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The Daily Hairball

Friday, April 15, 2005

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!

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