Some of you may have noticed a wee absence of posts on this blog during January. The chap above is one of the reasons why I’ve been awol because I’ve been visiting Cuba and Costa Rica.
The baby sloths – the apparent furry car rug is a pile of six – have all been orphaned and brought to the Toucan Rescue Ranch for nurture and possible release back into their jungle habitat. The ranch’s intern, was delightfully droll about the difficulties of acting as mum to a baby sloth. Press too hard on the syringe of goat’s milk that is used to feed them and you may cause the baby to ingest the milk, rather than digest it, which can lead to pneumonia. Toilet training – well, in the wild, they learn from mum that going to the bathroom once a week s good. In the Rescue centre that would be the intern’s finger in some other sloth urine encouraging the wee ones to perform. Glamorous it is not.
Some of you editing types may have noticed the name of the ranch, Toucan Rescue Ranch, and be puzzling over the inclusion of sloths. Well, get a GOOD name in the bird and animal rescue world and who knows what will arrive on the doorstep?
The sloth babies were immensely attractive little bundles, but one needs to remember that sloth mouths are a very dirty environment. A bite if untreated could kill you.
Here’s one of their actual toucans as reassurance that I haven’t lost all plot.
All writers need new experience to refresh their pool of ‘things to write about’. Orphans are a big issue in our world where humans are displaced daily by war and animals killed by loss of habitat, predation and interaction with the human world.
While I’ve been away, Endeavour have dropped the price of Courting the Countess to 99p Don’t know for how long, but a good moment to add to your kindle.
Novels Now 