead.  Our regular vet was totally booked on that Saturday morning, so we were referred to the University of Illinois Small Animal Clinic. There she was checked over and tested for an infection. Fortunately, the test was negative. However, the vet prescribed an anti-inflammatory and an oral antibiotic as a preventive measure, especially since we were going to be gone for a week. He suspected that stress may have been the reason for the inversion, although everything had been normal with her and the others.  So, with medications in hand and a sleepy glider ready to join her mates, I returned home to finish packing for our trip. This was a trip the gliders were joining us on. More on that in the next post.

Escape Artist

Tonight was Virga's and Cirrus' turn in the tent. Since all four can't be in the tent together yet, I alternate nights between the pairs. Both Cirrus and Virga crawled out of their pouch quickly tonight and were pretty active. Virga has been doing this thing where she "pushes" her head against the side of the tent and really gets her whole body into it. We are not sure why she is doing this, and we have been discouraging this by gently blowing on her, which distracts her and she stops for awhile and climbs around. But, she will go back to doing this until either we blow on her or Cirrus comes around and gets her attention.

The other night during their tent time I was watching TV while sitting in the tent and noticed that things were quiet. I looked around and saw that Cirrus and Virga were both outside the tent.  "Uh oh." Fortunately, they were crawling into their pouch which was sitting where I normally put it just outside the tent. I unzipped the tent and brought the pouch inside with me. I reminded myself to carefully check to be sure the zippers are completely closed.

Fast forward to tonight. I was playing with Cirrus and looked over to where Virga was, and she wasn't. She was outside the tent again crawling on their pouch!  I was sure I had closed the zippers tightly, but maybe not. I was able to grab her before she was able to run off and get her back into the tent, but she wasn't happy about it. It was only a few minutes more and I turned just in time to see her tail exiting the tent. This time I had to get up and go after her since she decided to do a little exploring. She ended up on our entertainment center, and crawled into the pouch when I offered it to her. This time I made sure the zippers were closed, although I was certain they were closed before.  I kept the pouch inside the tent, since that seemed to be what was getting her attention. That worked for awhile, but the next thing I know there she is again on the outside of the tent. This time M was in the room and was able to coax her into the pouch after she had climbed up one of the windows in the family room. Once we got her back into the tent (one last time) we decided to see how she was doing this.  M held the zippers closed from the outside, and we let Virga make her attempt. It turns out Virga is able to work her nose in between the bottom zippers and the top one and force the top one open. I'll have to use a twist tie or something to keep those zippers closed in the future.

The "three zipper junction" in the Genji tent, site of Virga's numerous escapes

CB - the Explorer, Part Deux

I was fully intending to post last night, but ended up being otherwise occupied. It was a long day, but ended with about an hour of tent time. M turned in early, so it was just me and the gliders. The ending tent time thing really is working. When I need to end it, I bring the pouch in, they climb in within a minute or two, and off we go to the cage where they can have their dinner. Last night went as usual, except that I was holding the pouch closed rather than having zipped it. They are both pretty squirmy in the pouch when they know dinner is soon. Well, as I was placing the pouch in the cage a glider streaked out of the pouch and onto the side of the cage. I thought it was Foehn, since the glider in the cage was already getting settled in the sleeping pouch, and that's CB's M.O. However, we discovered that it in fact was CB that had escaped but only at the end of this long escapade. He far surpassed his previous adventure.

I was unable to coax or bribe him into a pouch, although I almost had him once. He scampered into the dining room, which adjoins the room their cage is in. I was pretty successful in keeping him corralled there, or so I thought. He was under the dining room table, and I was trying to move his pouch close so he would see it and hopefully go in. I don't know exactly when, but he seemed to just disappear. I looked all over and listened. After ten minutes, I realized that he was either no longer in the area or hiding quietly. I went in and told M, who was just falling asleep, that "Foehn is gone and I don't know where she is!" We searched everywhere upstairs. We made sure all the toilet seats were down, looked behind the stove, under beds, in the cushions of the sofa. M thought that since we couldn't see him investigating anything he might have gone downstairs into the basement. When I could not locate him initially I immediately checked the basement stairs but did not see him and assumed he didn't have time to get down there without being seen. After a half hour or more of searching upstairs I was feeling pretty bad for letting him get away and wondering if we would ever find him. I was standing at the top of the stairs and thought I heard something. I told M to stay still, and sure enough I heard some rustling in the basement. I shined my flashlight into the basement and saw a long tail move out of the light! He was down there. The good news - we knew where he was, but the bad news was that he was in the basement, and the basement is full of "stuff". To top it off, he made a beeline for the worst area of the basement, the "utility" area whee the sump pump, well tank. and water softener are located, and which is currently packed with more stuff including wood I use. It is dusty and generally a mess and hard to get around, in addition to having tons of places for a glider to hide. Once we found him in the basement, it took at least an hour to finally grab him. We would lay a pouch down with a meal worm or yogurt treat. He would go halfway in, grab the goods, and back right out before I could grab the pouch. Finally, he exposed himself enough where I was able to grab him with a fleece blanket. He was scared and dusty and bit me hard. We had him, though, after more than two hours of searching and chasing. It was when M was wiping him down to get the dust and dirt off that we realized it was CB and not Foehn.

