Someone's at the door!

It's TURKEYS!

Still Alive!

Hi everyone, just wanted to let you know I'm still alive down here in CT. Christmas was fun, although I wish I had had more than 2 days off for it. I got some really nice gifts. Thanks especially to mom and dad for the white noise maker that has been helping a lot with my crazy light sleeper...ness. Also I got the Life of Mammals and the Life of Birds narrated by David Attenborough (my hero!). YES he is still alive. I don't know what they will do when he dies though. They will have to find another grandfatherly old Brittish man to go around the world pointing out awesome stuff. Clearly Emily and I need to disguise ourselves as said elderly man and start talking with accents until we are hired. Anyway, Henry is also doing well (for those of you who have been asking about him) and he is happily eating the cookies my mom baked for him :) I will post something more exciting this weekend when I have a day off. I also have Thursday off to sleep in after new years which I am spending in the city with my Drew buddies!! Apparently we are going to attempt Time Square...although knowing us we will just get tired and cold and go home to watch the ball drop and play some ridiculous game before falling asleep promptly at 12:05. Anyway, that's all for now. More videos and pictures soon!

Twas the Post Before Christmas

So one last quick post before I go home for Christmas tomorrow for a few days. I am going to be busy so I doubt I will be posting for a little bit (more on why in a minute). Anyway, this week has gone pretty well, although it will be a 6 day work week instead of 5, but I had some good help from volunteers over the weekend. Anyway, here are some fun stories/videos:

- A squirrel jumped on my face. No seriously. I was cleaning his cage and accidentally hit the box he was hiding in from me and he lept out of the box and to the ceiling of the cage...and then onto my face...Let me explain that this is a neurologically challenged squirrel with motor issues, one major one being that when frightened he has little to no control over the direction he goes. Luckily his next leap landed him back in the cage and my face was no worse for the experience I guess. (There you go Stephie).

- The cold has been HORRIBLE. We have had to bring animals inside who were getting hypothermia including my favorite little club footed hawk. I need to post a picture or video of him soon, he is adorable. Yesterday was actually dangerously cold and I had forgotten gloves at one point when outside and my hand was a little wet from washing dishes and it was freezing to every metal door handle I touched. Fun.

- Happy Holidays to everyone! Here are some more videos, my gift to you all....since I am currently at an unpaid internship...Merry Christmahannukwanzaka!

Ternie and Mary Jane Racing for Meal Worms:


Stevie Dancing in a poorly lit video:



A screech owl...blinking (but it's still cute):

I'm Stealing Stephie's Idea

Hey, for all of you who also read Stephie's blog in China, I am totally stealing her thunder and posting some video blog material...although mine will be less awesome because it isn't sped up or set to "Start the Commotion" (good song btw). Anyway, here is a virtual tour with some bonus turkey action..maybe if I can get this thing to work:

Morning:


Virtual Tour Part 1:



Virtual Tour Part 2:



Turkey prints:

The 12 Days of Injured Wildlife

Hi, sorry it has been a while. I had the weekend off and then today and yesterday as well for jury duty which ended up being canceled (yaaay, apologies to my sense of civic duty). Anyway, the weekend was quite fun, Meghan had a super hero costume themed birthday to which I went as super safari girl. I had wanted to go as swimming safety girl with inflatable swimmies on my arms, and a blow up duck pool toy around my waste, and flippers but the swimmies and the duck toy in no way fit on me, so I went with plan B. It was a good time and I got to socialize with people rather than animals for a while which was nice. Today and yesterday I spent pretty much the entire day running around getting Christmas presents for people and decorating the tree with my mom so I am all Holiday's out right now. Anyway, here are a few amusing stories for my anxious readers:

1. Embarassing/awesome moment: At the clinic last week a wonderfully flamboyant gay man traipsed in and handed my a tiny injured flying squirrel which made my day. However, as he was walking out he said "By the way you have a nice singing voice". I was confused until I realized that when he had come in I had been in the back room singing Rufus Wainwright's "Instant Pleasure" loudly to myself which could apparently be heard through the door. For those of you who know the song you will know why this was doubly embarrasing...

2. From what I recall of the party I am pretty sure I received a foot rub, a lesson in salsa dancing, and some sort of mild head injury.

3. Time for another animal bio! Actually I will quickly run through some of the small birds that live inside the clinic because there are A LOT of them...and I will do it festively I just decided...
One the Twelfth day of Christmas my Wildlife Clinic gave to meeeee.....

A snipe with a wing injury














Crow with some issues














Really Angry bluebird














Noisy/Ugly baby pigeon














Cautious little heron














Pissed off looking hawk














A TINYYYY GOLDEN FIIIINCH














Deer with messed up legs














3 annoying waterfowl














2 obnoxious turkeys



















And a blind bluejay with an attitude!

A Quick and Refreshing 6 AM Post

So this will be brief since it is way to early for thinking about anything for long periods of time. Just thought I would let everyone know I am alive. My life currently, in list form:

1. I'm going home tomorrow and I'm SO glad. I really need the break because this week has been either ridiculously cold, or rainy, or both every day. I'm also excited for Meghan's superhero costume party for which I just got an AWESOME idea this morning :) Also also, I might be going down to cape cod to see Peter and Anne (close friends of my family for those of you who don't know) who I haven't seen in forever. I also just saw that Peter is now one of the devoted fans of this blog by the user-name of Sandy Pants or some such thing. Hi Uncle Peter!

2. Cold is not fun. Cold is something that killed early settlers and makes people who have to work outside for a living very sad. Previous to this internship, winter and snow made me very happy and put me in mind of hot cocoa and snowmen, but after working outside for a day in 20 degree weather I have come to see winter in a whole new light...

