News Flash! Human plays like a lemur!

Hack, wheeze, coff, coff, allergy season has arrived. Too bad it never ended in the first place. However finding myself semi conscious today, it's time to update the blog.

Got a frantic email from Peace's mom, they were out of town and the woman watching Peace was worried because he wasn't coming out from under the blanket and he had dropped so much weight. Since I got the email too late at night to do anything, I worried all night, and we headed over there first thing in the morning. Sure enough, that was one unhappy kinkajou. He seemed healthy enough though, so we let him out of the cage to run around in the garage. After a few minutes he got that "Hey, I know you! You used to be my parents!" look, and his whole personality changed. He bounced, he played, he was a charming as ever...and this is one of the MOST charming babies I've raised. If he's dropped weight, he must have been a bit on the pudgy side, because he looks perfect. He also behaved most politely, S & V have done an excellent job with him. He's simply depressed because he's stuck in a cage without his people and without his cat or the dogs. We'll go over after work tomorrow to see him again, and let the cat in to play with him too. I'm going to suggest if they have to be gone longer than two weeks they let us know and we'll go cheer him up. I love seeing my babies so well loved and taken care of.

Rollo, my friendly typing assistant, has doubled in size. He's still tiny enough/ //he can sit on my hand while I type and no1w he pushes keys. Which means anny weird spots in this is his fault! Oh, ooh, he's discovered the mosue, time to come back to the lap! He trills to me all the time when he's out, a little commentary that sounds like "Oh, whats that? I'm here mom, look at that, I'm here, can I go there??" Kind of a like a baby radar, he wants to know where I am and where he is all the time. He wants to explore, so long as at least one hand is touching me. The monitor is new to him today, it confuses his depth perception so he's not too sure if he likes it. He wants to sit on BOTH my hands to look at it, safer I guess if it suddenly come alive and attacks him.

He has discovered "out" and "in" the incubator, and now wants OUT! As soon as I slide the panel back and give him a hand or arm to climb on, he is a happy boy! Out he scampers to hinder my typing, explore my clothing, chew on my fingers. His tiny fangs are in, and very sharp. He wants to chew on me with them, which means he now knows what "No!" means. But he immediately forgets and chomps again, or grooms too hard. I must be very dirty! He is very different with K, never tries to teeth on him. Perhaps Daddy lemurs are more strict, although it doesn't seem so when I watch them. He would still like to chew on K's mustache, but has learned restraint, LOL! But K is still the one he calls to, and when he comes out and K is at work, he looks at K's chair and calls. The minute he hears K's voice, he's awake and looking. Once we are both settled at our computers, all is right with Rollo's world.

He's doing quite well with his solid food, since I've felt all those tiny sharp teeth I think I'll start him on real banana tonight. His little tummy sticks out, still has the spindly little arms and legs, but now has a little pot belly. It's getting to be a challenge to get him BACK in the cage, he flings himself at the opening while I try oh-so-carefully to slide the panel shut without getting tiny fingers crushed. He tries to climb everything, which isn't much in an incubator! I'm about to go out and buy some Tinkertoys and build the little guy a gym! He bounces constantly, like some demented wind-up toy. Oh, I need a movie camera, there is just such joy in every bounce! His stripey tail flicks everywhere, it's twice as long as his body and has developed into fluffy stripes. He doesn't signal with it as much as he will when he gets older, but he washes it and grooms it. Then, mouth wide open, he attacks his cow toy, the bedding, the wall, the air vents in the roof, his toes. Never a dull moment!

I think he likes it best when I open his door and put my knee up so he can run in and out as he likes. Now he chews on the door, checks out the top as far as he can reach without actually leaving me, oooh, lights, buttons! He doesn't bounce when he's in my lap, but on his pecarious perch on my knee, he hops up and down, leaving me to make frantic grabs when I think he's going to slide off, which of course he never does.

Well, there's a break through! He's finally figured out how to play with me. I run my fingers at him and he pounces on them, or grabs with his hands. Oh yes, need camera! Gosh, I feel like baby just took his first steps! Play time!

