Sad news 1: Polly the ratufa

Ratufa is the scientific name of the giant squirrel, a rather beautiful, colorful, cat-sized squirrel with a bushy tail longer than the body. During a thunderstorm Alice (the other researcher in here) found a baby ratufa on the ground, probably fallen from her nest. She had still closed eyes and was screaming for help, and she took her home. In the next 2 days we took her where she was found, hoping her mother could take her back. After unsuccessfully trying to find her mother, we decided to adopt her. Finding some food that could suit her was harder than I expected: milk was categorically rejected, egg yolk was even worse. Water with cane sugar was accepted but not a viable long-term solution. Grated apple mixed with ground peanuts was found to be the optimal meal (thanks to the “expert” friends who provided advice through instant messages). She loved it though at first was not particularly skilled in eating it. And here I could go on with a hundred stories on peculiar behaviors that she did, so lovely, so special, just as a stereotypical proud and boring parent. I will restrain myself to just a few: she stood on my shoulder when traveling, on the head if walking fast, and inside my hair bun if raining; she responded to my “calls”, climbing frantically all the way to my mouth and stood there, concentrated, “duetting”; she would curl into a ball to sleep (my hand the favorite spot by far), and be completely trusting (I could then walk around without disturbing her sleep). But this is a very sad story: we left for 3 days, and when we came back she had lost weight, didn’t want to eat, spent most of the time sleeping and being inactive, and in two days rapidly faded. A vet that was following a study on small cats was no help, disappointingly. It particularly hit me because when I try to do something I really want it to succeed, and I really tried hard to raise her, and had become very, very attached to her.