Sleepless in Salem...

Tiny baby girl!

My goodness, I need to keep this updated more often. Changed the name today to The Daily Hairball. I got inspired as Jazzy was hacking one up into K's shoe yesterday.

Let's see, Rollo and his twin sister went out and are adored. Kissy went to her new home, and is now sleeping with her new mom there and enjoying all the attention she is getting as a educational animal. I'm sure she's just soaking up the attention every second, although I do miss her.

We have a new wallaby joey. She was much older than when we usually pull them, she was already weaned. We weren't sure how well she would tame down, since she didn't need the bottle. The first day I tried her with a bottle and water, and it was OK but not great. The next feeding I just gave her a glass of water, and she liked that much better. Her mom is Ivy, so we named her Clover, in case M decides to keep her, since she isn't sold yet. She is tame enough now to be a pet though. She loves to sit in K's lap and just have a look around. She really is too big for a pouch, so she doesn't get quite as much attention as we would like, but she's a very calm baby and it doesn't seem to matter. K takes care of her more than I do and she is very much a Daddy's girl. She has the long eyelashes and delicate little face. We still have to get pictures.

The newest baby doesn't have a name yet. We haven't had a girl kinkajou for almost two years, so I thought I'd send out announcements. After having rather large babies lately, she seems so tiny. I want to name her something girly, although since she is a June baby maybe I'll call her that. We already have an April, if she ever arrives. Weather hasn't been great for transporting her yet. She might not mind, April is an African porcupine so might not mind the heat, although she is a native Oregonian. I can hardly wait to see her all grown up.

At any rate, baby girl kinka is very loud. The first 12 hours she yelled if I picked her up and when I put her down. They have a really piercing cheep! Now she only yells when I put her down and she doesn't want to be, or if she wakes up and decides she is alooooonnnne! It would be easier for the both of us if I could sleep with her, but I'm afraid of crushing her, she is so tiny. Now she's been here more than 24 hours, she is much quieter, thank goodness. It's hard to work with all that noise going on! She will be spoiled enough as it is, I keep picking her up and checking on those tiny toes, when she sticks out the tip of her tongue it looks like a tiny rose petal. Then she yawns, and it looks like her tongue is as long as she is!

I've been spending so much time with the little kids and working, Moosie gets really anxious. The other day I sat down on the couch to cuddle with the cats for a few minutes, and Moosie was hugging my head, Morphy was in my lap, Princess and Jazz were behind me on the couch back and Ariel was trying to shove Morphy over so she could get in my lap too. They wouldn't let me up! Moosie weighs about 40 lbs now, Morphy is around 18lbs, that's a lot of cat! I took the hint and now make sure I spend some time with them every evening. In fact, I think I will go do that now.

I haven't had much sleep, I didn't sleep at all Friday night, and not much last night, finally got 4 hours in this afternoon. Now baby is eating more, I can let her go for 4 hours, maybe a little longer at night. K isn't taking a feeding yet because she is so small he's afraid something will go wrong. But he brings her and the bottle in to me, so I don't have to wake up too much. Then we just cuddle and snooze until he comes in and takes her back to her nest. He suggested since she is in a small cage, putting the cage in bed with us, maybe we will do that. She is much too small to be put in the large cage, although she did climb the bars on the little cage today, which surprised me, she is still crawling. Another reason she can't go in the big cage! As far as she is concerned, the little cage is too airy, she wants to be snuggled up tight. When we went to get her, there were three kinkajous all piled in there with her.

M has a new lady kinkajou. She only has one producing female now, so she thought she would retire the others and get another girl. Sugarbear has never had a baby, so she will go as a pet, but I think M is going to keep Honeybear. Sugar is the most out going and probably would like being a house pet to someone, even if she wasn't hand raised. Cocoabear is somewhere over forty, probably mid forties, so when she goes, M wants someone she can put in to keep Yoda company. Sadly Yoda is sterile, he would have made beautiful, sweet babies.

When baby was chirping, Emily gave her a look like, "What are you making so much noise for, brat!" She was in a bad mood anyway because her waterbottle was dry. Emily threw a hissy fit until I got the message. I can't get the lid off the waterbottle, so I just gave her a glass of water. She loves that, she thinks the water tastes better that way. I finally started to pull away and she very gently reached out, hooked those Manderian length claws around my fingers and pulled my hand back. I think she knows I love how gentle she is. I finally had to put the water in a bowl for her so she could have some through out the day, but she does love having a glass. Sometimes if I leave her with a plastic glass, she will take it into her nest to sleep with like a toy. Maybe she dreams it is full of juice! Hmm, I do have some grape juice for the baby, think I will get some for Emily, then go snuggle with my neurotic cats...ah, look at the time! Nope, guess I will feed baby first! Gee, it's nice to be needed and loved!