Kinkababy's photo shoot

Ahhh, sleep! Once K got back from his trip, he lets me sleep during the day while he feeds the babies. What a guy!

We gave Rollo his first baby food squash to go with his banana. Got smart this time, last time I put the banana on a plate and he rolled in it. Really hard to get off of little lemur ears. I thought I did pretty good, but the next feeding his ear was just glued to the side of his head! Looked pretty funny, actually. But like any little boy, he isn't going to sit still to be washed.

He's finding the tiny crock we put the food into, to be as facinating as the food. He is really a daddys boy now, calls and calls to K. I wonder how mom lemurs deal with these hyper little guys. No wonder the whole group shares babysitting.

Kinkababy needed new pictures to send off, but of course once he was out of the cage, he was in motion. The only way we could keep him still was with a bottle. THAT got his attention. Bottles mean cuddles, so he pretended to nurse long after the bottle was empty. Silly boy, that's what I was trying to get him to do in the first place!

A lemur on the laptop

Yuck, my first day of K's business trip. For some reason my body thinks I should just sleep until he gets back home. Not going to happen with all these babies and doing his chores too. Plus the critters are going to be upset while he is gone, me too, kids, me too!

Rollo has changed so much over the past few days. He now wants out to sit with me if I'm at the computer, and will sometimes go back in to go to sleep all by himself. At first, he fought if I tried to detach him from his toy, now he gets upset if I detach him from me. While he bounces all over in the cage, as soon as he is out he settles right down and watches me type, or falls asleep holding on to me, just like he would with his natural mother. He loves to make a wristband of himself and watch me type, his nose about an inch from the keyboard. He's still such a tiny thing that I can barely feel his weight. It's amazing how much company he is at this age. I can imagine him, fully grown, sitting on my shoulder supervising. His spelling would probably be better than mine! Even full grown he won't weigh that much. I wish I could convince Emily to sit on my shoulder, she doesn't fit under the keyboard so I have to lean over her to type. She also weighs a surprising amount for a small animal, kinkajous are all muscle, even at an advanced old age. She's also getting a bit over weight with all this new food she gets. For some reason, ALL my animals think they should be held while I'm on the computer. At least Moosie just wants to be under my feet. Everyone else wants a lap. I'd need arms like Elastic Girl, just to reach the key board. Actually, with his talent, I'm sure Morpheus would be asleep on that, with Elmo trying to shove him off. What a household!

Well, if you can't find a tiny teething ring, this finger will have to do!

Getting to be a big kid.

Monkey see...

Rollo is getting more aware by the minute. He watches everything that goes on. Last night, he would mirror every move K made. When K would go out of sight around the edge of the incubator, Rollo would try to track him. He knew where K should be! He can bounce all over now without falling...well most of the time. He's at the stage that he would be taking a few bounces away from Mom. Now when I set the bottle down for a minute, he looks up into my face to see what is going on. He's so fascinated by everything, it's getting difficult to get him to take his bottle. He crawled up and touched my face for the first time. He tries so hard to understand. I'm getting better at copying his sounds, or perhaps he's just being polite, but we trill back and forth. He always calls to K when K gets home. Ringtail lemur dads help take care of the baby, so this is perfectly normal for him. K doesn't feed him, but often holds him or brings him to me.

M has one male and female separate from the others, and the male is a real brat. Super aggressive and will scratch and bite if you give him a chance, I've never seen one like that. One of the older lemur babies can get through the wire, they can't catch him so they can't rewire the cage. The other day when I was feeding, he was getting really upset about being outside the cage, when the food was INSIDE! I was hoping he would go back through the wire. Instead, when I turned around, he was inside the mean lemur's cage, eating out of their dish! I was looking around for something to defend him with, when I saw the male wasn't paying any attention at all to him. All three were sitting there, just as nice as could be, sharing the food. The two colonies have attacked and killed each other's babies, but I guess a juvenile can go where he wants. Also, the fact that the one lemur is not part of a colony, but just a pair may help. M says the male is a big coward, you just have to face him down. Okaaaay. Next time. That would be nice, since his female really wants to be loved and petted, and he won't let her. I guess I will have to learn "Back off, buddy!" in lemur.

