A Rescue Story

By Javier Freyre

It was a day August, the day I went to Valley Cottage, NY to rescue these two little girls. I received an email from someone who had asked that I pick up the gliders as soon as I could. All he gave me was their names, Zoe who was 1 yr old and Zophie who was 2 yrs old, and his address. As I went to go to his house to pick them up, he wasn’t there and his mom answered the door, she hated the gliders and said every bad thing in the world about them, in other words she wanted the gliders out of the house. She even went on by telling me that if I didn’t come pick them up she have let them loose in the forest. I was really angry but controlled myself.

As I was brought to the garage to where the gliders were kept I couldn’t believe it! The cage they were housed it was of descent size but was extremely dirty and had a bad smell to it, something I never witnessed before. The gliders crabbed for days since I got them. I knew they were terrified and I couldn’t imagine what they were put through. About 2 days later I made sure I washed their cage. It took 2 days to get the smell off the cage. I also cleaned most of their things which were dirty but they didn’t have much either.

After a week I wanted to socialize with them since this is something they weren’t used to. I was with them inside the play tent; they wanted nothing to do with me and really just kept to themselves. They were terrified and I don’t blame them. After several weeks of working with them, they have become the sweetest gliders in the world. They are the not the same gliders as before. Apart of their change is due to Rocky (3 yrs old) whom I rescued in South Jersey not too long after.

He had lost his mate and needed to be put with another female. I thought I would try to pair him up with both Zoe and Zophie. He was the tamest glider in the world also and actually the girls learned from him. Since he is 1- 2 years older then the girls they looked up to him as a brother figure. Whatever he did they did, and since he did all great things there was nothing to worry about. He played a major role in their lives.

They are all a big happy family now like brother and sisters. I’m glad I could make a big difference in each of these glider’s lives, as that was my main goal. As long as the gliders are happy then I’m happy for them also.

       We are always in need of new stories for our monthly featured rescue section.  If you have a real life, inspirational rescue story or a personal article on a legitimate rescue effort/group and you would like to see it appear on our site, please e-mail it to glidergrovearticles@hotmail.com.  If your article is selected for use, we 
will send you a fun glider toy for your favorite suggie when it appears on our site.

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   exceed 3/4 of a letter size page in length.

2. A photo of the sugar glider discussed in the article should be
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3. Your full name and address with your submission, so we can send
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4. How you would like your name to appear when we post credit for
   your story if it is chosen.