Thanks Holly! We will email you the choices of suncatchers so you can choose which one you want. Flower is in my thoughts daily as well. I miss her and love her. I will forever cherish the gift from AP that I got to know her (if only for a short time) for the exceptionally wonderful meerkat that she was.
Good to hear Gene is back at the home burrow with his dom-F Cheryl. Tell him to rest & relax awhile. All the sites are beautiful. Updates can wait for the time being.
Thanks for the good news. I'm in the meerkat wave and the cheer. I hope Gene will be able to travel to Staten Island Zoo next weekend. Also, thanks for the clarification on the suncatchers. I kept looking for them at meerkatsrule and was dismayed to find them on the zoo's site for $100 each - I'd hoped to get 2 or 3. I'm relieved they will be on our website for a more modest sum. Will there be enough to go around if I want more than 1? I wouldn't want to deprive any one else. Queenflower, thank you for your kind words.
News from the burrow. Thanks to all of the good wishes and meerkat waves sent our way by the mob, the dominant male is in the home burrow and resting comfortably.Thank you for the grooming; it is much appreciated.
The East Coast Meerkat Society meeting is still on for next Sunday at 11:00 at the Staten Island Zoo. We hope many of you can join us there, in spirit if not in person.
Thank you to Queenflower for posting the information about the sun catchers. They have been individually signed and numbered by the artist. You will be able to buy any or all of the three designs at meerkatsrule.org. We are also offering them as a premium for a donation to the Staten Island Zoo meerkat enclosure project.And the artist has assured us that she will be able to fill as many orders as we give her as long as folks are patient once their orders are placed as these are individually hand crafted.
I know that we all miss Flower terribly but I feel that the fine work that we are doing in her honor is a fitting way to build a memorial to her while at the same time helping others of her species. I think Flower,Bubble,Blossom and the rest of them are smiling down on us and this project.MEERKATS RULE!!!
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Sorry to hear about Gene. I am glad he is doing better. My dominant male was in the hospital too this week. His old ticker was acting up but he home now and doing good.
Thank you, eruth66, for your kind words. I hope that your dominant male is doing better too.
One of the things that Gene and Queenflower and I are kicking around is the idea of gathering poems, odes, pictures,drawings and sketches that mob members have done about Flower and the Whiskers that people can visit and then,if they want,order. They would have a memory book put together by the mob. You have done some wonderful odes and we would want to include them. Some of the pups have done wonderful drawings and I think that this would help with the healing process. MEERKATS RULE!!!
Queenflower I got your pm & as you are aware, I still want to stick to my $100 donation . A native NYer, I feel related, as all of us ECMS members feel the bond of family to these sweet fur balls! MEERKATS DO RULE
The dominant male is working on posting the photographs of the sun catchers. They will be posted on meerkatsrule.org either later tomorrow or early Tuesday, depending on his doctor appointment schedule. There are three different designs.
I hope that the weather is nice, or at least not snowing, when the East Coast Meerkat Society meets at the Staten Island Zoo in one week: March 11 ath 11:00. Please remember to spring your clocks ahead on Saturday night so that you arrive in time to join us as we gaze at the Three Amigos. For those who can only join us in spirit, we will take lots of pictures and post them.MEERKATS RULE!!!
I am so disappointed I will not be able to join the ECMS at the Staten Island Zoo this weekend, but you are right about being there in spirit. You read my mind on the pix. Pls take lots and lots of our beautiful three little guys and the Society. I want to see all the proud smiles, they are well deserved. It will be a beautiful day whatever the weather, no snow & ice of course. I want to see those little guys group hugging with grooming kisses. If you go in the enclosure give them a "snackie" of mealworms for me and all the rest of us who cannot be there.
I will be doing a big meerkat cheer and wave come 11:00!!!!
Since it was on several posts will there be a dedication to Flower at this time or will that be a later *ceremony*?
Glad Gene is doing well and will be looking forward to the sun catchers. I don't mind waiting however long........
