Honestly I didn't think I would be making a post in this forum for some time to come. But here it is...
I just returned the other day from a 3-week vacation home. I took most of my gliders with me...I only left one pair in Florida, Ate & Binx. They were a very young pair, in perfect health. I didnt want to leave any of my gliders behind because I feel so anxious when they aren't with me, but one of my housemates was leaving his 3 in the care of a friend that we both knew. I thought, well, I am bringing home a lot, the trip is going to be hard, they will be okay for the three weeks. So I left 2 behind. I left that pair because I was worried, due to their being so incredibly hyperactive, that something bad would happen at my house. I have 4 cats and a large dog at home!
Before we left, my housemate and I went to the store and bought all the supplies we would need. We bought more than enough food to last the entire time. We tried to buy food that would be the easiest for the sitter to feed, while still being an acceptable
diet for a short amount of time. I wanted to make BML, because its what I normally feed them, but in all of our moving and confusion (we both moved right before leaving town) we lost a lot of stuff.
Anyway...the point is that the food was there. I left highly detailed instructions. Anyone who knows me knows I am really really paranoid about anything happening to my gliders, and I really hate to leave my pets with other people. I really should have gone with my gut and just brought them home. But...we left the food, but I still left a list of what foods they could and could not eat, "just in case." Plus every single phone number of mine, my family's, and my friends, if they needed to reach me. PLUS all sorts of
vet information and explicit instructions to absolutely take them to the
vet if they even suspected anything was wrong. I would rather, as I wrote, come back to deal with huge
vet bills even if nothing was really wrong, than have something bad happen.
So I thought everything would be okay.
So, so, so wrong.
First, the glider sitter went out of town for a week without telling us. She told me literally at the last minute and left me scrambling to find someone else willing to take care of them. I eventually convinced one of my new housemates to do it.
The girl told me over the phone, the day she got back in town, that she would be taking care of them again for the rest of the time (only a few days). At this point I had no indication that anything was wrong. I had been in constant contact with everyone.
Well, the very day I was coming back to Florida I got a call that the female, Ate, was dead.
My housemate told me that when he had checked up on them after the "friend" it looked like she had not been cleaning the uneaten food from the food dishes, or putting fresh water out. So there was rotting food and stagnating water in the cages, which also were not being cleaned.
The girl left a phone message on my cell last night saying that she "heard from Brian that one of my gliders died." I'm confused as to why she had to HEAR this. She should have KNOWN this...because she was supposed to be taking care of them!!!! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tantrum.gif" alt="" />
Back on the food issue, when I finally arrived back I found out that virtually none of the food we had left for them had been used. So I am seriously wondering what on earth they were feeding them, and why on earth they weren't using the food put there explicitly for that use. Its all still just sitting there. When I looked into Binx's cage, he had a bowl full of lima beans-- one of the foods on the "do not feed my gliders these foods" list.
Im pretty much at a loss as to what to do. I'm incredibly angry but I know that nothing I say to her will really do any good one way or the other. I cant believe this happened. I suppose I am lucky the other 4 gliders that were left in this girl's care are allright. Binx is very active and alert-- bright eyes and such-- but he looks very fat and bloated. I know I have to take him to the
vet, and Im thinking maybe all of them should go to the
vet. Since I dont know what killed this girl who was in perfect health when I left her. She was only a baby, only about 9 months old.
I never thought something like this would happen. I thought we were trusting our pets to a reliable person, who cared. She volunteered to do it, for heavens sake! No one forced this "chore" upon anyone. I talked to her several times while I was gone, and everything "seemed" fine. But after hearing the report from the other people living in the house what she was telling me was apparently not what was really going on.
Im just frustrated with everyone here. Myself, for leaving them behind, this girl, for being so cruel, my housemates, for seeing this going on and not telling me or doing anything about it. Its all very upsetting. This is the first glider Ive ever lost, and losing her in this way is just even worse.