Doce and Trece

Well gang… today was definitely an interesting and adventuresome day. Usual 5AM visit from my girl Sweetie… She wanted me to come out to play, but I had a lot to do, so I only went out of the MFZ for a few moments… Sweetie showed me all her owies and I was ready to put some antibiotic on them… Then I distracted her for just a moment, because all of you can figure out what happened next… Sweetie licked the ointment off… and as I had some on mine too, that was also removed… Sweetie then started to “HELP ME” remove my stitches… I told her she could do it, but not yet… 12 year olds, can you tell them anything that they listen too??

About 8, I went down to the beach to get ready for going to a showing… The local conservation authority called MINAE was opening up a new station in the Piedras Blanco National Park and it was a reception… Not like you would think… I will describe in moment… PLEASE FORGIVE THE TYPOS… LONG STORY, BUT I ONLY CAN TYPE WITH ONE HAND. Slow and I haven’t been going back to proof..

At the beach we ready the little boat (barco) for 50 min trip up the River… I had been up the river once before on an eco tour… I asked to drive, because I need the practice on the river which can be tricky at all but high tide… After loading the boat with ‘gifts’ we proceeded to the mouth of the river and then up the river… Tide was high… no problems… Arrived at Ranger station and had to hike about ¼ mile through mud to get to station… Greeted by all the officials and many Ticos and Ticas… and ninos… I was introduced to the officials as well as told the stories of who is aligned with whom against whom… They had made a little display (en espanol), had set up some benches and ultimately served a CR BBQ… I sat down for a bit while Carol made her greetings… Then she needed to leave, so I went back with her to the Sanctuary. Picked up Earl and one of our workers and we went back… Earl and I and the Tica drove up the river, now starting to go down… Tides in Golfo Dulce run 16 feet at worst… 12 feet at best… and there are no navigational markers of any kind everything is local knowledge. We ended up having some chow… I could identify most of the foods, but not all… Roast pork was best, followed by tico salad and a few strange side dishes of local fruit and some Yucca, that was excellent. Everything tasted good and I ate up… although I have been eating little in the last few days… I tried to do my best to talk to the tico’s , but mostly very basic stuff… Then the deputy of the station took me over to the displays and I got a presentation on the past, present and future of the entire conservation effort… Done in Spanish, but I actually understood about 70 percent. They are opening up satelite stations all over the southern region. And they are getting the national government to designated more and more land PUBLIC FOR CONSERVATION. He actually showed me the new marine park along the length of the entire National Park… and what they planned for the next few years… The entire reception today was donated by the local business, which include the Sanctuary. Music was Tico… but happy and uplifting… Then things started to wind down, so we prepared to leave… got to the boat and launched… tide is now very low going lower… Picked our way down river… long story short... stuck... Finally moving again, we got back at about 3PM… I had sprained my left hand in the boat pushing and fell down many times… Walking in mud was very tiring. Back at Sanctuary, muddy, dirty, hot, tired and a bit sick to tummy… I went up to take shower before 4 PM dinner, was so tired that I almost gave myself a concussion by hitting my head on a hard piece of wood… Will have big bump tomorrow… and sat down one minute and fell asleep… Sweetie came up and snuck the treats out of my hand… and she was happy camper. Finally called to dinner… which was a pasta and mushroom thing that I at first refused, and then it looked so good, I decide to have a little… Besides energy is diminishing… probably from lack of nutrition. Evening dominos and than off to cabino for this message and a few other chores…

Told Carol I would be more than happy to take over care of the rehab animals… so tomorrow, Piedra is being moved into my cabino and me and little rocky raccoon will become roommates… Rocky needs a dressing on her stump every few days… I am on it… Back is bothering me tonight, no doubt from the boat adventure… Will take a med I have for that… So ends another day in the jungle… Biggest challenges are adapting to no light, limited electricity, and very very degraded computer conditions... Mine blew up and is at the computer hospital in San Jose… I am using Earls which is a MAC and so lots of functions are strange… and then the batteries are constantly crashing on the phone and the computer… In fact, better try to get this off… Hasta manana


Day 13… Could not get this email off last night… no power to cell phone… so I thought I would update you on a couple of things.