Well! Good news! Rollo is not being sold this weekend! Instead, I get to raise him for awhile, and he's going to someone who has already had a lemur baby. Just breaks my heart I get to watch him for a while longer! I was beginning to dread this weekend. I sent pics to his new owner, hopefully I'll get to know him a bit by email. I'm glad Rollo is not going while he is so young. I'm even more selfishly glad I get to watch him grow up a bit more. I'll post last night's photos, now if I can get one of him playing!

Tail Talk

Rollo has learned to control his tail now. Well, mostly. You can tell a lot about a lemur by watching it's tail, they wrap it around themselves, groom it, flick it, stroke it. Rollo hasn't got complete control yet, I wonder if maybe it's like having a lisp! He can bounce now and loves to jump up and down on his toy, it's about 8 times bigger than he is. He can be sound asleep, but as soon as I start thinking about it, he pops awake and checks me out. When I started writing this he was all tucked up and sleeping, but now he is watching me for clues. It must confuse him a bit that I don't have a tail! Maybe he feels sorry for me, poor deprived human!

I've been sitting here typing for over an hour, how did he know when I started writing about him? Nothing changed except my thoughts. Now he's trilling to me and ready to play. We haven't figure out quite how to do that, since he's only as big as my hand. I bounce it across the cage at him, and he looks puzzled. Hmm, maybe if I paint stripes on one of my fingers, so it looks like his tail?

Agggh, the pride is trying to break the door down, it's feeding time. I'd better go feed the beasts before I start looking like a gazelle to them!

Caracal kitten

Kinkababy

Leaping Lemurs, Bat Boy!

Well, I guess my lemur baby is sold, and will move on to his new mom this coming weekend. But M said I could have one of the twins to raise for a bit! They were born the same day as Rollo, so it will be more of a continuation...and I get to start feedings at 3 hours instead of 2!!! That's really sweet of her, I will miss Rollo terribly. He's a bit under the weather today, but he has new teeth tonight, as I found at my finger's risk. He can chew pretty hard for a baby who can barely get my finger in his mouth! I think it's just the teething, but I will check with M tomorrow to make sure, since he's a new species for me.

Her friend went to buy the Egyptian porcupines yesterday. One had just died, and the other was on it's way out. Poor little babies. I didn't realize they were in Missouri.

On the bright side, her Munchkin kittens arrived. She's going to decide which one she likes best and sell the other. Um hum. Maybe, we'll see. They are only 7 weeks old, I can hardly wait to see them. More good news, Brandy is getting milk! That means caracal kittens, the very first Poacher has sired! He's out of the Spocks, so the kittens should be fantastic. I'm pretty sure Brandy will raise her own kittens too. Long may the Spock line reign! Brandy has had kittens from Mr. Spock before and she is so pretty! Now if M can only get a male kitten out of Bobby to keep.

Kinkababy was pretty funny tonight. He did the bit where he grabbed the nipple and popped it, sending formula everywhere. Only this time some got up his nose. He does that all the time, but this time he got really upset! He slapped the bottle and looked really offended. I held and rocked him, and pretty soon he wanted to bounce over everything. I offered the bottle again, since he only drank half of it. He nursed for a bit, then decided it was about to attack him again, and cuffed it. Back to rocking, then bouncing. He has suddenly turned into a teenager! He'd want the bottle, but didn't trust that treacherous thing now. So he stood up on his hind legs to nurse, just like a little bear. I guess he felt he could make a quicker get-a-way in that pose. In between, he'd check out the screen, the key board, the back of my neck, anything he could. His great big round eyes just sparkled, he was so interested in EVERYTHING! He is just such a charmer. But cuffing that bottle was so funny! I really hope M & B take him. He'd love to be petted and adored by everyone, and I'd know he'd have the best home and get to see him again.

I've been down all day, so I am going to go hang out with my deprived (and depraved) cats, since they are feeling neglected.