3. I spent like 6 freakin hours stuffing Christmas donation cards for the clinic for the past two days, so that is where I have been if any of you were wondering. It is for a good cause, but I never want to lick another envelope again.

That's all for now, but here is a bonus video of Henry and Woody hanging out together. It's adorable, I need to take another one where I catch them in action, because the duck will groom the deers face and the deer will lick the duck and then they will take a nap together. Ah, love.

A Baby, a Deflating Air Matress, and Henry's Sweet Tooth

So this weekend I had off and I went to go see Windfelder, PDol, and baby Windfelder (Maggie!) and she is absolutely adorable!! She was very curious about everything around her and had that grumpy "what is this?" kind of look on her face which was cute. I got to hold her and got a picture with her on the baby blanket I made for her which also made my day :) I'm so excited for Tammy and Patrick who will be really great parents I know. (PDol if you are reading this, I am excitedly waiting for those pictures to go up on facebook...and you obviously have so much free time now to do so....well whenever you get a chance). Anyway before that I went out to eat with Emily at the "Autobon Bread Society" which is what I keep thinking is the name of the Atlanta Bread Company which I guess I cross with Au Bon Pan? Anyway that was fun and we got to be dorky and natury together and planed like 3 trips I think. Then after all that I went to go visit Stacy and Jacob in their NEW APPARTMENT!!! To "help them move in" which actually meant to get them Wendy's and sit on an air matress with them amid their boxes and watch Suze Orman (Jacob's idol). I then decided to sleep over because I was further away from Connecticut than I thought, and the air matress like half deflated in the night which was pretty sad.

So that was part one of my weekend which was really fun. Part two was coming home today after getting a delicious free meal out of Jacob and Stacy (who have PAYING jobs, la de da). I then did some laundry for the clinic because I really had nothing else planned and laundry is soothing. When I got back (like an hour ago) I came into the clinic to put the laundry money bag back and Henry was out and Dara asked me to help her with something..dun dun dun. One of Henry's legs is really swollen and infected, probably from the weight he attempts to put on it when he tries to hobble around. My poor little guy. Anyway the other day I had to hold him down while she cut it open to get the puss out...and we just did it again tonight because there was more. So basically I had to crouch over him with most of him cradled to me, and with his face next to mine so he wouldn't bash his head on the floor. It was not so much fun. I felt really bad doing it since here is this animal who trusts you who you have to hold to the ground while cutting him open. Dara also felt really bad, and I hope on some level he (and all these animals for that matter) know that we are attempting to help. For the most part though I think they probably see us as scary monsters who keep them locked up and periodically poke them...Anyway, to end on a happier note here is a video just for mamma Dalton of Henry's reaction to her cookies. It was pretty much the cutest thing I have ever seen. He LOVES them and Dara said it was fine to give him some since it's mostly oats and flour and what-not and he might as well enjoy life via cookies since...you know....he can't walk. Anyway, enjoy:

Animal Post Alert!

So here is what I know you all want :) Cute animal posts! Tomorrow is my day off so I can stay up kind of late tonight (like a big girl!) so I finally have some time to makes a more time consuming posts. Today's animal bio isssss.....a 2 part!

Video of Ternie!


Name: Ternie
Species: Laughing Gull (NOT actually a tern)
Reason he is here: Wing was broken and set before he got here so he can't fly.
Likes: Hearing himself make loud noises, pissing off Mary Jane by squeaking in her ear, getting treats
Dislikes: Whenever anyone else gets a treat and he doesn't, anyone being anywhere near him, having to move when he has one leg tucked up

Mary Jane

Name: Mary Jane
Species: Ring-billed Gull
Reason she is here: Badly broken wing which had to be amputated
Likes: Being called a pretty girl, biting Ternie when he squeaks in here face, getting secret treats when Ternie isn't looking
Dislikes: Ternie squeaking in her face, being taken to schools for education programs, and not being able to fly

I need to take another video of these guys and the other gulls in the morning. They all do that same thing when let out which is really funny at first and then really sad; They run out and run around the clinic with their wings out, look up for a place to perch, start flapping.....and then remember they can't fly. Every one of them, every time. Anyway, to end on a happier note. I am going to visit Drew tomorrow with Emily and we are going out to lunch and then to see Windfelder and her baby!! That's all for now, but stay tuned, I took a bunch of cute videos the other day.

Redbull may in fact give you wings...and a heart attack

So here is my daily schedule...I decided everyone should know:

AM

6:00 - awake!
6:45 - bring in rugs and feed wild deer and birds
7:00 to 9:00
- check mouse traps
- feed and clean all outside and inside birds
- give water to possums
- clean out overnight food from box turtle and screech owl
- feed indoor hawks
- take out Henry
- let out gulls and duck
- feed squirrels and make Henry a salad
9:00 to 9:30
- handfeed Delilah
- give all animals on Clavamox their pill (antibiotics) either in apples sauce or force fed
9:30 to 10:00
- clean outdoor hawks
- snipe and nighthawk handfed
10:00 to 11:00
- feed outdoor hawks
- Henry's cage
- gull cages
- start outdoor possums and raccoons
11:00 to 12:00
- check* on inside birds
- outside possums and raccoons
-snipe and nighthawk handfed

