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| Name: |
Gavin
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Age: |
Unknown
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| Gender: |
Male
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Kind: |
Ring-Tailed Lemur (Lemur Catta)
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| Home: |
Isle of Man, United Kingdom
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Little Gavin is a very special Lemur. He is very cute and cuddly, and very inquisitive. He's always getting his leathery little paws into some mischief! Often mistaken for a raccoon, or a very thin badger, he's fed up of saying, 'Daddy, will you tell them I'm a lemur, not a monkey!' Sometimes, he'll give a little playful nip on the finger to anyone else who tries to pick him up - but that's only because he loves his Daddy so much!
Gavin doesn't miss Madagascar at all, as he is very happy in his huge play cage in the garden. (We are not even sure he was born there, given his unusual arrival here - more on that below.) Gavin loves lettuce and carrots, and can often be found high up one of the climbing branches with some vegetable in his hand having a good old chew. He's so happy, sometimes he just sits for hours watching the world go by outside, rocking gently and smiling.
Sometimes, Gavin comes into the house (especially when it gets cold) where we let him roam around the living room (after covering everything in plastic sheets!). Our boring old pet cat, Humpty, can't stand him and all the attention he gets! But little Gavin is very special. When he was found, he had a broken tail and we had to have a very expensive corrective operation - but it was worth it as Gavin now has full use of his tail like it never got caught in the box at all."
Gavin was found roaming the wilds of Port Erin after a particularly bad storm (an Irish trawler had run aground in Port St. Mary and we have always wondered if he came from there). My wife managed to encourage him into a wooden tea-chest by the extravagant use of bananas and some yoghurt. He is our first lemur, and indeed our first 'unusual' pet since Rigsby the Ocelot passed away in '97. We also have a cat called Humpty (so called for his ear disorder which causes balance problems - which is a shame as he does love to climb!) He was not a pet we had planned on getting, but when he arrived, we knew he was here to stay. He is at least two and a half years old, as he has been here for two!
As far as I know, Gavin has never done anything illegal - he hardly ever goes outside of the house or his garden play-cage. However, once or twice he has managed to find his way past the chainlink fence (topped with barbed wire) and has been bought back by an angry farmer or hotelier. Once he was caught nibbling the windscreen wiper of a member of the local clergy - how we all laughed at the irony!
We do love him so.
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Talk about Gavin in Pet Talk!
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