Ready for my close-up Mr. DeMille...

Anybody speak lemur?

Seems like all I got done today (outside of bottle feeding) was finally getting my last post finished. It took forever for me to figure out how to do the pics IN the article. Must be the lack of sleep. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Rollo is getting more personality by the day, maybe the hour. He likes just to stay with me, he trills and chirps and I try to imitate him and speak lemur. I must speak it with an awful accent, he looks pretty confused sometimes.

I haven't been spending much time with Kinkababy, so I took him to play on the bed. He was soooo happy! He pounced and wrestled and made all sorts of cute little sounds. He looks huge compared to the lemur! He's "helping" me type this. Rollo is doing all sorts of tricks to get his attention, he would love to play with him. Both of them want to be on me all the time, so do the cats, and somehow that just doesn't work.

Kinkababy just ran up to kiss me. He will go a little way off now, keeping a close eye on me. But every so often he had to reassure me how much he loves me by running back to kiss me.

Whoa! He just drank his whole bottle! Now he's so fat he's just lying in my lap with a milk mustache, looking cute and smug. He still tries to bounce a bit, but he's too heavy! Time to go back to the cage for a bit. I really need to start housebreaking him. Wish I knew how!

I'm trying to get things cleaned up before J comes. I was doing the dishes last night, snarling at the empty milk cartons and Pepsi bottles taking up half the floor. I keep asking DH not to leave them there, and he keeps forgetting. So I was having this conversation inside my head.

Me: (irritated) Please don't leave the empties there, it's hard for me to pick them up.

Him: But if I take them outside, the horse will get into them and spread them all over.

Me: Well, find some place he can't reach, they don't belong in here.

Him: But...

Me: (exasperated) I don't care. Find some place for them.

We have this conversation a lot, can you tell? I know what he's going to say. He knows what I am going to say. It's programmed, we could just run a tape. But he's on a day trip and still not back, and I miss him, so I decided not to play the tape this time. I occasionally get fed up and just kick them out the door, so if he wants to get in he has to put them somewhere. But it's raining and dark, and I miss him and he DID finally get the fridge to run. Plus, he buys me chocolate. Plus, he's sweet and sexy and I'm nuts about him. Most men would get upset if a wallaby had an accident in the bed in the middle of the night.

When I finally do ask him to clean up the pile, he surprises me by having a place to put them! Now, if I can only get him to not leave them on the floor in the first place....both of us missed out on the clean gene. Which may be just as well, otherwise I would have missed out on getting to snuggle with wallabies all night. Anyone can have a clean house. And he no longer ignores them when they let him know they need off the bed!

Kinkababy is sleeping off his full tummy, and Rollo is learning how to play with his toys. He pounces, then looks to see if I've noticed. He's discovered his tail can be chewed and sucked on, and is always handy. Time to pacify the ravening horde we call cats. Otherwise they will seek out and shred the toilet paper!

In the beginning there was a serval...

I know it's hard to believe, but I do get asked how all these cats and critters arrived.
Not that I don't love telling this story a thousand times, but I don't always have time. Now they can just come here.
In the beginning....
There was a very spoiled young serval who adored kittens.
His folks were staying with friends who had a very beautiful kitten. Unfortunately the kitten, Jazz, was major brat, badly behaved and dangerous to play with. This in a household which also has a cougar! Jazz had the sweetest kitten face, but it was just to lure you close enough to bite or scratch! She is a purebred calico Cymrik (long haired manx). For those not in the cat world, calicos without a lot of white on them are usually described as "difficult". Manx owners tell you not to get one unless you can spend a lot of time with it, they need company. If they get bored, they get in to trouble. They are also extremely intelligent.
Now, I love animals, I really really do. But even I didn't care much for Jazz. She lived up to both reputations a little too well. Soon her owner had dubbed her "itty bitty shitty kitty". In fact, the only one who like her was Moosie, the serval. No matter what she did, it was all right with him. He has great big ears, Jazz jumped up and grabbed one and held on, ripping chunk out of it. Moosie just sat there with this doofus "Ain't she cute?" look on his face, with blood streaming from his ear. Of course, before we could get to them, Jazz had dropped off and scarpered. So Moosie shook his head, the blood was tickling him, and the walls, furniture and our clothes were splattered.
Now, I am the biggest sucker for animals in the known universe. I've had pinky housemice when their mother was killed, a one-legged canary, blind sugar gliders. We had a housefull of pets, and no house yet. No way was I taking that little Demon Seed.
After an attempt to sell her (no takers at ALL) and as we got ready to move out, my friend played her last and dirtiest card. "Well, she's too mean to let stay around the serval kittens, she'll have to go out in the barn." Triiiiicky! She knew darn well that kitten would try to face down a truck or one of the big cats and be gone before 24 hours. She knew that I knew. I knew that she knew that I knew, but we somehow ended up taking Jazz when we moved out. Moosie was ecstatic. We were covered in bandages and iodine. Tarly, our other cat, just looked at her and yawned. Just so long as she was still the prettiest cat in the kingdom, she was OK with anything.