Rained all night very very heavily… Must have been many inches… Sweetie visited this AM and immediately stole my water bottle, which I left on my side of the MFZ, but she figured out how to get it through… Then she commenced to unscrew the top and drink some and throw the rest around… At 630, one of the workers arrived with my new roommate and her stuff… Yes, Piedra is now with me in my cabino… I just finished feeding and cleaning her and played with her for a while for some exercise and now she is carrying on because I put her back in the cage to do this… I need to get her some aqua calor for her to settle down… Placement of cages and stands difficult in the cabin because I can’t put anything within 20 inches of the walls… Sweetie’s range… I took some pix this AM and I will work on getting them uploaded… Hasta til later.

Never could send this so finally I have a connection and I will add the rest of today… and then send…

After breakfast, I spent the next few hours in the lab/clinic organizing meds and supplies, testing a few pieces of equipment and taking inventory… Nothing unusual.

Then I did my mid day feeding and cleaning of Piedra – northern raccoon. She ate well, eliminated well and took her bath without much fuss… We played for about an hour, with her using me as the jungle gym… Then I put her back and went to main building to try and work on computer… No go on that… but did pick up a book that is fascinating… Animals in Transition – a best seller… I randomly opened it and guess what, it was to the page on aggression… Many types, but Sweetie’s is probably one of two forms of affective aggression…which is one of 7 forms of rage aggression… the other major type is predatory aggression. The two forms of affective ag are hiearchial dominance and territorial. Hierarchy aggession is what I have talked about before… establishing my place in the pecking order of her group… This is generally confirmed by grooming presentation. Sweetie presents herself to me for grooming… now occurring many times per day… I think that the dominance aggression has now extinguished, as we have found our relationship. The other form is territorial… and I still need to be on guard for that… This form of affective aggression is based on a statement of territory ownership… Around the main building, Sweetie is territorial protective… and so I am very careful about coming and going… At my cabin, it is my territory… and she clearly understands that… Interestingly, research has established a direct relationship between the neurotransmitter serotonin and aggression… The more serotonin the less aggression. Prozac for Sweetie you are asking????

Then I managed to lose a piece of the computer system to get on line… probably from when I walked down and took a header in the wet grass… Rained all day… While retracing my steps, Sweetie decided to become my hat… and so I carried her around on my head for a while… She didn’t want to leave… so I decided to go to MY territory and we could have some play time… When I sat down, we did the now ritual of looking at all her owies… and then I told her I wanted to get something done… She protested, and I gave in… I laid down on the bench and Sweetie decided to go exploring… She was into my shorts and found my ‘parts’… The penis to her is just like her pendulous clitoris…so nothing to interesting there… I am like her… but then she discovered the scrotum and decided that this was a strange thing… where is mine???? She palpated the testes but gently... ARE you crazy… you have a spider monkey doing a learning session on your genitals that has managed to tear into you 39 times… But as I understand her behavior more and remember that she is a 12 yo… discovering… I felt pretty good.. Her interest continued for about 4 minutes and then she put her body into my shorts and went to sleep… Very cute… We both nodded off for about 30 minutes… She was curled up inside my shorts and had her tail wrapped around my leg. When we both awoke, she went off and I found the piece I lost… It has been displaced during my little header. It is now everning of Day 13 and the cutest thing just happened… Sweetie splayed out her younger sister Winkie and did a dental exam… Winkie is having her permanent teeth come in and they are a bit sore… Sweetie massaged her incisors… and then gently licked the obvious sore teeth… This is Day 12 and 13 por blog… I will then feed Isaiah, who naturally lost his eye drain… Saving us some ketamine to knock him down for removal. Feed Piedra and take a shower… Hasta manana.

Oh, one thing more... A number of you, having seen the picture of Sweetie have asked about the long skin color appendage between her legs... No it is not a penis... She is a she... It is an unusual anatomical adaptation called a pendulous clitoris... She urinates through the anatomical appendage, but I am told that when she sees a female, she can't figure out where their PC is... and when she sees a male, she thinks that the penis is the PC... Very fascinating from animal behavior observation perspective.

Everyday I am here convinces me more and more of the tremendous gift that Carol and Earl are providing to the animal world.