We've Been Working on a Railroad...

This weekend M and I helped "railroad" a glider from a breeder in Missouri to her new owner in New York. The east and west portions of the railroad were in place, but the middle section was up in the air. M and I decided to help out, in part because the glider community has been so supportive with our issues with Virga and Cirrus. So, we were the middle link in the railroad. On Friday we hit the road for Collinsville, IL (east of St. Louis, where we were to meet the breeder and pick up the glider. When we pulled into Collinsville at about 5:00 p.m., it was a a hot 104°F! We weren't scheduled to meet the breeder until about 6:30 p.m. but we got there a little early so we could grab dinner.  The breeder was driving from southeastern Missouri and her leg of the trip was about 2 1/2 hours. About 6:50 p.m. she pulled into our arranged meeting spot. We all introduced ourselves and we took custody of Draco (Drake for short), a ring-tailed mosaic glider.

This is Drake shortly after we took custody of him. M had just placed an apple slice
in the pouch for him to snack on. Big feet!

We got home about 9:30 p.m. and got Drake settled in the "guest cage". We fed our four their evening mealworm snack, gave them some playtime, and then headed to bed. We were on the road again before 8:00 a.m. headed to the northeast side of Indianapolis, where we were to hand off Drake to two others in the glider community who would then take Drake to Columbus, OH where they would meet Drake's new owner driving in from western New York.

Drake checks out the guest cage. His color is lighter than standard grey gliders.
His tail is almost white with a darker ring on it (it's out of the frame and not visible).

We met up with Denise and Janelle who came down from Fort Wayne to drive the last leg of the railroad. We had a nice early lunch with them before they hit the road with little Drake. Later that night we got a message from Drake's new owner that they had arrived home safely and he was settling in to his new home.

A Week in the Northwoods

It's been a week since we returned from a relaxing six days in northern Wisconsin with our friends. The gliders accompanied us on the trip. Our trip north was two legs, which was good considering our late departure on Saturday was delayed by several hours. This was the first time we stayed overnight in a motel with the gang. We were concerned that we might not be able to set up the pet playpen in a room due to the size (48" diameter). However, the room we were given also doubled as a conference room for the hotel, so it was, in a word, huge. We were not only able to set up the playpen, but the tent as well, so they were able to get some exercise. The stay in the playpen was going to be their first, and we were hoping the night was going to go OK. As it turned out everything went well.

On Sunday we arrived at our destination. We set up the gliders' vacation home in our room. It had most of the amenities - their wheel, some of the toys they normally have in their cage, and their sleeping pouches. The whole thing only stands about 32", so the only thing they were lacking is vertical climbing room.  Their pouches were hung from a frame I made to stand in the playpen. For the first time we also utilized a "glider kitchen" for their food. The kitchen is a plastic storage container with two access holes cut in the sides. Their food is placed inside. If the little guys decide to fling their food around, as they sometimes do, it stays in the "kitchen". This was something new for them, but they didn't seem to mind it.

The gliders seemed to be as relaxed as we were during the week. I was able to have tent time with them five of the six nights there. They were active and playful each night, I think even more than they are when we're at home. They slept all day, as usual, which gave me plenty of time to fish and M plenty of time to work on her card-making.

We got an early enough start home that we decided to drive through instead of stopping overnight halfway. That had us home in early evening, plenty of time to get their dinner ready before they woke up for the night. Other than the mad scrambling on departure day, our first extended trip with the gliders was a success. I'm not sure how many of these trips there will be, but it's nice to know that we can do it if need be.

Gettin' Ready for a "Family" Vacation

Good friends of ours had invited us to spend a week with them at their cabin in northern Wisconsin. With the gliders only recently a foursome (as opposed to two twosomes), we were a little apprehensive about leaving them at home for a week in the care of someone who was not that familiar with them. We asked our friends if they minded if we brought the gliders with us, and they graciously agreed. So, we prepared to take them with us. This involved planning for not only a week away from home, but two long car rides, about 7 1/2 hours each way.

Traveling with gliders is like traveling with young children. Maybe this is the case for most pets, I don't know. At any rate, it did remind me a little of getting ready for a long trip when our children were young. We had to consider everything from their food to their housing arrangements. The housing was the thing that was up in the air. Virga and Cirrus came with a 30w x 30d x 24h bird cage that is collapsible, but still is a little cumbersome to be dragging around. We had checked around on a couple of glider discussion groups for some ideas.  Everything from collapsible dog kennels to tents were considered, but what we decided on was a Ware Pop-Up Pet Playpen. It is 48 inches in diameter, about 24 inches high, and has a fair amount of room for the gliders to run around in. A local store, Farm & Fleet, carried them so I went to buy one for the trip. Our local store was out of them and didn't know when they would get more in. However, the helpful sales person told me that someone had been in to buy one that morning and she was having one sent from a store in about 50 miles west of us. "They have five", she said. So, we decided to drive to the store after work. When we arrived, the salesperson told me that no, they did not have any and hadn't had any since December. I was not happy. She did check with other stores and found a store located 80 miles north of us. She called them and had them hold one for us. We initially planned to pick it up on our way north to Wisconsin. However, what I had found on the visit to our local store was that the floor of this playpen was attached by six Velcro tabs. Gliders like to crawl under things like blankets, so this playpen was not going to work for us as it came out of the package. We decided that the solution would be to buy several yards of Velcro and sew it on the floor so the entire perimeter was sealed. It was now Thursday, so to make the modification we really needed to have the playpen Friday so we could attach the Velcro. On Friday, I made the 80 mile trip north and back, returning with playpen in hand. Sewing on the Velcro to the playpen  itself  (with a sewing machine) was a little challenging, but M was up to the challenge and the entire thing was finished in about 90 minutes. With that out of the way, all that remained was to finish packing.Of course, then we had all of the excitement on Saturday morning I wrote about in my previous post.

Here's what we packed for them:  the pop-up playpen, a small pop-up kennel for them to ride in while in the car, the pop-up tent, their wheel, some toys for them to play with, a bag with pouches, blankets, water bottle, and other miscellaneous stuff, an emergency medical kit along with Foehn's prescription from the vet, food (which had to be kept in a cooler), a frame I made from PVC pipe and plastic hardware cloth on which to hang their sleeping pouch and water bottle in the playpen, and just in case, the collapsed bird cage.

The preparations were crazy this time, mostly because of the playpen hunt. The vacation itself was great. I'll write about that in my next post.