So, let's see, at that time we had Moosie, Tarly, and Jazz, two chinchillas, I can't remember how many sugar gliders. I'm sure we had more than that, but you get the idea. Upon arrival, the landlord's horse, Trouncer, greeted us with open hoofs. We finally built a fence to keep him from coming in the yard. I was warned to keep the door closed, because he would come right inside, and the floor couldn't handle it. Neither could my nerves!
I was doing the bottle feeding for a few litters of coaties. I'd already raised a lot, when this teeny tiny one came along. We both figured he had heart problems and wouldn't live, he was half the size of his litter mates. But, never say die. I carried him around under my shirt, close to my heart. People thought I was deformed, I had a baby coatie under my shirt, with a sugar glider pouch over that, with my shirt over the whole caboodle. (Hey, I once packed 32 baby squirrels all the same time. But that's another story.) Tickle Me Elmo came out that year, and that's all you heard about. My husband HATES Elmo's voice, he reacts to it like fingernails on a blackboard. Well, the baby was small, loved to be tickled and had a high squeaky voice, so I dubbed him Elmo, and prepared to make his short time on earth comfortable as I could. I guess it worked, because he suddenly recovered one day and hasn't had a sick day since. He's a big beautiful mountain coatie. His mother had broken his tail and it healed at a right angle, K says it's his kickstand.

My friend got new barn cats, and they were beating up her female. I'd always loved that cat, and they didn't much care for her, she was always underfoot and didn't catch mice. She's a black and white tuxedo kitty named Keyboard. So Keyboard came home with us to be an outside kitty. She hunts mice for us! I was hoping to find an inside only home for her, but it's been years, so I think she's ours. She and Jazz hate each other and fight through the window. Looks pretty silly in fact.

Our druggy neighbor took off and left her 3 cats behind. Guess who couldn't let them starve? Luckily my daughter fell in love with the female, a beautiful long haired tortie with a super loving personality. I warned her the cat was probably pregnant, since she'd been locked up with two unnuetered male cats. One was her brother and the other another black tuxedo cat. He and Keyboard looked like bookends! My daughter named the female Kanna and could hardly wait to get her. Her cat had recently died. Kanna began to look better, being fed every day and put on some weight. So did the boys, so I couldn't tell if she was preggers or not. We arranged a day for my daughter to come pick her up.
It was like Kanna knew she was going. She stayed in a box right by the window, tight as she could. Her brother laid right next to her, washing her face. Did he sense she was going too?
My daughter arrived, and we discussed the possibilities of kittens, and if they would survive since Kanna had been so neglected. We glanced out the window AND KANNA WAS HAVING KITTENS! She didn't seem to mind us at all, her brother was still licking her face. We moved her into a bigger box and got to watch the little blobs come into the world. 5! Where did that tiny skinny cat hide them?