PM
12:00 to 1:00
-check on all outside and inside animals (not birds)
- anything not gotten done earlier (also sorting mice, picking meal worms, making up more soaked dog and cat food, and making puree for baby possum)
- hand feed Delilah
1:00 to 2:00
- check hawks and give more mice
- snipe and nighthawk handfed
- check all outdoor birds
2:00 to 2:30
- check indoor birds again
- snipe and nighthawk handfed
2:30 to 3:30
- all owls cleaned and mice put out
- hike down the valley to put out day's scraps for wild raccoons
3:30 to 4:30
- check on all outdoor birds and animals
- give Boris his grapes
- Feed wild deer and birds
4:30 to 6:00
- check all inside birds and animals
- feed bats, inside owl, and box turtle
- put duck and gulls to bed
- snipe and nighthawk hand fed
- put Henry to bed
6:00 to 7:00ish
- wipe counters
- take out trash
- sweep and mop
- wash and take out rugs

8:30 - nocturnal animal check

9:00 - IN BED

*checking means making sure everyone is alive, clean, and has food and water

During all of this I also have to pick up poop from the gulls and duck who run free in the clinic, answer the phone, direct volunteers, and take in deal with any new animals. Also there is a hummingbird that has to be fed every hour that I didn't put in there.


I
am going to be
SOOO BUFF

The End

Happy December!

A brief post:

1. I had a good time this weekend at home and I got to see both my family and Sarah's family in Housatonic, MA on my way home which was really nice...I actually started driving home and then turned around and decided to stay the night and was rewarded by a HILARIOUS game of hearts in which there was a group effort to "shoot the moon" on behalf of mommy clark....and I STILL don't know what it means to shoot the moon...or really how to play hearts

2. I saw Role Models with Meghan and it was HILARIOUS except for the fact that someone brought a small child to see it (!!) Good job parent. But then I got to bring home mamma Dalton's butter scotchie cookies and so all is well with the world

3. I have discovered that the physics of cuteness starts to bend at this clinic, because things that were cute before are no longer and things that should not be cute ARE. Examples:

Cute to Not-Cute - Raccoons that playfully tug at your sleives but then SNEAK ATTACK BITE YOUR LEG!

Not-Cute to Somehow Cute - the fact that when possums are scared...guess what they do....GUESS....THEY FART! Sooo funny and gross and yet strangely endearing? Maybe I'm just starting to lose it here.

4. I got a rice cooker!!! From my wonderful parents :) and I also annoyed my mom by talking with my dad about getting a moped or a motorcycle someday.

5. 5 more months to go!

Happy Turkey Day!

Hey everyone, Happy Thanksgiving! Today was also a pretty good day although I got out pretty late and missed out on the whole turkey thing. However, I actually don't like turkey all that much and I got some time to call my house today and talked to ALL my relatives. In fact the phone only rang once and was then answered by a tiny voice....not my mom's or dad's...I was a little confused and ever said "oops I think I have the wrong number" to which the tiny voice replied "I am Caitlyn!" (my cousin for those of you who don't know). She sounds so grown up!!! and so did my other cousin David. I was bummed to not get to see them since it's been a while and I'm always worried they will forget about me. Also my cousin April told me that my Aunt Janet had told her about Henry by saying "Cori has this deer with no legs that she keeps in a bag".....which is pretty much the funniest thing I have ever heard and made me realise that telling people things in my family is a little like playing Telephone, with hilarious results. Anyway, a special hello to call of my relatives reading this! I will be home this weekend and I am in a really good mood because 5 days of work in a row is NOTHING now that I have done up to like 10 with only one day off. OH also Dara (and company) are AWESOME and before they left to go to Dara's mother's house for Thanksgiving, she snuck some pot pie, apple crisp, and icecream into my fridge/freezer with a note. I LOVE her. It totaly made my day.

Ok three more things to keep this interesting:

1. Last night I decided to try out my new sound making alarm clock thing set on "Thunderstorm" and it gave me REALLY WEIRD dreams, including one about a girl with scary ridiculously long fingernails who chased me and I woke up SERIOUSLY freaked out...although now it does seem less scary somehow...

2. I drank a LOT of redbull today in order to get a LOT done such as putting new shavings in like 3 cages while still getting the normal stuff done and I have to say

3. Gratuitous picture of Henry coquettishly eating a leaf:

Today I am 23

Thank you everyone who said happy birthday :) I feel quite loved. Today was actually a pretty good birthday. When I came downstairs in the morning Dara was up (she usually sleeps during most of the day because she does all the veterinary work at night) and had put out a present for me!! I know! I have only known them like a month but they were some nice gifts :) and the card was a picture of me and Henry which was really cute. My favorite gift by FAR was the alarm clock she got me with white noise!! (Sorry mom! I hope you didn't get me one!) She said she had had it for herself but hadn't used it and it is AWESOME because it has like a thousand other noises which have been amusing me for minutes now. Here are the sound options (because you are dying to know): ocean surf, north woods, thunderstorm, white noise, night train, spring rain, island surf, bonfire, stream, hidden cove, wind, asian garden (lol?), song birds, harbor swell, bamboo chimes, summer night, cooling fan, rain forest, jet lag, voice memo.

LOL most of those are the same thing and at least half of them will make me have to pee if I use them. Also JUST NOW as I was posting this Dara and Willow came up with a MINI CAKE and sang to me!!!! They are so awesome! So my day was really nice despite not being home.

Anyway I would like to use this post to ask something of everyone reading this that I have been meaning to. I know Christmas is still a little way off but if any of you were thinking of getting me something I was thinking that instead you could make a donation to Wildlife in Crisis as my gift. These people are doing a really great thing here and often the money comes out of their own pockets so I would love it if I could help out as my Christmas present :) Anyway, I'll post more cute stuff later!

Weekends off!!