You are more than welcome to use any of my odes. Just copy and paste them. My dominant male is feeling better. He is home recooperating from surgery. Hope your dominant male is doing good.
I believe that we will have a dedication ceremony, all official like, when the enclosure is redone. Flower would be proud.
The dominant male has informed me that the sun catchers will be up on the meerkatsrule.org site by tomorrow. The artist has completed 12 more to bring us up to 22. Some will be premiums on the SI site but the rest will be available from ECMS.
The dominant male is also in contact with the artist about the possibility of doing a special sun catcher of Flower Whiskers, perhaps with a daisy or a radio collar. But this is not a done deal. She will work on it as well as one of a pup. But please get the ones that we already have because they are wonderful.
The long range forecast looks good for the week end so it looks like this time the East Coast Meerkat Society will meet at the SI Zoo. Bring cameras and wear clothing or something that will identify you as a member as most of us have not met each other. I shall probably have my Youssarian puppet or one of the Naughty Kids with me. See you there. MEERKATS RULE!!!
I wish I could come too. I have a question, I donated another $100 dollars for the zoo but i don't remember being asked whether I wanted the suncatcher. How do I check on that?
Holly - I put in your request for the suncatcher. You will be notified with the three types of suncatchers for you to choose from. Just give us a few more days. You're on our list.
I, too, made a donation to the zoo ($250) and would love the one of the suncatchers. No rush at all - I just wanted to make sure I was on the list, too!
See ya'll this weekend! I haven't figured out my attire, yet, but I'm sure I'll be able to find you guys!
Runs262 - thank you for your generosity and I look forward to meeting you on Sunday. Could you send me your email address so we could send you the pictures of the suncatchers so you could choose the one you want? You can email me at pethealermary@aol.com That will help speed things up.
I stopped at the zoo in Milwaukee yesterday. After much searching I made it to the Small Mammils building. They had a few sloths and lemurs and a few delightful otters. Then finally I found the meerkats. There were only two of them, but they did have a back area they could go into, so there may have been one more or so.
The living conditions were decent. Not perfect, but still pretty good and the meerkats did not appear bored or suffering. They had a little sandy area, but not enough sand for real digging. Their enclosure was not as big as I had hoped for, but still they had a good amount of room to move. The had a lot of different things to climb on and tubes to run through and boxes to tear apart if they chose to do so. So that was really good. The zoo seemed to make the best use of space that they had.
All in all I would give the living conditions a "B". As for the meerkats themselves, their tails were shorter than the ones on MM. I was wondering if in captivity they get their tails docked or something like that. They were short and fluffy and fun to watch.
Hey thanks for the update, I have been to the Fort Worth zoo and it is great. My only complaint there was it was rather small but there was more indoor area that wasn't public so who knows.
I have yet to get to the Dallas zoo and check them out.
It is wonderful to hear that the Texas and Midwest branches of the Society have shared relatively good news about Zoos in their part of the country. The more that I hear from people that have visited other zoos, the more important it is for the Society to get the SI Zoo enclosure upgraded ASAP.
The meeting is still on for Sunday and I have, once again, contacted NBC in New York. We will meet at 11:00 at the SI Zoo. It seems that we are at or very near, if not over, the 5K mark in donations. I know that Flower is smiling on us!!
The dominant male promised to get the sun catchers up on the meerkatsrule.org site today but they are not posted as I write this. But please check often. He has been slowed by some health issues. MEERKATS RULE!!!
Bon voyage and happy meerkat visiting to all of you who are gathering at the SI Zoo on Sunday. Travel safely, enjoy the three amigos and each other, and let those zoo people know are serious. So glad NBC will be there. I'll be with you all in spirit.