A few days later, my daughter called us to say that we would have to bottle raise two of the kittens, as Kanna couldn't feed them all. How do you pick 2 from 5 adorable kittens? Well, the little tuxedo girl was already spoken for, so I picked the ones with the longest hair.
Ever bottle fed a baby animal? You can't leave home without them! So the kittens went visiting with us in a cute little basket. They loved all the attention and were very well behaved. Moosie was in seventh heaven. But there were better things to come.
At six weeks, my daughter called, frantic. The little orange cat never shut up and she was sure her neighbors could hear him and she wasn't supposed to have that many cats and she couldn't sleep and would we PLEASE come pick up the remaining kittens. Luckily they were weaned.
So the orange tabby and the tiny little tabby female came home too. He took one look at Moosie, who must have looked like a sky scraper, and hissed and puffed all up. We soothed him down, showed him Moosie was friendly, and the little orange guy had another idea. He and The Princess took up nursing positions in Moosie's long tummy fur. Hey, this was a bit of alright with him, now he really felt like a mommy!





Two years later, and Morpheus is about 15 pounds, a BIG cat. The Princess is still tiny and regal. Ariel, we swear takes cute lessons when we aren't around, she's such a Nermol! Johnny went to a friend, he's now a cinnamon hunk of tabby that is adored by all his fans. He still talks a lot, and his mom loves it!
And yes, the Tabby Trio still "nurse" on Moosie. Our Tarly passed away, so we decided we would keep one kitten. But which one? Morphy is outgoing and funny, Ariel is a lap kitty and adoring. The Princess supposedly was given away, but things kept happening, after a medical mishap, we decided she was meant to stay.



Our newest member of our fur family is the oldest. Emily out lived her previous owner and is 30 years old. I keep raising baby kinkajous for my friend, and it kept getting harder to give them back. So my friend came home one day with an ancient kinkajou. K said No, we have too many pets as it is. He was right of course. He listed all the reasons we couldn't have her. I discussed them with M, she solved all of them and Emily is now safely home for the rest of her life. She lives in our office, her cage is close to K's chair. We were told she hated men, but she adores him. He gives her attention all day long.



So, that's the basic cast of characters. There are lots more stories, and lots more animals. It's never dull around here. I never know what critter will stroll/fly/slither/roll/climb/rollic into my life tomorrow.

April's Coming!!!!
No, not the month, the Egyption Crested Porcupine I hand raised is coming home! She's been in an educational program for the last few years, her owner wants babies from her so he's sending her back to M. M called me with the news and also that she is getting in Egyptian Crested Porcupines, three babies still on the bottle, and she wants me to raise them because I did so well with April. Hopefully they will turn out as sweet, her owner says April is the only adult Crested that he knows of that can still be picked up. I'm not quite sure how you would pick up a full grown Crested, they are BIG! But she is old enough to breed and a bit large to tote around, so he wants her bred. I'm looking forward to seeing one of my "babies" again. M liked the Crested, I think she was the only one who did! They were so mean, and they literally ate their way out of a chain link cage. They were interesting to watch, but I didn't like them because they ate their babies. April is the only one we got, and that's because they were distracted eating the other baby when M ran in and grabbed April. Hopefully April will be a better mom. I wonder if she will remember us. Porcupines are a lot smarter than they get credit for, at least the prehensiles and the Africans are. M's getting in some North American porkies too, so I'll get to know that type too. She's facinated with porkies of all types.

I'll have to dig up some leather, baby porkies love to cuddle like any other baby, but other babies don't have large spiky hairdos! We'd be watching TV and April would back up to snuggle and OUCH! This is going to be a lot more interesting than the hedgehogs! Oh my goodness, if they follow me around like puppies, that will be so cute! And more 3 foot long quills when they grow up. I'm going to have to make some hair sticks! I bet the cats go crazy with the babies, one of the few ones I don't have to worry about.

When I got off the phone, K was looking at me like I was nuts. Yep, six more months of sleep deprevation, I get both a wallaby and the porkies to feed this next week if things are on schedule. I said I wasn't looking forward to the lack of sleep, and he said "Then why are you smiling?" Oh, yeah, this man knows me. He knows he has at least six months of being woken up every few hours, sharing his bed with wallabies and kinkajous and not being able to walk barefoot without picking quills out of his feet. I did promise not to get a baby elephant, but he pointed out that is only because one is not available. Good point. I did warn him a long time ago that if someone gives me a giraffe, I'm taking it, even if we are living in a studio apartment.

