Never in a million years did we ever believe a sloth would come wandering into our lives. Well, Saturday afternoon as I was making dinner one did!
I went outside as the dogs were barking wildly. Much to my surprise they weren't moleting a gecko, whatever they were barking at was a furry mess crawling on the ground. I thought it was the opossum who we've seen around. Once the dogs backed off at my urging the critter started climbing and I could see it was a sloth. I called for Bill and Callista to come out and bring the camera.
We watched this awesome creature as she made her way up a tree and down again finally coming to rest in the dense cana india fence line. Since she was all settled in we went to have dinner. As dark fell I went to see if she was moving as we know they're nocturnal. Oh yes, she was moving and startled me when I opened the back door. She was right there climbing up the biggest tree on the property.
The next morning, Father's Day I woke and went out to search for her as soon as it was light. It didn't take long to find her all curled up in a different tree. During breakfast she moved to still another tree. Seemed this sloth was quite active during the day for a nocturnal creature. By md-morning she'd settled into our carambola tree for a long, several hour nap. By mid-afternoon she was moving around again munching on leaves of various trees.
By Sunday evening she'd made it to the bottom of our treeline. We hoped she'd work her way back up towards the house by morning but she had other plans. I was up at 2AM Monday morning anxiously awaiting daybreak so I could search for her all the while knowing she was gone.
We couldn't find any sign of her Monday morning.
Thank you for coming to visit us Sarah Sloth! Now that we know it's possilbe to see sloths in our area we'll be keeping an eye out for you.