Mee too! As posted on the other forum, I very sadly can't make it to the SI Zoo this weekend as an unexpected out of town visit from my parents returning upstate from Florida ... Ahhh to be retired an have no concept of time or schedules or warn me ahead of time by the way I do have a life... ...must be nice . But I will plan my own visit maybe hookup w/Queenflower & any other locals for another day. Take lots of pics for us, I will be there in spirit as will Flower
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And by the way.... Hip Hip Horray, Cudos for all of us so far . $5000 and counting for the new enclosure . We as Meerkat fans are awesome . And to think it all started w/Queenflower's innocent visit to the SI Zoo to see some local fuzzies and look what happened!!! Power of the people CAN make a difference
The NYC meeting of the East Coast Meerkat Society is tomorrow at 11:00. Queenflower and others will be there. Be sure that you wear something, or carry something like a toy meerkat, that identifies you as one of the mob. Remember, most of us have never met in person!! I also hear that the weather is supposed to be good.
I hope everyone has a great time and lots of pictures get posted. Unfortunately we will not be able to attend. Up until 10:00 on Friday night it was still a "go" but the DM did not have a good night; the new pain meds are just not doing the trick.
So, as much as it saddens us not to go to NYC, (I was really excited about the trip)I was forced to look at the total picture and there was simply no way that Gene would have been able to tolerate the five or so hour drive to get there. And I was just not comfortable leaving him home alone.
However, the group will be under the very capable care of Queenflower, who really knows her way around the zoo. Also, my DM actually spoke to the zoo director on Friday and he assured Gene that there would be a keeper to greet the group and, hopefully, allow them to distribute worms or other Kalahari-type goodies to the Three Amigos.
I also apologize to the mob for the delay on posting the sun catchers. Gene really is working on the web site and they will be available very soon. He just has been rather "fuzzy" as he says. The first run through of the site with the sun catcher pictures was all muddled, with print and pictures overlapping. It was not a pretty sight. He is fine tuning it. We have 22 sun catchers that Herbee has finished already, so there will be enough for everyone. And she will be making more. I just plead with mob members to be patient with we old folks!
So, enjoy the Big Apple, have a great meeting, and take lots of pictures. We will be with you in spirit. MEERKATS RULE!!!
Please give Gene my best and tell him not to worry about the website right now. It is much more important to all of us that he get well and resting will accomplish that much faster than his worrying that we are unable to see the sun-catchers!
We know that he will get them up there in time but we would much rather have a healthy and perky Gene then a sun-catcher picture. Now go and hip slam him back to bed and make him get some rest! And warn him if he doesn't listen to us and take it easy for a while, he is going to have an angry mob pronking his way ready to give him a good tail biting until he does!
I know you both are disappointed about the NY trip but there will be others in your future I'm sure.
So kick your shoes off, get the comfy throw blanket out and cuddle up on the couch and pop in Season 1 of those cute little fuzzies until Gene isn't feeling so fuzzie himself.
Cheryl/Gene, So sorry to hear that Gene is not up to par, but as shakespeareforever says, rest, rest, rest...everything else will take care of its self.
I know you are sad, but just think of what has been accomplished for those 3 little fellows because of you, Gene, queenflower and our ever faithful meerkat mob. That should bring a smile to your face.
Come 11:00, join me in a meerkat wave & cheer.... It will include all of us in our meerkat world.
Please know I am keeping the DM in my thoughts and I hope that he will be feeling better soon. We all can wait, it is important for him to do what is necessary to get better.
I am sorry you couldn't go to the zoo, it is largely because of the hard work and dedication that you two put forth that this is going to be accomplised.
Thank you for the hard work and now you need to make sure you all are feeling better.
I so wanted to go today but didn't make it - I am still not over my cold from last month and although I am functioning - I overslept because of it and didn't leave enough time to get up there - plus everyone would have been annoyed by my horrible cough that I just can't seem to get rid of -
Someone please tell me how everything went - what is the status - and hopefully a date will be set in the future to check out the Meerkats in Phila Zoo.
I too want to thank you guys for all the effort you put into these 3 meerkats -
Cheryl and Gene, I am so sorry you couldn't go. Maybe when the weather warms up you can make a special trip. Meanwhile, get well so you can be there for the big dedication ceremorny when the new enclosure is done. katlady, I'm sorry you couldn't go also. All of us who live too far away will be waiting for descriptions and pictures.
