Bara, Jengo and Nalo soak up the precious winter sun © Denise Robertson

Happy New Year to all of our loyal and wonderful extended family around the world! As 2005 unfolds there is a feeling of excitement at the Center. It's like the delicious anticipation we all experienced as children just before something magical occurred. We are on the verge of new beginnings, with lots of ideas scurrying around in our heads to enhance the Center and the meerkats' lives. As we develop these projects over the coming year you, as members of the "mob," will be able to follow the progress through our newsletters and updates.

Where's the Grub?           © Joyce Libethe

All across the United States winter brought unusual and extreme weather conditions. Morongo Valley was no exception. Although the meerkats stayed "high and dry" through numerous rainy days, they expressed their dismay by spending many of the wettest days inside their heated den boxes. Of course we, as caregivers, placed their food bowls just outside the den box doors so all they had to do was poke their heads out for a tasty snack - room service Fellow Earthings' style!

• Our director, Pam Bennett-Wallberg, was interviewed on the popular "Joey English Show," which was hosted by Kate Porter, a local Palm Springs' celebrity. Pam talked about her favorite subject - the meerkats at Fellow Earthlings'. We were pleased the program generated many telephone calls and emails from those interested in our work.
• The research team from National Geographic's Be the Creature (staring the talented and effervescent Kratt Brothers) asked us to help them with information for a new documentary featuring meerkats. The delightful program aired in January to rave reviews.
• A donation of two Adoption Portfolios was made to the Living Desert Zoo and Botanical Garden for their annual silent auction fund-raiser. We look forward to introducing our new adoptive parents to the meerkats.
• Our friends at the Lewistown Hospital in Pennsylvania (story in the fall 2004 edition of Paw Prints) ordered another stack of meerkat tee-shirts. Thus, ensuring all nursing staff proudly displays our Meerkat Motto! Thank you for helping us spread the word!

  
  

• After the torrential rain we experienced this season, we realized the area previously chosen for the new enclosures was not the best location for the meerkats' "new digs." The rains pooled in the basin, saturated the dirt, and took a long time to dry out. So, we decided to build the new enclosures on "higher ground" near the existing enclosures. Unfortunately, we had to remove several trees to accommodate the new structures. Thanks to the free "in house" labor from Phil Wallberg the trees were expertly removed (even the stumps!) Volunteer Denise Robertson also helped by clearing the tree limbs and feeding them into the wood chipper. We look forward to expanding the original space for our wee residents and creating additional areas for the possible placement of other meerkats that need a home. Stay tuned for more details as they unfold!

  Phil Wallberg makes room for the new meerkat enclosures © Pam Bennett-Wallberg

  Denise Robertson hauls tree limbs to the wood chipper © Pam Bennett-Wallberg

• This year we welcomed an unprecedented number of Adoptive and Re-Adoptive Parents. These Angels hailed from near and far but, curiously, many of them were from Australia, New Zealand, and England. Happily, many of these Adoptive Parents also visited. We are enormously grateful because, amazingly, 93% of our Adoptive Parents choose to re-adopt each year. Your continuing legacy of generosity enables us to provide the meerkats with the best care possible. And, because we are not a large, impersonal facility, it gives us great pleasure to know each of you personally. We wouldn't want it any other way!
• The success of the Ralph's and Food 4 Less grocery programs has been outstanding! Along with the quarterly donation checks to the Center, the stores now send the names of people who have kindly "swiped" their cards when purchasing groceries. Thank you for remembering us! If you would like to be part of this fabulous, free program that benefits the meerkats, please click on the link above.
• We are working on some exciting, new ideas for fund-raising. Plus, Kristen Perry, our esteemed and talented friend, is putting the finishing touches on the Fellow Earthlings' meerkat poster which will be featured on our web site soon. We will print the poster in the near future and offer it for sale. All proceeds will, of course, benefit the animals. See if you can recognize which of our meerkats Kristen used for her models!
• Many of our guests delighted us by using a photograph of their visit with the meerkats as their Christmas cards. You can be sure we'll keep the cards for a long time! Another one of our creative Adoptive Parents designed a college graduation announcement that was festooned with meerkats.
• This season's heavy rains caused one of our large eucalyptus trees to topple. Unfortunately, along with a portion of the fence, the tree took down our power line. But, never fear, we were able to provide the meerkats with all the "creature comforts" thanks to our back-up systems. To keep the meerkats comfy and safe we rely on our wind-generator, gasoline generator, solar panels, 3,000 gallons of stored/gravity-feed water, a hand-pump on our well, a commercial-sized propane tank, solar refrigerator/freezers and propane refrigerator/freezers.

