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Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Lucy with a long memory and a short fuse

Check out the last couple of days' posts. Lucy is still extremely wary of humans bearing treats. Here she is peeking out of one of their play boxes:
Just step away from the box, Human!
Getting Lucy into the carrier requires a new strategy each time. It seems she has quite a memory. She's always had a sixth sense about when someone wanted to pick her up to snuggle; now she just won't let you in her vicinity. Who knows what will be required next time we have to get her to the vet or GHRS. One thing is for sure ... we'd better start waaaaaay before our appointment time.

Maybe we can set up some camouflaged pit-in-the-floor or net-in-a-tree trap like the bad guys used in the old Tarzan movies (or Predator, if you want a more recent reference ... they must work, they still use them). Maybe a bunny-sized butterfly net.

This morning, I called and whistled to give them their favorite treat. Bunya and Ethel responded speedily, as usual, like they had been shot out of a cannon.

Lucy was conflicted. She was excited, she knew there was good stuff to be had, but she stayed in the pen, "pacing" anxiously back and forth along the fence wall. She would not run over or follow the others for her treat. When I went to hand it to her through the fence, she first scurried away, then came back and tentatively took it from me ... and then scurried away again to eat it.

Can you say "paranoid"?
Sure, I knew you could.
(Not a Mr. Rogers reference, unless you want it to be.)

1 comment:

  1. Took us a looooong time to get Savannah to be willing to get picked up.. Now she's a snuggler.

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