Pets!

On the back of Cat's neck, hitching a ride, is Scooter, the daddy. And, hitching a ride on Scooter's back is Skippy, the little girl joey.

This is Scrabble, the mommy glider, having breakfast.











Well! The internet almost works. I even called our ISP to find out if they knew what was up. They did, but alas, they couldn't do anything; seems this is a midwest-wide issue. Frustrating!
However, things will get better, I'm sure!

Since a lot of people wonder what a "sugar glider" is, I decided to post a couple of photos of Cat's gliders. Sugar Gliders are little animals about the size of a hamster. But, they're not mammals, they're marsupials. This means that while they give live birth, their babies are very tiny, and the baby, called a "joey", climbs up the mother's fur to get into her pouch, where it can nurse and grow fur and develope. Sugar gliders have long tails, and soft, fluffy fur. They have hands, and "hands for feet", and they have opposable thumbs just like you and me. And they have one more interesting thing about them -- They can fly! Well... They can't really fly. What they do is glide from place to place, by spreading their arms and legs out and stretching open a flap of skin between their arms and their legs, a little like a flying squirrel.




In the wild, gliders eat bugs, little eggs, little animals like shrews or tiny mice, fruit, flower petals, and flower sap and honey, or "sugar". Pet gliders eat basically the same things, but of course, their human friends provide their food. They bond closely with their human caregivers and even if there are several gliders in a household, they very much need human interaction.
Gliders come in any colour you can imagine, from the soft greys, like the gliders in the photos above, to pure white non-albino, to reddish, to well, anything! They are very social animals, and very sweet, and have very definite personalities. They play just like a child, monkey, dog, or cat, and unlike a ferret or a hamster, they actually bond with the person who cares for them. They can see colours, and their favourite colour is red or pink.





Most people have what are called "glider pouches" which are made of soft fluffy fabrics, and usually have a string that hangs round a person's neck. The gliders curl up inside the pouch and sleep or play.




You can find out more about sugar gliders online.