Rollo hasn't been eating much, he'd rather play, so I'm moving him to a 3 hour schedule, whoopie! It may not sound like much, but for some reason, that extra half hour makes a difference. Going to 4 hours feels like taking a vacation! We are going to see the Lemony Snickets movie tomorow, so that ought to work just right. We go to the Northern Lights, where you can eat and watch the movie too. It's much more comfortable for my back, the food is good, and it costs about the same as going to a regular movie and not getting fed. We've agreed that this beats the heck out of a regular movie theater, C lives right down the street and L's knees don't get so trashed. Plus, last time we went to C's afterwards to see Johnny. He's a sibling to our cats and we hadn't seen him as an adult. He was a real character as a kitten. He was an orange tabby, but he turned more cinnamon as an adult. He's the only short hair in the litter, but he is an unusual color too. He's still a talker, has something to say on everything, and still a major ham. He certainly has C wrapped around his paw, and we couldn't hope for a better owner for him. It's been fun keeping track of this litter, seeing the differences between them, and between the two bottle fed and the two momma cat raised. Kanna's colors were still changing at two years, so are her kittens. Ariel is finally developing a ruff. She is the puffiest cat, but her fur looked shorter because it was even all over, while The Princess has this tiny little face wrapped in a long fur collar. Ariel has a Persian undercoat, the only time you can see her skin is when it's shaved! She has the old-gold Persian colored eyes too.

Well, I've babbled enough for today. K has The Incredibles on, I have Ferrero Rocher calling my name, and ten minutes before the next feeding, I'm outa here!

He looks full to me!

Bobby looks like he ATE the trespasser!

Moosie washing Morpheus

Whoa! Big world out there!

Moosie, AKA The Spotted Wonder

5 AM Feedings
I'm not one of those people who bounce out of bed the minute the alarm goes off. I'm more the type that hits the 10 minute more button a few times...like maybe 20. Everybody's body has their own rhythm, and mine seems to think I should be asleep between 5 AM and noon. I can tango up to 3 AM, after that I want to be tucked up in bed. Babies, however, have their own rhythms, and could care less about anyone else's.

After I managed to unwrap myself from husband and bedclothes, I stumbled towards the bathroom. At first I thought the carpet was moving. But no, we don't have any carpet, especially in the bathroom. As my eyes finally started communicating with my brain, I realized the floor of our tiny bathroom was covered in cats. They were all clustered around the floor heating vent like it was a fireplace. Four regular to large longhaired cats look like they take up a lot of room! Then Moosie the Spotted Wonder, thundered down the hall to say hello. Forty plus pounds of barreling cat, yeeps! I quickly step into the one clear spot on the bathroom floor, so he has to turn a corner and lose momentum. The little cats scatter to safer perches, all but Ariel and Princess, who have the prime snoozing spots and are not about to give them up just because Moosie wants to cram into the bathroom too.

I am, by now, awake, just out of self-preservation. Moosie does his "I'm so happy to see you, you've been gone so long (2 hrs) dance. After a hug, he settles in beside the girls and begins to wash Ariel. Moosie thinks his role in life is to take care of me and "his" kittens. He clearly thinks they are still kittens, although he has stopped trying to pick them up and carry them. Fifteen pound Morpheus made it quite clear he could navigate on his own, thank you very much! Unless, of course, he can con a human into toting him around. Princess, however, was not bottle fed, and still believes Moosie is mommy. She pushed between Ariel and the Moose and he transferred his washing to her. She had the funniest look on her face, like "I have all Mommy's attention now, hee hee!"

I stumble into the kitchen to warm up the baby bottle. We are still living out of ice chests because the fridge doesn't work. At this time in the morning, that is fine with me, the fridge light would hurt my eyes, and I am trying to stay asleep as much as I can and still function.