I think I actually already posted this but I had this weekend off and should now be having them off regularly which will make me much more of a happy camper at this internship. I am also coming home next weekend so even though I will miss Thanksgiving, hopefully I will have a chance to see my family and friends. That also means I will be home for my Meghan's birthday :) since it falls on a Saturday. So anyway, Meghan came this weekend which was nice for several reasons. Obviously because I got to see her and she also got to see where I work and all my little mangled animal friends, but also because it kind of helped cure the feeling that I am living in a little isolated bubble here. She also brought me BIRTHDAY PRESENTS!!1! I got Walle, which we promptly watched, and also a shell anklet which is like the one we wore for like 2 years in highschool. They broke a while ago and she had just gotten a new one and I mentioned I would like to get one again too, so it will be on my ankle until it falls off :) It was a really perfect present actually since I like having something to remind me that people in the outside world still love me even when animals legs get chewed...off....I feel like no one should ever have to have that be a problem... Anyway, I also got (on the same day) MY PRESENT FROM SARAH!!! Equally awesome it was a care package, adorably delivered to my door by Willow who then helped me read the card (glad you didn't write anything obscene, Sarah). Anyway, it included PUMPKIN MUFFINS which I have already eaten most of, candy, hand lotion which is sorely needed, 23 birthday candles, and my personal favorite "animal crackers for when you need to bite something's head off". Thanks Sarah!! I will probably be putting all of those items into use immediately..the ones that aren't already in my stomache that is. Anyway in every post from now on (or in those when I remember to) I'm going to put a short animal bio so you can all learn about the animals I will be spending 5 more months nursing back to health. You have already met the turkeys, Henry the sad stumpy deer, and Delilah the semi-quadriplegic possum, so today the star will beeeee:


Name: Woody/Woodette
Species: Wood Duck
Likes: baths, playing with the gulls food and water, knocking things down, bullying the gulls, and pooping on anything not covered in newspaper
Dislikes: Peter, being picked up, and being called a she for the first several months of his life

Meet Woody the sassy wood duck. Formerly known as Woodette because it was believed that she was a girl, he is one of multiple gender confused animals living at WIC (more on that later). He bullies all the other animals regardless of how much bigger they are than him, HATES Peter for no obvious reason, andHere is a short video of his/her sassiness.

Yesterday and Meet the People I Work For

Hi everone! Tomorrow is my first weekend off in...I think 10 days so I am really excited AND Meghan is coming so I'm excited times 2 :) I think I will be much much happier after I have weekends off regularly, both for the obvious reason of having more time off, but also KNOWING when I'm going to have time off. The past few weeks have been really hard because I had no idea when I would get off next and I was really wiped out. Anyway, yesterday was also a good day because I got to leave from 2 to 4 in order to speak at a school about what we do at wildlife in crisis and show them some animals. It was AWESOME. It was an elementary school group called "Kids who Care" which was already really cute and they were very attentive and had cute questions and comments (all along the lines of "THIS ONE TIME I SAW AN ANIMAL AND IT....etc") I brought the box turtle with amputated hind legs (attacked by a dog) and Mary Jane (seagull with an amputated wing from a bad break). So it was a lot of fun and I think they enjoyed it too. Alright so part two of this entry is an introduction to the people here since I keep mentioning them and I don't think I ever officially explained who they all are:

Dara - Head of Wildlife in Crisis, hilariously disillusioned in people, strict but understanding and generally awesome. Favorite quotes: "Screw that! I wouldn't give someone my kidney. With my luck it would go to a rapist or a murdered" and "I wish people would just stop fucking with the animals"

Peter - Dara's wonderful husband, works from home and helps SOOO much at the end of the day by taking out trash and moping and generally chatting, buys my cocoa and munchkins from dunkin donuts on a weekly basis (I LOVE HIM!) and also master of understatements. Favorite quotes: "Yeah sooo anyway the girls boyfriend kinda moved in here...and was really creepy....and then he stole stuff....so that was....bad"

Willow - Adorable 7 year old daughter of Dara and Peter who "helps" me occationally with chores and just generally makes my day by saying funny things. Favorite quotes (so far): "Can turkeys hear?" and "I decided we should name the duck Fredrick Freddy"

There is also the ex-intern Anna who comes in and LOVES the birds, Julie an older woman who comes in who LOVES the raccoons and occationally puts mysterious things in the cages (like a phonebook in the raccoon cage for them to TEAR APART UTTERLY), Marissa who is very quiet and nice and is awesome at pretty much everything, and Barbara who LOVES the seagulls and gives them way too many treats. There are some other volunteers as well but that is the basic cast. Next post: Animal bios! :)

Picky Animals and a Good Day

So today was actually a pretty good day for a few reasons. It started out a little rocky because all of the outdoor hoses are officially frozen and unusable so we now have to carry around buckets of warm water from outside...which is..heavy. I also started at 6:45 instead of 7 which helped in getting all the morning stuff done semi on-time. So the good! -

1. Nothing died!
2. Nothing lost a leg! (this has happened twice and is NOT ok)
3. I felt like I knew what I was doing for (almost) everything
4. The turkeys left me alone for the most part
5. Dara gave me Saturday and Sunday off and MEGHAN IS COMING TO VISIT!!!! :)
6. Got a package from my Aunt Janet with my birthday present in it (awesome cold weather clothes, thank you Auntie Janet!!!)
7. Dara's little girl Willow followed me around at the end of the day protecting me from the turkeys and "helping" by breaking up the ice from the water bowls and randomly yelling "oh no! run!" which was hilarious

