Sunday, December 23, 2007

Nemo's Day Out

Today Nemo made a second appearance from his hibernation. I slept in late and came downstairs to find Nemo inhaling the water in his drinking dish. Poor thing looked so weak. I quickly filled his humidifier and placed some food in his dish. He hiked over to his bathtub and hydrated, mostly placing his head and body directly in the mist. Mind you, he could have taken a bath at any time, but he had to have his mist!

I didn't feel badly for him for too much longer. He began to roam as he did during his last outing. He spent time in his summer home, wandered behind his igloo and hung out in his garage, and back to the summer home. Throughout the day I would check on him. Each time he was in a different location in his area of the kitchen. Later in the day, I was seated in the living room watching television when I heard some strange noises. I figured it was trash settling after I had wrapped presents--crinkly trash. I even poked my head in the room and saw Nemo lounging. The next time I heard similar noises I ignored them until they were too frequent to ignore. I turned my head just in time to see Nemo walking back INTO his kitchen area from the living room. No telling where he was. I imagine it was at least an hour that I was hearing the noises. lol. Brian calls him Marco Nemo, the explorer.

He finally settled head first under a blanket of the "guest house" igloo--where he had begun his hibernation but then switched to the other igloo. Two weeks later and he is back to first choice igloo. I guess he's going to move back and forth as he emerges every couple weeks. I'd had it written on my calendar today to retrieve him from the igloo and move him by his bathtub, but he did it on his own. Apparently he's on a two-week schedule.

Once Nemo was settled into his hibernation igloo of the week, Linus was allowed into the kitchen. He made his way over to the main igloo to visit his "friend" not realizing Nemo had changed locations. It was still cute to see Linus cooing and "talking" into the igloo opening. When he had no response from inside the igloo, he proceeded to offer his precious leaf to Nemo's stuffed animal dino atop the garage--which can be seen in yesterday's photo. I feel better knowing Nemo had the energy to move around so much. He hasn't touched food yet though. It's still scary to be "mom" to a hibernating critter.