  Phil Wallberg and his trusty assistants, Jasmine and Jake, make firewood out of the fallen tree. © Pam Bennett-Wallberg

Into Africa                         © Phil Wallberg

Pam has contacted a well known, South African guide who will take her via 4-wheel drive, solo, through the most remote and pristine parts of the Kalahari Desert. She will be traveling and camping for a month. Highlights of the trip include interacting with the native San (Bushmen) tribe as well as spending time at a wild meerkat study site in Botswana. The Kalahari Desert is still one of the last, most remote frontiers of Africa and Pam will be experiencing it much as the earliest explorers did over a century ago. The journey will begin in South Africa and extend to Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Pam will also have the opportunity to visit Chobe, Moremi, Tsodilo Hills, and Victoria Falls.

Denise Robertson, volunteer Development Director and Phil Wallberg, Operations Manager, will run the Center in Pam's absence. In fact, Denise is looking forward to staying "on site" at the Center and spending lots of time with the critters!

While Pam is out of the country (March 26 - May 2), we will close the Center to visitors. (After all, what would a visit be without Pam?!) However, Adoptions, Re-Adoptions, and merchandise orders will be filled without delay.

Upon Pam's return, we'll have lots of stories and photos to share in upcoming newsletters. Additionally, all our adoptive parents who visit after May 2nd will hear, first-hand, about her African journey.

We don't breed meerkats because, then, we wouldn't have room for the animals that desperately need a home.

However, in 1997 we got a wee surprise. But, let's start the story at the beginning.

In 1994 The Living Desert Zoo and Botanical Garden in Palm Desert, California called us. The curator told us they had an old, female meerkat that wasn't getting along with the "mob." So, Karla the meerkat, was living by herself in the zoo's holding area. The Living Desert asked if we would provide a home for her. We happily agreed.

Karla was 9 and considered to be old when she was placed with us. But, the new environment and the companionship of our other meerkats seemed to be just the tonic she needed. Several months after Karla arrived we got another call from the curator at The Living Desert. She told us they had an old, male meerkat (Zorro) that was expected to live only two weeks because he had significant health problems. The curator asked if we would take him. Once again, we said yes.

We picked up Zorro from the zoo and prepared his "Last Supper." His "Last Supper" led to his next "Last Supper," and then to the next, and then to a series of "Last Suppers." In the meantime, we called our "miracle-working" veterinarian, Susan Klages.

Dr. K. is a former zoo veterinarian and is familiar with many species of exotic animals. Thanks to Dr. Klages' skill, Zorro didn't live two weeks, as expected. Instead, the little guy lived 4 more years! Of course, because Zorro was considered to be an elderly meerkat, we didn't think it was necessary to neuter him. And, besides, his room-mate Karla was also thought to be very "long in the fang."

Surprise, surprise, surprise! When Karla was 12 years old she presented us with Baby Remi - the whirling dervish of the Center. Karla and Zorro were indulgent parents and tolerated all of Remi's rascally deeds. Karla patiently endured hours of "play bites" from the "Remster" and had the scars to prove it. Often, when Remi's parents needed a break they simply sat on her until Remi emitted her "Call of the Riled." Then they let Remi, once again, begin her playful assault.

Perhaps, it was because Remi was an "only meerkat," or maybe it was because her parents were overly tolerant, or maybe it was simply a matter of "genes." Regardless of the reason, Remi grew up with a mouth-full of "Gimmes."

However, Remi's "less than generous" disposition has taught us many things:

• You don't always have to be sweet for others to like you.
• It's okay to make your opinion known.
• Appreciate the free things: Sunshine, warm sand, friendship and love.
• Play hard
• Sleep well
• Expect good things
• Know what you want - and GET IT!

(Pssssst, Karla wasn't old at 9. And, she wasn't old at 12. She lived to be 16. Just goes to show, your age is just a number.)

Papa Zorro, Baby Remi, and Mama Karla                     © Pam Bennett-Wallberg

In closing, to those we hold dear, we wish you health and abundant joy. We are grateful for the innocent and endearing "wee ones" that share our lives and teach us to be ever present, ever hopeful (you never know when it's going to rain meal worms!) and ever caring about all our "fellow earthlings."

The animal shall not be measured by man. In a world older and more complete than ours,they move finished and complete, gifted with extension of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear.They are not brethren; they are not underlings; they are other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendor and travail of the earth.

Henry Beston, The Outermost House, 1928