Anyway everything is going pretty well and I'm slowly getting faster at doing things so maybe one day I will get everything done on time. Part two of this post will be describing the hilariously picky habits of some of the resident animals:

- the barn swallow will not eat canned meal worms
- the heron will only eat fresh small fish
- the duck likes to sit on the cage next to the door (and poop there)
- the birds in the outside songbird cage like the yellow colored pellets best...not the green...not the pink
- the owls must get (respectively for each cage), 3 small white mice, 6 medium mice, 16 large mice, AND my personal favorite for Woodsy and Bubo, 5 large mice and 12 small silky white mice LINED UP along the side of the table FROM LARGEST TO SMALLEST

these animals are living better than some people...but most of them have had a tough life so I guess its ok :)

OMG TURKEYS

Just quickly I need to vent...THE TURKEYS ARE DRIVING ME NUTS!! They follow me wherever I go and peck the bags and trays I'm carrying (not fearful of me AT ALL despite repeated mentions about Thanksgiving coming up on my part). They peck at the bars of whatever cage I am in. If I put anything down they RUN to it immediately and try to eat/drink/poop on/ or tip it over. But at least I can escape from them in the house...or CAN I?! This morning I woke up to an incessant tapping noise coming from (it sounded like) somewhere in the house. I got up and went into the kitchen where it was extra loud and finally looked up...the turkeys have found the skylights. One of them looked down and me, gave an excited gobble and started pecking the skylight with renewed vigor. For my birthday please get me some sort of anti-turkey devise please. Also seriously mom and dad if you are listening, could you find me a white-noise maker to help me sleep? I have been using a fan, but it's becoming more and more impractical since it's already below freezing at night. Oh wait, my parents are in JAMAICA right now...where it WARM and there are NO TURKEYS :( Well anyway, I am in need of a break and hopefully will get another day off soon. Oh, I have to be here for Thanksgiving :( which I am really bummed about because I haven't seen most of my family for like a year which is ridiculous, however, Thanksgiving is also Dara's (the wildlife clinic owner's) mother's birthday, so she asked me to work that day in exchange for Christmas which I WILL be home for thank God. Anyway, I will also be home the weekend after Thanksgiving/ my birthday and will supposedly have weekends off after that. I will probably be visiting home/NYC/Jersey/and maybe Philly on weekends because it is FREEZING here and seriously...the turkeys are making me lose it...like one is watching me write this right now..they are like gobbling voyeurs...anyway, that's all for now!

Possums are Thirsty...and adorable

Alright, for a quick but upbeat post! Two things made my day slightly better at the end...

1. Dara told me that I was really good with Henry and the baby possum (see below) and that I should do them all the time and no one else if possible because it was obvious that they were most comfortable with me :) That made me feel less like total crap about the fact that I really am struggling to keep up the pace here...I'm just not a speedy person and I think (oh no!) I might be a lot like my mom in needing time to think and not liking the chaos that this job entails... Anyway

2. I am in LOVE with the below baby possum who is now a ME only animal. Her name is Delilah as of yesterday (when Dara told me her injuries aren't like threatening so I decided it was safe to name her). I knew she was a girl before Dara told me because she CLEARLY has pretty little eyelashes and is otherwise just the cutest thing I've ever seen :) Anyway, she is doing alright but Dara thinks she must have neurological damage because she isn't moving very much. She was attacked by a dog and has a head injury and her cheek was torn open but hopefully should heal...however if she does have neurological damage she might become another permanent resident :( She has to be hand-fed mushed up dog food and fruit flavored baby food 4 times a day while wrapped in a towel and is just the cutest thing I have ever seen when eating:

And here is me hand-feeding her (note her poor little torn up face):


AAAnd here is a bonus video of the other possums being cute and thirsty in the morning :)


Enough cute for now?

Today also = aweful.....ish

Well I thought I would be getting most of today off but I ended up shadowing the intern that came in for a bunch of things that she wanted me to change/make better. It was good because they are things I need to know and do, but it has put me back in the "oh my god, how am I going to do all these things and still eat and sleep?!" frame of mind...Aaaand now I'm off to do laundry for the clinic (and myself) and also do some shopping. Tomorrow I'm hoping to catch a break earlier and take a nap because I'm starting to get scary homeless-person looking circles under my eyes. OH and I totally forgot to post about WHAT made yesterday crappy (other than being really tired): I had never yet accidentally let a bird out of a cage and I let TWO out yesterday (luckily indoors and I caught them right away) and the other AWFUL thing that happened was that I went out to find check on the woodpecker who was being kept in an outdoor cage in the morning and found him on the ground MISSING A LEG which was a NEW DEVELOPMENT :( Turns out he had been perching on one of the mesh windows and a raccoon stuck its hands through and just tore his leg off...I KNOW, I thought raccoons were cute and loveable! but apparently they are often terrible like that. So needless to say a bit of a bummer and the bird later died, although I'm surprised he even lasted the night after having a limb ripped off. Ok, cute post next! Promise!

p.s. last bit of complaining I promise, but my hands are slowly turning into leather gloves...leather gloves that are being slowly gnawed to bits by daily mishaps with doors, talons, beek, and knives....hmm picture? I think so

Ooooo we'll make it a game...like where's waldo? wheres the mishap?
Can you find:
A. The mishap with the knife
B. The mishap with the screen door
C. soot from the pellet stove still there from last night...oops
D. The incident with the angry saw-whet owl
E. Old scar from where my rabbit scratched me

If you find all 5 you win....buying me hand lotion..congrats!

