It gives Steve and Julie the greatest of pleasure to introduce you to Gypsy. We both feel privileged to have been given the opportunity to sponser her name. We are also providing full sponsership for her and look foward to bringing you regular updates on the her life of luxury at the Chengdu sanctuary. By all accounts she is a young bear and will hopefully have many happy years of freedom at Animals Asia. The name Gypsy was because Steves old Airdale Terrier had the same name who passed away in 2004 at the grand old age of 14. Unfortunately we found out after speaking to Jill Robinson when she came over on her June fund raising visit to the UK we found out Gypsy seems to have inherited some Airdale Terrier traites i.e. attacking the other bears in teh sancturary. Jill did assure us that despite all the trouble she is causing she is settling in now! Gypsy is one of the survivors of the 31st March 2008 rescue sseen below in the horrendous cage. She was first off the truck on that momentous day and fittingly the first to be released into a den some eight months later in November. Not untypical of our fond memories of Gypsy the dog, Moon Bear Gypsy was delighted to experience the water trough in her den as seen below. Here is Gypsy whilst she was kept in her recovery cage. Now in her own den, she certainly appears a little happier than in the picture above. May Gypsy have a long life and we promise to keep her fully sponsored for the long life we hope she will enjoy. This page will be updated regularly as we gain more information about Gypsy. ************************************************************ Gypsy and George integration Gypsy succumbs to the sociable George's greeting hug. This week our Behaviour and Management team put together two bears of seemingly very different character – Gypsy, anxious, restless and stereotypic, and George, friendly, inquisitive and very sociable. When they were in quarantine before moving to their new dens, Gypsy stereotyped in her recovery cage more than any other bear, pacing up and down and swiveling her head. George on the other hand, was inquisitive and a bit cheeky by nature. When they moved into their new dens in Rehab before Christmas, George was eager to make friends, pawing at his neighbours through the den dividers (slides). Unfortunately this didn’t go down well with one neighbour, Laetizia, who reacted with dismay and growled if poor George even looked in her direction through the slides. Gypsy on the other hand, after her initial elation about being released into a den and charging around splashing water from her water trough, grew restless and her pacing resumed and increased until her paws bled. So the bear managers decided to move her next to George who was friendlier than Gypsy's first neighbour and closer in age. Instantly they took a shine to each other and for several weeks now they have enjoyed each other's company through the slides, pawing at each other and rolling around beside the slide. Gyspy's pacing stopped and they made it very easy for the team to select this pair as one of the first integrations from March 2008's arrivals. This week, Nic our Bear Manager, the Bear Team Supervisors and Bear Worker Chen and her team positioned ourselves and opened the slides between dens. George, who was in a basket at the time, climbed down as fast as he could to greet Gypsy. Almost instantaneously, the pair were wrestling and playing and this continued all day. Not one growl was heard from them (just from neighbour Laetizia who was most unimpressed by all this fun going on next door) and chasing, mutual paw biting, jumping on one another, clawing and rolling around ensued. Panting and smiling they fed side by side at their evening feed before one last wrestle in the basket together. When Nic looked in on them later on in the evening George was on his back in one basket snoring and Gypsy was in the basket next to his yawning and licking her lips before bedding down after what must have been one of the most happy and exciting days in these bears' lives Gypsy regains her composure and teaches George how to play tag. The bears played for hours, totally delighted with each other's company. Exhausted after the step-wrestling challenge, Gypsy and George shared dinner before settling down happily for a good night's sleep. www.animalsasia.org