It was August 2012 at Buffalo campground in Lake Tomahawk. We thought it was going to be a normal camping trip, but what we didn’t know was that we were going to meet our newest part of the family.

We were camping, and while I was walking I bent down to pick up a stick, and I heard the strangest sound. I moved the stick again and I heard the sound again. And then I saw it, a small grey animal lying under the leaves. I wasn’t sure what it was, so I called my dad over hoping he knew. Then it ran up a tree. Soon my whole family was standing under the tree staring confused at the creature. It had a (very) long tail which he used to wrap around things, gray fur and big black eyes so he must have been nocturnal, little skin flaps like a flying squirrel, chinchilla-like ears, and his feet looked like little hands. I had never seen any thing like it around here.

Soon my dad went to get the campground owner to ask what it was, and he said he didn’t know what it was either. So he called the DNR and asked them what they thought it was and they also didn’t know. The best thing we heard was maybe a flying squirrel.

When we got home my mom searched the internet to see what it kind of creature it really was, and she found out right away that it was not a flying squirrel. It took her forever to find out what it really was. She finally found out it was a sugar glider. Sugar gliders are animals that can be found only in New Guinea and Australia, but are kept as pets. So we knew he was a domestic animal, and we felt awful because we left him there. He had no food and it was way too cold for him. We knew we had to go back for him. So we looked up on the internet “how to catch a lost sugar glider.” After that we headed to the campground, but we knew we probably would not find him, as he could be anywhere in the whole forest, that is if he was even alive.

When we got there we started looking and in less than a minute I spotted him. He was right where we had last seen him. So my dad grabbed the net and I grabbed the cage, and my heart was beating so fast and all sorts of emotions and feelings were going through my head. After the longest few seconds of my life, we got him. We were so excited!

We started looking for his owner, but had no luck. So that meant we got to keep him. We named him Zinger. And with the help of others, and the patience of my parents, we got everything he needed for him to have a happy, safe place to live in our home. He is very sweet and loving, and a great addition to our family.