New York Roommates
Posted at 1:36 pm February 5, 2010 by Rick SchwartzLiving with a porcupine and two tortoises in a hotel room in Manhattan is indeed as unique as it sounds, if for no other reason than everyone seems to be on a different sleep schedule! (Read Rick’s previous post, Packing for a Porcupine’s Flight.) Sure, there is plenty of “city noise” that comes through the closed windows, but honestly I can sleep through most of that, sirens, honking, and all. However, in-the-room noise is another story…
Last night, for some reason, Icana, the prehensile-tailed porcupine, decided she would stay up late playing with her enrichment. Of course, this is good. After all, that’s why we give her enrichment: we want her to have fun on this trip. Unfortunately, her enclosure is only three feet away from the bed, so I ended up lying there wide awake listening to this adorable critter playing with her toys all night long. Climbing all over, pushing things around, and chewing on her favorite things – it really is amazing how busy this little girl keeps herself! Oh, but the best part was listening to her drink from her water dish –she slurps!
Then it was the tortoises’ turn to walk laps around their enclosures on the other side of the bed. Seriously, these have to be some of the healthiest tortoises in town with all of the exercise they get. Before they finally settled down for the night, the Madagascar spider tortoise thought that moving his furniture (food dish and cardboard house) around before sunrise was a good use of his time.
Then around the time my alarm goes off in the morning, everyone else settles down. Oh well! Sure, the lack of sleep is kind of taxing, but the way I see it there are not too many people who have the opportunity to have these kinds of roommates!
I do need to get going, as we have a few more appointments today and then we will need to start packing things up for our trip back home.
Rick Schwartz is the San Diego Zoo’s ambassador. Watch video of Rick and the gang on The CBS Early Show.
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February 5th, 2010 at 2:30 pm
Rick, you are just too too funny! your posts are always interesting along with your brand of humor thrown in for good measure! I enjoyed it though………!
February 5th, 2010 at 2:58 pm
Thanks Rick for a very comical account of your trip. We all needed something to laugh about after the sad day of panda departures on Thursday. Your “roommates” sound like quite interesting creatures. Just think, if you had not had the opportunity to make this trip with them, you would not have gotten to see this noctural side of them. They are not as “dull and boring” as some people might think. One may have to live a more nocturnal life to experience their activities, but they sound like they are indeed very active and were not stressed by the trip.
February 5th, 2010 at 4:33 pm
Oh this adventure is just too much fun! Thank you Rick. Keep us posted on how the trip home goes!
February 5th, 2010 at 5:56 pm
Thanks for the humorous update, Rick! I am surprised that hotels actually allow animals such as these as their guests. I suppose that they are small enough to accommodate, even in tight living quarters.
Just out of curiosity: Where do the “bigger” animals stay? I am thinking of the arctic fox, the Canadian lynx?
February 5th, 2010 at 8:33 pm
And Rick, maybe they thought they had to keep you occupied in case you were having a case of the jitters for having to appear on national tv, maybe they conspired to keep you awake and on your toes???
February 5th, 2010 at 9:38 pm
So awesome! Thanks for the update!
-Natalie
February 6th, 2010 at 1:09 am
Rick, the hotel let you have a zoo in your room??!!!! You certainly had a fun-filled night. I daren’t imagine the goings-on if the Arctic Fox and the Lynx had been in your room too!
February 6th, 2010 at 10:18 am
2 polie’s swimming laps! love it!!
cant wait for our bears to get here this summer!