Yesterday = AWFUL

Yesterday actually went alright, all things considered, but I am so exhausted from it that maybe it seems more awful than it was. It was my first day doing everything (EVERYTHING) completely by myself with no other interns or volunteers. I have already had about 4 days of me being the only intern which is actually fine as long as I get some company and help from volunteers, but without anyone....well it's doable, but it means no break for about 12 hours and no company. Actually Dara always comes down at around 12 or 1 now which is very nice and she also seemed to sense my distress (more at being alone all day than anything else) and asked a volunteer to come in for a few hours in the late after noon...so actually I lied, I wasn't completely alone all day...but still it was most of the day and the woman who came only did the seagull cages. Actually the woman was really nice and helpful (her name is Barbara) but she had a weird obsession with the gulls and kept talking baby-talk to them. Now generally I am all for talking to the animals, but it was still a little weird because these gulls (except Mary Jane) are not very cute..and in fact one of them is OBSCENELY loud all day. Maybe I will add a video of that later. Anyway that is my vent, but for the nexy few days I will have it easy and I also have Saturday off (woo!). More updates later on something cute!

Alright, it's time all of you met Henry. Henry is the love of my life currently and he is a little silly looking so please don't laugh! He is a young deer who came in as a baby with a horrible deformity. His legs end at the knee and he has little hooflets there but he cannot walk. His mother was accommodating her poor little fawn by lying down to nurse him (normal deer always nurse standing up) and so he was brought here and has been here ever since. After meeting him I really wanted to take him outside because otherwise he basically sits in his cage all day just watching us walk back and forth with his big eyes. So Dara let me take him around in a sling so he can see the outdoors on nice days. Here is a picture of my with my deer purse!

Dara (the owner of the clinic) is trying to figure out a way to rig up something for him to either use as a wheel chair or something that hoists him from above so he can move around. Unfortunately he is a male deer and he already has little antler-etts and will become more agressive :( however right now he is the sweetest little soul you ever met and just wants to lick you and be loved. Here is a video of Henry being adorable:


If you have an idea for how to give him more mobility please feel free to suggest it! I already asked if we could put him on a skateboard :)

Bonus Henry action:

Car Boo-boo

Well I apologize but this will be yet another brief post that is not really animal related but I thought I would recount the story or my very first (minor don't worry!) car accident. It was last night literally as I was pulling out to come back to Connecticut at around 5pm on a raining gross evening. I had been obeying the RULES of the ROAD and had checked both ways before pulling out onto 62 off my street and (for those of you who know the area) someone came tearing around the corner from Middleton from the turn with no stop sign right next to my street. It happened ridiculously fast so I think I may have had a deer-in-the-headlights face on as she hit me, but she was both speeding and then hydroplaning so there was not a whole lot I could have done anyway. Luckily she didn't hit me very hard because she hit...basically ME since it was my driver side door and front wheel that took the brunt. But my airbag didn't even deploy so it wasn't all that hard an impact...just scary. Anyway, turns out it was a really belligerent 16 year old in her daddy's car who was more pissed about being late to the party she was going to than anything else...I was not amused. However, since I was all adrenaline-y and shaky I was really glad when EVERY NEIGHBOR IN THE 5 MILE AREA showed up (see video below of Dane Cook joke)...and to make a long story short the cops came and everyone was fine...but it was apparently my fault because I had been the one at a stop sign and it was thus my duty to see around corners and stop hydroplaning bitches with my...laser eyes I guess...Anyway, to end on a lighter note..the neighbors were EXACTLY like the below Dane Cook description of people and car accidents and here is the clip for those of you who don't know the skit:

Dane Cook Car Accident

That's all for now...more actual animal stories to come!

In Response to Emily and Stephie

1. On the HAWK'S right
and
2. my address is

C/O Wildlife in Crisis
44 Indian Valley Road
Weston, CT
06883

Angry Hawks and Need for Human Contact

So I'm going to actually make a good long post soon but I have been a little out of it. I actually came home for the past 2 days to recharge and I got to see Sarah and also Meghan who is now in Florida (jerk!). Anyway, I have but 3 complaints so far about this internship which is otherwise very cool: 1. Unending tiredness (which I assume will go away when I am in better shape) 2. Really horrifically dry skin on my hands from constant hand-washing and 3. Too little human contact resulting in more conversations with animals than I am comfortable with (don't worry, only the duck actually talks back). Anyway, if any of you are bored feel free to write me a letter or something so I remember that there is a world out there that is not filled with ill animals :( Otherwise though it has been really cool and I will give you a quick intro on how to force-feed a hawk...clearly a job skill you may need:

1. Open cage door and remove food and water bowls so they don't go flying all over the place in the mayhem
2. Get a nice heavy duty towel and maybe gloves (if you are a wimp)
3. Climb in dog carrier cage with angry hawk*
4. Throw towel over hawk and hope for the best
5. Locate the back and wings of hawk while avoiding the talons and beak which are also under there hiding somewhere
6. Get situated so that you are holding all pointy parts of the animal away from you
7. Pull angry, swaddled hawk out of carrier and basically sit on him
8. Find his head and unwrap it keeping talons wrapped up
9. Open beak (carefully and stick 2 fingers in it to keep it open while with the other hand grabbing a delicious dead mouse
10. Shove dead mouse down the RIGHT side of the throat and then push it down into the crop with the hand not dedicated to holding the beak open

Congratulations, you now know how to force-feed an angry hawk

* This is the step I actually had the most trouble with

Anyway, that's all for now!

Some pictures of the crazines which is my new life

Here are a couple pictures of the center and my apartment. Stay posted for some with actual animals in them!