Well I am now officially smitten with The Three Amigos (as if I wasn't before). We had a wonderful visit with them today. I have a bunch of photos that I will upload and post probably by tomorrow night Several brave mob members were able to make the trek to Staten Island. I got to meet Bellethekat (who graciously rode the Staten Island Ferry with me), Runs262 and her very nice fiance (she is also *officially* smitten with the three amigos as of her latest email to me) and Highway 1802 and his lovely family.
We were greeted by the senior veterinary technician Diane who was very nice and knowledgeable. She hung out with us a bit at the meerkat enclosure and then showed us the zoo animal hospital. We found out the birthdates of the three amigos. They are all 8 years old. Two of them are brothers and were born on October 15th and the other was born on February 5th. She mentioned that they haven't had much trouble with the tails of the three amigos (compared to some other zoos where the tails have to be docked) but there was one time when there was some construction going on next door which stressed out the meerkats and they started to overgroom their tails. All in all, they are in quite good health. She said often meerkats in captivity tend to have dental problems. I'm thinking it has to do with the artificial diet (too many carbs and simple sugars) and genetics. We found out the main diet for the three amigos is Science Diet Light dry cat food and carrots plus the occasional bananas! A far cry from scorpions, millipedes and grubs. I must confess that I think they are getting a little chubby.
I will say that I think our mob project at the SI zoo has caused them to try to make some improvements before we finally get the enclosure built. There were several nice tubes for them to go in and out of and a nice log with some holes in it where they kept sticking their little paws in. And instead of the pathetic 7 pebbles they had in the beginning, now there are a whole bunch of pebbles. I know it's a far cry from sand, but at least I saw them digging away. The poor things. I can't wait until they can dig to their hearts content in the sand like every meerkat should be able to.
For enrichment at 11:30 am they gave them meal worms spread over the pebbles so they had to dig in the pebbles to get them and in the afternoon they got 3 hard boiled eggs with the shells on! It was great - it reminded me of the episode on MM with the tortoise eggs. I kept thinking of poor Einstein. Anyway, the eggs caused quite the frenzy amongst the three amigos and there was plenty of barking, grunting and hip slams.
Diane took us to the animal hospital and it was wonderful. Being a vet I thoroughly enjoyed looking at all the equipment and all the ingenious devices they have come up with to handle the wild animals that don't marvel at the thought of being touched by a human. We also had to go passed the venomous snake area and all I could do was think of Flower. I felt like crying as she was talking about anti-venom and snake bites.
Diane then graciously printed out a 12 page document for us from the isis.org site of all the meerkats in every zoo in the world by number, sex and number of offspring born in the last 6 months. I was unaware of all the subspecies out there! There is S. suricatta hahni, lophurus, suricatta, namaquensis and finally S.s. hybrid (must be a mixture of 2 subspecies). She also gave me the name, email address and phone number for a woman who is in charge of the "meerkat studbook" who also has published a document called "the meerkat husbandry manual". Diane says she is a "meerkat fanatic" (so she's one of us) and she makes meerkat chirp sounds on the phone when you talk to her. I love her already. I'm going to contact her and tell her what we are doing and ask if she will send us the manual to help us with the enclosure for the three amigos.
The plan is for Gene, Cheryl and I (as representatives for our mob) to meet with the director of the zoo next weekend and hash out the details of the enclosure. So we should have some information on that end by the beginning of next week. Right now we're still fundraising, ie, no construction has begun yet.
So, we had a great time, the Three Amigos are absolutely darling and I wish all of you could meet them. I am so happy that we have all banded together as a mob to help make their lives better. With perserverance we will prevail - as we work as meerkats do - to better the lives of other meerkats.
