Hope was born the day of the NY Tragedy. Her Mom Gizmo has had a lot of trouble having joeys and rejcected her on day one. This was not your typical rejection. The joeys just didn't want to nurse right away.

Within the first two hours of being born the joeys detatched. Unlike humans, joeys do not receive antibioties in the womb, but as soon as they are out of pouch the female hormone changes in the mom and antibioties start to flow. A joey has a lot better chance of survival if it nurses for the first 72 hours to receive these antibioties. Hope was rejected within the first hour and she had a sister also. For the first 12 hours I fed them every two hours putting them back in with Mom and she would clean them off, helping them to go to the bathroom. I decided that after 12 hours I would separate babies from parents because I knew with them not nursing at all, it would be a matter of days before Tiger would be trampling over them to get to Gizmo to mate. I put them in the incubator and continued to feed them. This being the day after the tragedy, I was so distraut that I forgot to help them go potty. That was the cause of the Hope sister's death. I feel so bad because by the time (4:00 am) I realized what I had forgotten to do, it was too late; she was already bloated. She died at 5:00 Thursday morning. I was really fortunate that Hope wasn't as good of an eater. As a matter of fact, she only knew how to suck, not lick. This can be a problem when feeding a joey, especially when you are not equiped with the right feeding aparatus which I didn't have anything at the time. I had to place the food in my hand and push her head down in it. I knew there was a danger that she could inhale it into her lungs, but I didn't have much of a choice, considering her limited abilities to eat. After three days she was licking and then at two weeks she was eating great! I wouldn't recommend this type of feeding to anyone, as there is much danger in killing the joey. She was very small and after a week only weighed 1/2 ounce. She still didn't know how to drink out of the syringe, so my palm got pretty nasty and she had a bath or two the first couple of weeks.

I am sorry I have not posted about this sooner, I just have needed some sleep and knew this story would take some time. I will be putting pictures of her periodically, but I don't get her out too much as it has gotten cold here and she doesn't like that. She is a precious sweet little girl who knows who her mommy is (that's Me). After all the handfeeding and sweet bonding time, Hope ended up an Alpha Female, but she still Loves her Mommy, Me, the only one she ever knew.

Don't ever give up on a little one. Have Hope in the One Above.

A Tribute to 9/11

Hope2.jpg

11weeks.jpg

Hope3weeks.jpg

hope in pumpkin

Hopebear

Hope3days

Hope 2.5 years Old

2.5 years old after a bath

Hope 4.5 years

Hope 4.5 Years