Aaaaand here is a video of the turkeys following me...and then looking nonchalant about it when I turn around SO FUNNY

So I keep thinking of things to post about but then forgetting to actually post because we are getting done so late BUT here is a brief one! I will probably post tomorrow because it is my first day off, but for those of you wondering how my life is going, here goes. I keep forgetting to take pictures but I might do that tomorrow and then post because that is much more interesting. For now, here is a brief "day in the life" of a wildlife rehabilitator!
First let me set the scene; I am currently living in the apartment above the clinic with 2 other girls (both very nice and helpful) who are the previous interns and are training me.

My days thus far:

6:15am - rise and shine! It is still dark at this hour which is hard because it seems utterly unnatural to be up before the sun (and it is)

7am - must be down in the clinic to start work

morning, mid-day, and evening - putting out food for wild deer and birds, feeding and cleaning the cages of outdoor songbirds, hawks, squirrels, possums, raccoons, and cleaning and feeding indoor hawks, songbirds, turtle, deer, heron, and mouse (indoor animals are receiving extra care like medication or are being force-fed)

- animals are cleaned and fed/checked on 3 times a day (7am, noon, and 4 or 5pm
- birds (not including owls and hawks) are checked 4 times (7am, 11am, 2pm, and 5pm)
- hawks and vulture fed and cleaned twice a day (10am and 3pm)
- owls once a day (4pm) - hopefully before it gets dark or its freakin scary in there with all the hooting and hissing
- some animals get force fed, medicated, or bathed a few times a day
- other stuff includes answering the phone, taking in any new animals and assessing them/making up a cage for them, and chatting with the owners adorable 7 year old daughter Willow
6-7pm - take out trash, wipe down counters, sweep and mop floors, dump out wash water, put out food for wild raccoons, give all animals last check
7pm -DONE if all goes well

SO there is a day in the life basically. I think I might start doing little blurbs about the various animals in upcoming posts (more for me to remember them than for anything else, but also because there are some AWESOME animals here). Anyway, I leave with some favorites and least favorites:

Favorite things so far
- the 3 gulls and 1 duck that run around free in the clinic and "talk" to you throughout the day (I especially love the duck)
- the unfortunate baby deer who I think I have fallen in love with (more to come later on that)
- the 2 adult wild turkeys who are tame and follow you around outside causing mayhem like tipping over ANYTHING you leave you, sitting on the cars, stealing food, and pecking your butt when you aren't paying attention!

Least favorite
- force feeding the hawks (I am bad at it and they scare me...)
- handling the birds in general (they have delicate bones and I am terrified to hurt them)
- mopping (I just hate mopping)

The End! (for now)

So I am finally actually physically in Connecticut! yyyay. Although mentally I don't think I have really realized that this will in fact be my new home for 6ish month. But first, a story (of course):

SO we (my parents who follow me everywhere and myself) decided to leave this morning at around 9ish. Shockingly we were in fact on time for this plan until my mom looked at my front tire and said uuuuh that looks a little low. For those of you who were with my last night, that would be because I ran over the median a lil' bit and got myself a slow leak. Those of you who were with me will also recall me saying hmmm my tire sounds funny, but then not actually getting out to check. POOR CHOICE. Anyway, we then had to jack up my car and put on the spare (by we I mean my dad while I watched and commented) and then had to drive it to a place to GET a new tire because I then had to drive it a few hundred miles to Connecticut which you aren't supposed to do on a spare apparently. Anyway long story shortish we got a new tire from a guy named Scottie in a really random little tire place in North Reading and then went on our merry way only about 2 hours later than we had hoped. Anyway, on to Connecticut:

So here I am in Connecticut and it is raining like I should be calling up Noah to give me a hand with the arc, and also it is quite dark because we are in the woods and no lights are on outside...but I am actually enjoying it already :) It's very quiet and almost tree-housy in the apartment (which is very nice and has a TV and internet and every possible dish, pan, or pot you could ever need. Today I got to:
1. Feed a hummingbird
2. Wash a duck (SOOO FUNNY/WET)
3. wave dead fish at a heron (he did not eat said fish so I looked silly)
4. Chase the wet duck around the room after she hopped out of her bath and refused to be dried off/caught
5. VERY tentatively held a red tailed hawk
6. Corned the duck, faked left, dodged right, and was outsmarted by the duck who then ran under a table and laughed (yes laughed)
7. Changed a tire

All and all a good first day. I will attempt to remember to update this when I am up at 6 every morning and covered in animal poo!

Fall is My Favorite

Well here is a promised but quick post on meeting Jeff Corwin, which was less like meeting him and more like viewing him from far away in a room full of small children with severe ADD. It was fun anyway though because of Emily's child-like glee at each new creepy thing brought out (all reptiles and amphibians) and Meghan absolute disgust at the snakes (for pictures see facebook). Anyway it was interesting and he brought out a bunch of animals like a venomous Gaboon Viper and an American Alligator and then made small children hold them (again see facebook for pictures), and Emily got her book signed and a sneak attack photo with him. I also asked him about the lack of female nature show hosts and let him know that if he was looking for a co-host I was available...but I think it came off more creepy than I intended. Here is tiny, far-away Jeff Corwin:

Anyway, I then gave Emily a Crocodile Hunter action figure which SPEAKS and you can GO ON ADVENTURES with it, which she was pretty excited about :) but all the photos were taken on her camera, so I am waiting to see how ridiculous we looked playing with it. Then after bidding Emily farewell I went apple picking at Smolak Farm with Meghan, Sarah, Sarah's friend Andrew, and Sarah's apartment-mate Jacqueline. It was delicious and quite fun, and there was a table with squash and pumpkins and an empty space confusingly labeled "Pokemon":

Here are some pretty photos that almost make this post about nature. Two weeks to Connecticut!

