The Loft   
my short tailed opossum! aurora! - born: 08/30/03 - light brown, supposedly silver, with some rosy on her chest, white hairs underneath - arrived 11/19/03 from Tim Fraser in Oregon.
journal11/19/03! - aurora arrived this morning with no problems at all. she arrived this morning at 10am exactly. i had been up waiting since 8am and was utterly exhausted. i watched her for a few hours before she decided that she was sleepy. i made sure to give her a good bit of water and place some food nearby in case she got hungry. she woke up again around 6pm to explore her cage a bit more. i really think she likes it a lot, she seems to adore the tunnels! i put a couple bits of dried apple & some of the Totally Ferret food in her bowl. she was shipped with a bit of her former food, Fox Food Reproductive. however, it has ethoxyquin and some other undesirable ingrediants so i'm switching her gradually over.a few minutes ago, around 8pm, she let me pet her and while i was stroking her soft little body, she curled up and fell asleep! |D  11/19/03 (v2) - well, it's about 10pm and she's awake again and exploring. i've found she LOVES hiding in toilet paper tubes. i have a bunch from saving them for rats, birds, bunnies, etc. so she now has a total of four. (grin) she's so spoiled. i've put them in spots with a lot of open space so she can dash from tunnel to tunnel comfortably. she really likes the one right under the wheel because when she climbed on it, it rolled into my hand and she sort of fell on me. she apparently enjoyed that because she keeps doing it. lol. she also has a half tube in a few different places, one of them in the little loft up top. she's letting me pet her and will actively approach me now. she's more nervous about the sounds around her in the environment than me. i haven't tried holding her since getting her out of the shipping box. i'd rather her get comfortable with her environment. i'm waiting for her to go and find the water bottle again, i don't want her to dehydrate. actually, i think i'll just offer her some water. she's doing fine about finding food. i think she knows where the water bottle is as well, but i haven't seen her go there. earlier i just gave her a drink. 11/19/03 (v3) - i submitted one of her pictures on www.centralpets.com. hopefully soon she'll be a little star! (smile) i'll be getting new pictures up but it's difficult since most of them i'd have to take through her cage until she is no longer shy. right now, one of her favorite places to hang out is the long side tunnel on the right of her cage, it is her 'safe retreat'. well, we'll see. she's adapting pretty quickly pretty well. she managed to eat & drink within an hour of being in her new home. i think she'll be just fine. she's only gaped at me once, briefly, but then when i pet her, she calmed down and that's actually the time she dozed off. hehehe. i think i woke her up and she was surprised but then soooo sleepy. :) 11/20/03 - today i was able to hold aurora for the first time since i got her (yesterday)...lol. okay, so it didn't take long. she's a fantastic climber! she's still a bit nervous but i'm doing my best to make her feel comfortable and at home. at the reptile & exotic animal show this weekend i plan on getting a neck pouch like the kind for sugar gliders so she can sleep next to me and become more comfortable. her little heart beats SO fast and she's so light! her tail is beautiful, prehensile like a rat's but it isn't scaled and is soft because it has a tiny bit of fur on it! sweet! 11/24/03 - matt & i have been holding aurora on and off now, trying to get her more used to us. well, this morning i was holding her alone and for a long time she was in my shirt. (i got peed on too, yay.) :P in anycase, i was holding her and at once point she flew down my leg (these suckers are FAST) and ran onto the floor beneath my bed. needless to say, i lost sight of her and enlisted the panicked help of my roommate. i was so upset it was unreal. however, there was a laundry basket nearby with stuff in it and on the off-chance she would've run there for shelter, i looked inside and found her! i almost lost her again since she was so afraid but i scooped her up, kissed her fifty times and put her back in her cage so she could rest up. she was VERY glad to be back and i feel so much better. i was nearly freaking out since one of my rats, victor, escaped for two days. in anycase, she's back now and i can breathe again. thank you nora for helping me. you might feel you did nothing, but you made me so relieved to have someone there. thank you! 11/26/03 - well, aurora has learned to use her wheel and she loves it! hooray! i awoke to this really weird sound and lo and behold, that's what it was. (grin) i'm very happy, she just loves her cage, tunnels and everything. since she's still kind of shy, i'm glad about that. 11/28/03 - progress is being made, slowly but surely. i didn't find a glider pouch at the reptile & exotic show, but i hope to find one elsewhere. i've found a new STO group and a few people there have had good luck with them. it's odd...she isn't afraid of me exactly, just of noises. if i approach her and am very quiet, she'll come right up to me. i've also been giving her treats. ferret treats, and then a grape the other day which she absolutely LOVED. it's helping too. i also gave her some really soft nesting material which she likes a lot. she's already moved it around quite a bit. :) so, we make progress. it's amazing how intelligent they are...i know she can see through the yellow top on her loft, but she learned VERY quickly that when it was closed, i couldn't reach her at all. so, even though she could see me, even if there was noise, she was just fine. i've been able to watch her do all kinds of things. sleep, wash herself, just tons of things. :) it's all been very lovely.
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