Gladys Night is the mother of this sugar glider family. We brought her into the household in September 1997, as a companion for Gladden.

The early days of Gladys' life with Gladden seemed disasterous. Shyness has never been one of Gladys's traits. Her outgoing personality clashed badly with Gladden's need to be left alone. When Squeak was born, Gladys' dominance turned to bullying. Gladys would steal food from the hands of both Gladden and her daughter, just for fun.

Then Squeak grew up, and a strange thing happened. Squeak assumed her mom's role as bully, and Gladys became a sweetheart. She has become the emotionally stable center, in-between Gladden's angst-filled solitude and Squeak's uncontrollable meanness.

I call Gladys the normal one. But with sugar giders (ours,anyway) normal is a relative term. Gladys is not without her quirks. She is affectionate. While Squeak and Gladden are off hiding, Gladys will be hanging out with Phillip and me, perched on my knee, or rubbing her back against ours. But she hates to be touched. If I reach over and scratch her neck, she'll run away. If I look like I might reach up and touch her, she'll run away. Then she'll climb up on my leg and hang out, until I try to touch her again. I don't understand it.

And then there are almonds. Gladys loves slivered almonds. We keep a sealed container of them in the bedroom, just for her. She really gets into her almonds, making grunting little "happy noises" while she savors every bite. She will spend forever eating a single almond. Often, she'll loose herself so deeply into the enjoyment of her almond that I'll reach over and scratch her neck, and she won't even notice. The down side is we have to limit her to just two or three almonds every other night, because they are so high in fat. The container will snap shut, and Gladys will become frantic. She'll search everywhere for an almond - or just a crumb - she might have missed. There has to be another almond somewhere. Please, can I have just one more almond? Just one more, please? Poor Gladys.