I Think I Just Met Baba Yaga

Ok so I wasn't going to post again until this weekend when I see and marry Jeff Corwin, however, this story needs to be told to the widest audience possible while I am thinking of it: This is the tale of how lucky I am to have not been abducted despite being 23 and not really liking candy enough to follow it into an unmarked van. I got out of work early today and thought to myself, "hey self, you are pretty out of shape, how about a walk?" But I am sick of the bitty park in North Reading where I usually take my dogs and last time I was there there were young people running which just made me feel bad about my lack of inshape-ness. Anyway, I decided to just type PARK into my GPS and see where it led me and Lady (my faithful beagle mix for those of you who don't know). I then decided on Lynn Woods Reservation because I know LynnFIELD and I like the woods. This is where the bad choices begin. For anyone who lives in MA you may know that Lynn isn't the most awesome area and that Lynn woods is HUGE. Anyway, there were no maps left in the box but I decided I wouldn't need one since I was only going to wander for maybe an hour and I have an ok head for trails (wrong). SO If you know me, you know I clearly wandered off the main trail and onto little interesting side trails and promptly got lost. But rather than retracing my steps I continued on a trail that went vaguely in the direction I wanted until I got to the main path again...I then discovered that the main path branched into two equally unfamiliar looking paths and I stood there for a little while. Then I met Baba Yaga (if you don't know who Baba Yaga is please click here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baba_Yaga). Here is Baba Yaga:

Anyway, Baba Yaga came around the bend suddenly, and being quite short and elderly and dressed all in black I registered her at first as a bear and jumped about a mile (Baba Yaga being the first other human I had seen on the trail in a good half hour). Anyway, I realised it wasn't a bear and just an old woman and asked her which way to the parking lot. She muttered something in Russian and then pointed to the right fork. Off I went to discover that Lynn Woods are HUGE and thus have MULTIPLE parking lots...So this time we met again as I was walking back from the parking lot that did not contain my car. Baba Yaga asked if I had found what I was looking for and I said no, and that I hadn't known there was more than one parking lot and had gotten turned around somehow. She directed me to the map box which was empty and then said something in Russian followed by "we will go in my car"...At this point I thought maybe the Russian part might had been "My, you would make a tasty soup" (please bear in mind that I had been wandering in the woods lost for about 45 minutes with a dead cellphone and was not in a great state of mind). Anyway, I declined and said I would just keep looking at which point she said "Oh no, we will go in my car, I know other parking lot". So I decided that despite being Baba Yaga, she really was probably about my height and I could probably take her if she didn't use ancient Russian magic on me. So my dog gave me a "what is wrong with you" kind of look as we hopped into Baba Yaga's car and began driving around. We then got lost a few times, she began swearing in Russian at other drivers, and it got later and later. I then began looking for a house on chicken legs (or possibly one made of gingerbread) which she was clearly taking me too at this point.

Anyway, turns out she wasn't Baba Yaga, she was just an elderly Russian woman who had moved to the states about 15 years ago. In Russia she apparently had a little dog who looked a lot like mine which maybe was the reason she took pity on me. She also kept up a stream of Russian conversation to my dog the entire drive which was adorable. She also got me back to my car eventually, and here I am now. Here is a picture of the witch from Spirited Away which she also had an uncanny resemblance to (only less terrifying):

I am aware this has very little to do with critters, but I was in the woods so it counts.

THE END

You can never have too much alliteration

Hey Everyone, I decided to jump on the blog bandwagon and let people know about my life after I disappear into Connecticut for 6 months of indentured servitude to wildlife. I'm starting now because I have negative computer savvy-ness and I want to learn what buttons I need to click to make things do things. Anyway, to make this more interesting I'm going to tell the story of field work in northern Maine. I got asked to help a masters student with her field work on amphibians which is taking place about an hour north of Bangor, ME and clearly I accepted. Despite a severe case of the sniffles and never having (sobberly) popped a squat in the woods, I was actually pretty excited about it. I think it would have been a lot more enjoyable for me if I wasn't sick and out of shape, but I still had a pretty good time and I got to play the rugged field biologist, even if I could barely get out of bed the next day. Anyway, I will tell this story primarily in pictures. Everyone likes pictures:

Here is one of the roads we drove on to get to the field sites -

Here is a road washed out from the apocalyptic amount of rain we have been getting (we hiked the rest of the few miles in...):

Here is a field site set up, basically a fence around a vernal pool with coffee cans burried in the ground to catch frogs and salamanders:

Lastly, here is what is was all about:

HOWEVER, the downside was that because of the ridiculous amounts of rain, the traps were full of water. This was fine for most of the amphibians who enjoy water, but not so much for the rodents who also fell in, couldn't get out, and then drowned and had to be gotten out of the traps somehow. Now I am not very squeamish, and I have had cats so I know the joys of removing dead rodents from undesireable places like the front porch or your bed, but smelling like dead things for 2 days was a little much. Anyway, all and all it was still another field work experience I was glad to have (dead rodents excluded).

In other news, in one week I will be meeting Jeff Corwin with Emily and he will then give us jobs as co-hosts for a nature show on the spot, as well as ditch his silly wife and kid to marry....us...in Utah I guess, where that sort of thing is less frowned upon. Then after that I'm off to Connecticut on October 26th to work here for 6 months:

http://www.wildlifeincrisis.com/

The rest of my pictures from Maine are up on facebook is anyone is interested. Ta!