10-10-02
Chuck has invented a new game ... after tiring of running around in circles around my waist, he now grabs a finger with both paws and tries to wrestle it to the ground while I tickle his tummy. He thinks that's great!

10-11-02
Tonight, he responds to "Gimme a Kiss" with running up to my lips, rubbing his whiskers against them and getting a kiss on the head with lots of kissing sounds.

10-13-02
I have been interested in flying squirrels for years and got on several "Flyer" Boards and saw them advertised for sale. I'm hoping to get a female in the spring and raise some pups in a year or so.

I have to give Chuck formula, but he is doing well on all kinds of solid food and will probably wean himself in the next couple of weeks. I feed him with a 2 cc syringe with an attached elongated nipple used for wildlife. He will grab a finger and nibble on it when he's hungry.

I carry him with me constantly to enable bonding. I keep him in my sports bras and he sleeps most of the day. He does peek out over my shirt from time to time to see what's happening. He does not like to be out of the bra and will run along my arm and dive into my cleavage if I pull him out. He is extremely fastidious and grooms constantly when he is not sleeping ... makes for a strange feeling when he scratches his ear. Kind of like a tiny restaurant vibrator going off between your boobs :-) He also jerks in his sleep and makes strange noises. Sometimes he "clicks" and I think it's his teeth.

I was at my doctor's the other day and as I was waiting in the exam room, he started "clicking." I thought that was going to be problematic when the doctor listened to my heart, but fortunately he stopped.

A week or so ago, he turned from Dr. Jeckel into Mr. Hyde! He had been sleeping and grooming most of the day. Sylvia and I went to Wal-Marts and he started going round and round my circumference, diving into my arm pits and poking his head out every now and then. As we were loading the car, he came out and sat on my shoulder... a first in public. I got in the car quickly and we drove off. He began to climb around my head rest, tried to jumped onto the side window and slipped to the floor. I heard him in the back. He climbed up the seatbelt, sat in the back window and tried to climb onto the car ceiling. Fell and scattered under the passenger seat and I hear Sylvia scream as he runs over her feet. He gets on the dash and runs back and forth, jumps on me, jumps off me onto the back seat and rattles thru plastic bags. We got home and I got out and into the back seat and he climbed onto my arm and into his hiding place. I covered him with my hands and into the house. He got in his cage and after running around it, curled up on top of his nest acting subdued. Boy! What a change. Maybe I need to change his formula and cut out the vitamins:-)

Southern Flying Squirrels are nocturnal and at their liveliest about 3AM. My whole sleep cycle is screwed up as I get up and play with him. I also have a pair of Dwarf Roborovski Hamsters and they are also nocturnal and run on an exercise wheel all night. Roborovskiis are the smallest hamsters and the larger male is about 2 inches. Chuck's cage is beside theirs so he can watch them if bored. Robo and Robbi work out a lot:-)

I talk to Chuck constantly and pet him directly or through my shirt ... part of the bonding process. Sylvia says she's not going out in public with me if I don't quit fondling my boobs and talking to them;-) Even more surprising is when he peeks his head out of my cleavage and stares at people.

10-27-02
Chuck is 10 weeks old now and completely weaned. He eats fresh fruits and vegetables every day, multivitamins in his water and calcium sprinkles on his food three times a week. His diet is better then mine!

He is getting very brave. If I lay on the bed, he scampers around, behind and over and under the pillows. He runs up and down my legs and sits on top of my foot if I lift a leg straight up. He gets on the floor and runs across and back, jumps onto shelves and knocks things around. He sits on top of his cage and hops to the shade and spreads out like a silhouette.

He can "fly" about four feet ... longer if he's on top ofhis cage. He is very curious, but a little frightened and always scurries back to me when I call. He gets very excited by these adventures and has to curl up inside my shirt and nap. He would be impossible to catch now as he is so quick, but fortunately he considers me the best tree around. He runs up and down me from head to toe and is getting good at avoiding my hands when I try to put him back in his cage ... which he somewhat considers a prison (unless a fresh pecan is inside, then it's the preferred place to be). If I put him in, I need to walk away immediately or else he'll sucker me into letting him out again by running up and down the wire near me, reaching his little hands out to me. I think he knows how adorable he is :-)

I had him with me when Sylvia and I went to West Marine to get some sail boat stuff. The staff woman there wanted to see him and I put him on her shoulder. He sat briefly, then shot down her shirt into her bra. She was laughing hysterically and trying to retrieve him when two salesmen came over to see why she was making so much noise. She told them (between laughs), "I have a squirrel in my bra!" That made sense to them (as to why she was so vocal) and they left shaking their heads as she tried to dig Chuck out.

He's so tame, he'll stay with anyone I put him on and seems to like everyone. I take him to the Wild Birds Unlimited store here on the island and they know him well. I got a 20% discount card in the mail from them, addressed to Joan and Chuckie Barron:-)

He's pretty calm during the day and sleeps or entertains himself inside my shirt. He gets more active when confronted with new smells and noises. He did his "Kilroy" pose out the top of my shirt when we went to House of Pancakes for breakfast. I have to keep pushing him back inside my shirt to avoid getting thrown out of a lot of places. It's in the evenings that he really revs up.

10-28-02
Chuck loves to be rubbed under the chin and behind the ears. Sometimes he "vibrates" which I guess is a squirrel version of purring. He bites me (very gently) during play which is quite amazing when you consider that a FS's teeth can crack a Brazil or hickory nut! He has only bitten me (for real) twice ... when I got him and took him from his carryingcage ... he was scared. The second time was when he was small and I woke him up pulling him out of his nest. I understand that if they mean to bite, they will draw blood.