Rollo is awake and waiting. Yesterday he sucked down his bottle in record time, today he is used to it, and takes his time. He grabs my finger and I wonder all over again at how tiny his little hands are. His tail, which was like a bit of string when he first came, is now fluffed out. The rings on it make it look like it's segmented. His tiny face is intent on mine. I must look huge to him, but since he has never known his lemur mom, he accepts us humans as normal. So long as he is fed and loved, he is happy.

Emily stays sound asleep, but kinkababy wakes up and calls to me. Not that long ago he was the one keeping me up nights. Pudge the sugarglider is on her exercise wheel, but she stops to see if I might have a pumpkin seed for her. The crickets in the gecko cage are chirping their little hearts out. But I can hear my bed calling me. It's my boyfriend's late day at work, so he's still sleeping. While I hate his being out so late, I do love being able to crawl back into bed and snuggle up to him. Ah, for two and a half more hours of sleep!

Later, with both of us up, Rollo is looking all around the room. I don't know how focused those golden eyes of his are, but he can see my boyfriend from across the room. K waves and calls to him, and he responds with a chirp. He's changing so fast, every day he discovers so many new things he can do. Today for the first time, he realized that there was clear glass between us when he is in the incubator. He tried to come to me, but the glass stopped him. He spent a few minutes putting his hands on the glass, then went back to snuggle with his toy.

The Baby Bottle Torture

Sleep deprevation. A common form of torture used to break the will of a prisoner. I confess, I confess!

Every time I go through this, I wonder why I have yet again volunteered to suffer through weeks of having to give a baby a bottle every two and a half hours. Of course, one look into the tiny furry face of the lemur baby reminds me and makes it all right, but first I have to drag myself out of bed to see that little face! I have to schedule everything around his bottle schedule, since he's too small to take out. As I stagger through my progressively dirty house, the cats remind me I am not spending enough time with them. After a few nights, my husband begins to look a bit tortured too, he has to wake up when I do, even if he doesn't have to get up.

Lemurbaby has changed a lot in the few days he was home. He is much more aware now, loves to watch me while I type. He stays awake more and is beginning to play. He's taking a bottle and decides when he doesn't want any more. He also, thank goodness, eats faster. I wonder what he thinks about all this being moved back and forth.

Yesterday kinkababy saw me feeding the lemur his bottle, and he got so excited. He bounced up and down in his cage and chirped, he really wanted to play with the baby. Today lemur noticed me giving kinka his bottle, and he was fascinated. Even if they are totally different species, they recognize another baby when they see one. Kinka is so much bigger than the lemur or I'd really be tempted to let them play together, kinka is so gentle.

I'm really having trouble figuring out how this blog works. I can't get pictures to go where I want them and the spell check isn't working. I may not get this blog to work right until I can actually get some uninterrupted sleep, and who knows when THAT will be.

Hmm, it helps if you read the instructions and actually work in Internet Explorer. Odd how that happens...

I think while I have him I will call the lemur Rollo, since he hasn't been named yet. He just let go of his toy and crawled into my hand for the first time. That got him rewarded with being tucked inside my shirt, he is purring like mad. I'm sure he's beginning to think I'm mom. I'm learning where his favorite spots are to be scratched. Next time I'm around the big guys they will get the benefit of my new knowledge, although they seem to feel I'm pretty good at grooming anyway. Never wear a tank top around lemurs, they will try to groom off your freckles and those little teeth are sharp! After awhile you begin to feel sandpapered.

One week old baby ringtail lemur

The Star!

I guess this works, but I can't figure out how to get the other photo insert page to work, sigh. This is the last kinkajou baby I raised. Here he is pointing out why he needs a bigger cage! Which he immediately moved into, but what a ham!

Big babys!

It seems everytime I post a pic, I have to start a new page. Hmm. Anyway, this is Kenya (who used to be Candy) injoying her bottle.

Why lions make bad house guests

This little cutie and her sister stopped by at my friend's for a few days. We borrowed them back for the show, just a week 1/2 later, and they had changed so much! I got to spend time with them, and was surprised how much I missed the little demolition team!