Warning: This story may be incredibly long as I don't like to skip out on the details.
The beginning of February marked a new semester. I was noticing many transfers from a school similar to ours coming in. I ignored most of these new students unless they talked to me first. One day on morning announcments, I heard a girl being praised for inviting a new student to sit with her at her table because they looked lonely. I thought about this story and remembered how nice that would have been for me when I was a new student. Well, one day when I was eating lunch at my usual table with the group of people that I usually sit with (I don't really consider them to be my friends, but they were the closest things to it I had and welcomed me in), I noticed a boy standing up and looking really confused. I have no idea why, but I started to try to invite him to my table to eat. After many attempts of "Hey! Kid! Hello!" that failed to get his attention, one of the people sitting across from me tapped him and pointed to me. He looked at me in question and all I said was "Sit down here!" And he did. It was really easy to get into conversation with him and we had a lot in common. On that very lunch, something stroke up the conversation of "how many animals do you own?". I thought I would have him beat with my 2 cats a dog and 5 fish. And I was incredibly wrong. He had 4 dogs, 6 birds and 5 suggies. I had heard about sugar gliders before, but knew nothing about them (and now I'm stuck with Glideritis for the rest of my life. Who knew?). We became friends easily and just a few days after meeting, I went to his house. I was amazed at the size and the amount of animals he had. It had been a long time since I had held a small animal, let alone let it climb on my shoulders, so you can probably easily imagine the way I shreiked and laughed in fear and delight, a mixture that only created torment.
Soon after meeting the gliders, I learned that 2 of them (1 female in each cage) were pregnant with 2 babies each. He told me that they would need to get rid of the babies as soon as possible, because they did not have enough room for them. I started thinking of having them as a pet and offered the possibility of me owning them. So since then, the plan has been expected for me to own the babies. I didn't think of too much of what was necessary. My friend told me the basics: you NEED at least 2; a big cage is necessary; they cost a lot. I didn't really think much of it and didn't get my hopes up too much for getting them. But every day, my friend and I would go through a usual routine of me asking "How are the babies?" and him going "They're doing well". That was, until april fools day when he said "Not good at all." I thought he was joking, but half serioused up near the end. I couldn't tell whether he was joking or not. The next day I asked him the same question and he said "The 2 remaining ones are doing well" And I said "Wait. You were serious yesterday?" and he replied "Yes. I wouldn't joke about the babies." I felt bad. He told me the story of how he found the 2 babies at the bottom of the cage: 1 dead and the other barely clinging to life. They couldn't save the other baby. The 2 that died belonged to his favorite glider named Scrat. This just made it a little bit more sad. They were the ones I was expecting to take, but I would take the other 2 just as easily.
I was attached to both sets of babies. Scrat's were a bit more special because hers were the ones I saw poking a body part out of the pouch, or just looking at them before they had their eyes open. He explained that the cause of death was most likely to be that Scrat was too small andcould not provide enough nutreints for both her and the babies. That week was pretty sad. But as time passed, my friend got better and we continued on looking at Luna's babies. They have known me their whole lives. I saw them when they had their eyes closed, then when they opened them, and then when they were weaned. Through this period of watching, I started asking if they had names and my friend said no. Then one day he suggested that we choose the name for them together, but it was mainly my choice. I would usually call the one to be named Lila, Sweetsy and the one to be called Rose, Crabby. I immediately thought of Rose for the crabbier one and it suited perfectly, and still does to this day. But finding Sweetsy a name was a lot more challenging because the only name that seemed to fit her was Lilly, and that's my name. I wasn't about to have an animal that could soon be my pet have a name that would make it appear to be named after me (I love individuality).
The answer for Sweetsy's new name came to me when I was watching August Rush, my favorite movie, one night. The mother's name was Lyla. I thought of the name and thought it was perfect for Sweesy. Either that or Lilac. My friend liked Lila better (notice the change in speelling from Lyla, the character's name, to Lila, the sugar glider's actual name. It is said exactly the same, but I thought that an i instead of a y suited better). So there were their names. Well, I went the rest of the school year not getting my hopes up about actually being a mother to Lila and Rose. I don't know what changed my mind, but suddenly, one night, I decided to dig myself into a pit and just plain almost expect to own the sugar gliders. The reason I say pit is because this could backfire on me and send me through enormous amounts of pain if I found out that I could not get the gliders. If such a thing happened, my pile of dirt practically towering over me, something that I created, would come down on me and bury me alive. I got up that next morning and began looking up things about sugar gliders. And so dawned my obbsession with them and also my infection of glideritis. I went to google and typed in Suger gliders. It corrected my spelling, and then gave me the list of sites. First one on the list: Wikkipedia. Ugh! I hate wikkipedia. Next on the list: Sugarglider.com! I clicked on that link and it took me to this site's home page. I took a breif look at every thing and the subjects in the glider gossip caught my eye. I began reading and it only took reading 2 for me to make an account. So I read. I offered advice from the little amount of knowledge I had where I could. I read every forum as far back as I could. I saw Suz's website mentioned a few times and read that entire site as well. It only took 3 days for me to gain more knowledge about sugar gliders than my friend. I quickly tried the bonding techniques which worked well, even though I didn't try tent time. I now have a relationship with my soon to be babies, where they fully trust me. One of my biggest moments of joy was when our bonding was secured. This happened only a few days ago. I went over to my friends house after being away (mainly in Mexico building a house) for a week. One of the first things I did was go to the sugar glider's cage and get Rose and Lila out. This went quicker than expected. I let them climb on me after allowing them to go to the bathroom on top of their cage, and they were both so calm. We had never seen this before. Ever. Then they climbed to my back, for the first time being careful not to leave scratch marks (first time trying not to leave scratch marks, not first time trying to climb on my back) and sat on the back of my neck, behind my hair. This was my first hamster's, Zeda's, favorite place to rest. They kept up their tradition of poking their little heads out of their resting spot and saying Hello. This was made especially cute because you would see a little gray head poking out of a shower of orangish reddish brownish hair. After a little bit, I was surprised to hear one of them purring! It was either a purro r the VERY content and happy sound. I had been able to have them fall asleep in my hand, but this was a new level! They didn't even want to go back in their cage when it came time to! This made me very happy.
Now, before the bonding was secure, comes another story of suggies from the same family, still in the making. A bit before I left for Mexico, I had been reading a lot about pregnancy and births of Sugar gliders. The next day, I went over to my friend's house and for some strange reason, paid close attention to Luna. She seemed to be cleaning her pouch area a lot. Immediately, I think "BIRTH!" We took her out and my friend and I felt for bumps. We both felt one. But, a bump in the pouch cannot be felt that soon after birth and so I had a feeling that there would be a second baby. I was right. But with the babies come many issues. We need them to be female, because nuetering costs around here are around $111. And my friend has financial issues. They already need to neuter 2 males. But if they are 2 females, then no matter what, one of us will be over the legal limit for female gliders. I personally hope that it is a boy and girl pair because the bond between the 2 may be touching and sweet. So far, everything is going well. Plans for good neutering are already made and have been activated. Rose and Lila are doing very well. The babies in the puch are still growing. Hopefully, everything will go well, as it is.
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