I just wrote a long post about everything that happened at the SI zoo today. When I hit the "post now" button I got a message that said that my message will not be posted now because it had to be approved because I had set off some trigger words or something. Alas, I promise I didn't use any naughty words so I have no idea what trigger I set off. Anyway, hopefully my post will be up soon. I think you will find the post very informative.
Here are some new pics of the Three Amigos. In a couple of the shots you will see them trying to eat a hard boiled egg with the shell on. They did a better job than Einstein but it wasn't easy.
Due to the lack of good lighting and that horrible fence that surrounds the enclosure, it is very difficult to get good, clear shots of the fuzzies so I apologize but you'll get the idea. They are completely adorable.
Thank you Queenflower for the update and information. I hope that Gene will be feeling well enough soon so you all can go hip slam some people and get this ball rolling.
That woman who has the stud book sounds like this is going to get interesting. Please share what you can, I am very curious about the different sub species. That would explain the different tail lengths(not bobbed) and the different colorings.
Please let me know if you can share any of that information.
Thank you for your hard work, I hope it all pays off soon
Bravo queenflower. Great report and awesome pictures of those cutiepies.
Cheryl, I hope your Dominant male gets better soon. Make sure he gets lots of rest. My dominant male has been in the hospital a couple of times lately, so I know how you feel. It is no fun to see my dominant male not feeling well. Take care.
Thank you so much for keeping us all updated QueenFlower. You sound like you had a great time! I also didn't realize that there were that many different kinds of meerkats. I will have to see if I can find a picture of each one to see just what each looks like.
You're pictures of the Amigos are so cute. I love the one of the little guy with his paws on the fence. And I agree, that cyclone fence is just horrible! In fact, shouldn't the meerkats be able to climb that type of fence and escape?
It makes me wonder when I see others photos and the meerkats are always behind tall Plexiglas walls, these are the first I have seen behind cyclone fencing, or separated by something that puts distance between the meerkats and the public, but at our local zoos, San Francisco and Oakland, there is absolutely no tall barriers or any distance between us & the meerkats.
They are outside with only a 4 foot high wall between us and them. There is a rope chain on the outside of the fence to keep people back, but it isn't a problem to just go under or over it if you wanted to (I did this to get better pictures) & then you could easily just jump into the meerkats area and as friendly as they were, possibly even take one. They even have a small pet carrier, just their size, for them to play on, sitting right out in their yard for easy taking and transporting. You would just need to supply a door for it.
The SF Zoo at least is more open and has people all around so that at least would make it more difficult but every time I have been to Oakland it has been pretty deserted in that area and with all the trees around, it is also shielded making it an easy target. This I guess, is something I need to bring to the attention of the zoo. Why I didn't think of this before is beyond me, especially since I even joked about taking one home.
Well, I have wandered off topic here, sorry. But if anyone would like to see what I mean about the Oakland Zoo's Meerkat Habitat you can see the pictures at the link at the bottom of this and let me know if you think it seems a bit risky also.
You post just appeared. wow...Looked at the pictures last night, I just want to reach in, pick one up and give it a big hug. (but can't forget the Minnesota meerkats so would restrain myself) Glad Diane was such a great hostess with so much info to share. She is definitely one of us! Would love to hear her chirp!! Thanks again for the update. I WILL get there...
PS....can't find the *trigger**...maybe it was all the species names!
Queenflower, thanks so much for the timely report and the adorable pictures. I'm so glad the amigos have more stuff to play with and more pebbles. I'm sure they appreciated the visit from the ECMS. How can we send a mob thank you to Diane for being so helpful? Let's hope the meeting next weekend is equally good.
Chirp, chirp...what better example of cooperative behavior among meerkats!! A thank you note would be very nice. Does she have a calendar? Just a thought.... .
Topic Closed
I don't mind and I did it also for Flower as well. She still is in my thoughts daily.
... Ahhh to be retired an have no concept of time or schedules or warn me ahead of time by the way I do have a life... 
...must be nice 
. But I will plan my own visit maybe hookup w/Queenflower & any other locals for another day. Take lots of pics for us, I will be there in spirit as will Flower 