Typically CB is laid back and calm. Here's a photo of him settled into my pant leg during tent time - that's the "normal" CB. However, once he gets a taste of freedom he is a different animal...CB, the Explorer.

Glider Wrangling

After I posted last night it was time to get the gliders back to their cage. I was still at the computer when M called out from the other room. Foehn had jumped out of her hands on to her arm and M hadn't yet opened the cage door. I hurried to give her a hand with CB still with me in a pouch. As I opened the cage door CB jumped on to my arm, much to my surprise. Uh oh. Since I was right at the cage door I moved my arm into the cage and CB jumped off. One down, one to go. She wasn't going to go easily. Foehn jumped on to the outside of the cage and for the next 15 minutes she ran up one side and down the other (but never the side with the door). CB was in the cage, and at times he and Foehn seemed to be communicating. Although M and I were keeping her corralled near the cage, she didn't seem to have much interest in leaving the vicinity of the cage, and she could have. Maybe it because CB was inside or perhaps because dinner was waiting. Eventually we were able to gather her up and let her join her brother. That was enough excitement for one night for them and us.

CB - the Explorer

The gliders had a somewhat different schedule today. We were gone much of the afternoon and so they spent the entire day sleeping in their pouch in the cage. They were starting to stir when we got home around 6:00 p.m., so M went into the tent with Foehn while I had CB, sleeping of course, in a blanket. (By the way, these are small fleece "blankets", roughly 12 x 18", lest someone thinks we are using a large regular blanket). When he finally was awake and a little more active he went into the tent as well. No wheel tonight, though. They both spent more than 90 minutes on the wheel last night, and except for very short climbing breaks spent their whole time spinning around. Foehn was climbing the walls of the tent tonight at first, but once they both found they could crawl under the flannel sheet on the bottom of tent, well, that was a pretty darn comfortable place to be. This was earlier than their usual play time, so both readily climbed in the pouch when we placed it in the tent.

We settled down again with the both of them, M with Foehn and me with CB. Foehn is getting very comfortable being out of the pouch, held (in a blanket), and petted. CB was in a blanket as well, but he's like a squirmy kid sometimes, always readjusting his position to find that "just so" comfortable spot. At one point he poked his head to look around, and before I could react he was again out of the pouch liked greased lightning. He jumped on to the arm of the sofa and then on the floor. He first headed under the sofa, and I could see the tip of his tail sticking out from under the back The pouch was on the floor but he was not interested. He skittered out from under the sofa and across the floor to where the entertainment center sits in a corner. This is where Foehn ended up the second night we had them. It's easy for a glider to get behind it, but not us big creatures. CB moved along the side and to the back before I could get him. I didn't want him getting into the dusty tangle of cables back there. Fortunately, he stayed toward the side, but out of reach. I went to the back, he would move toward the front. I went to the front, he would move to the back. In the meantime I knocked over a plant which fell on to the tent and them making a very loud noise and spreading dirt when it hit the floor. CB appeared to be a little scared at this point from the noise and with being in a new and strange place. We thought we would tempt him out with a yogurt treat. However, he snatched that before I could get to the front to grab him and took the yogurt treat to the back where we couldn't reach him. We figured by now he would probably welcome the security and comfort of his pouch, and we laid it on the floor with a yogurt treat inside. Within seconds he was in and ready to end his latest adventure.

"Cleanup on aisle 10..."

The Wheel Goes 'Round 'n' 'Round...

We just got finished with some time in the tonight. The last two nights we have put their "Custom Choice Cruiser" wheel in the tent, which they love running on. It's big enough so both of them can be in it, but they are not always of like mind. CB generally likes to run from left to right, and Foehn likes to run from right to left...I have no idea why. However, it's comical to watch because when that happens the wheel doesn't really turn and they end up running up their respective sides of the wheel. When they are in synch they love to really get going on it. Every few minutes one of them (usually Foehn) will try to get out while the other is still running full tilt. Foehn will hang on to the outer rim of the wheel for dear life while CB is running full speed. It makes me queasy just watching it! They take brief breaks from the wheel to run around and climb up the walls of the tent, then hop back on. For all of his sleeping, CB sure makes up for it on the wheel. He was on that for the better part of 90 minutes tonight. Of course, now that they are back in the cage he is "resting" in the pouch.

Yesterday marked their third week here. They are becoming more and more comfortable and the signs of trust are gradually becoming evident. Tonight, for example, Foehn let me pet her while we were in the tent. A week ago she would have run away from my hand. The next milestone we are looking for is for them to climb on to our hand or arm.

CB celebrated their third week by briefly escaping for some exploration last night. I was returning him to the cage in their pouch. Normally, you can't pry him out of it once he is in, but last night I opened the pouch to check him and put him in the cage and he was out like greased lightning. He jumped on to me and to the floor, and then it was exploration time. He headed to the foyer, and to my dismay toward the basement stairs. "Not good", I thought. If he got to the basement there are a zillion places for him to hide. He scampered down the first two steps and looked like he had intentions for more. The only way I had a chance of ending this well was to get below him on the stairs. I was able to do that pretty easily, and he tried to get away from me back up the stairs. However, the stairs are oak and not carpeted and he wasn't able to get a grip. I scooped him up with one of his blankets, ending his little adventure.