Tuesday Update

Compared to last week, today was downright boring. I shouldn't say that, because there is no such thing as a boring day at Red Wolf Sanctuary. What I should say was that there was no unexpected dead animal awaiting butchery. That sounds better (/sarcasm). Anyways, the morning started off with lots and lots of rain. This rain made the drive to Red Wolf somewhat challenging. First there was the general deluge obscuring my vision, and then there was the semi that squished a car and ran into a car wash. Luckily, my friend and I arrived unscathed at Red Wolf.

For once, it was a relief to do the bears because it meant that we were able to stay out of the rain. Not much to report on - there was poop, we scooped it. There were stains, so we scrubbed, bleached, and rinsed. We did the hustle (it's a Paul Strasser thing - no day is complete without doing the hustle). After bears, it was time for lunch.

After lunch, we had Rosie time. I did forget my camera, so I don't have any adorable photos to offer. But I can assure you that she was quite cuddly today, and even let me pet her for longer than five seconds. We're hoping to start building a new fox enclosure soon, so that Rosie can live outside like a real fox! Plus, once she moves outside, the bathroom will no longer be occupied by a rambunctious fox kit that likes to play while you are trying to make use of the facilities.

By the time we were finished playing with Rosie, the rain had cleared up. This means that is was a good time to feed all of the animals. So the meat-mobile emerged, laden with a whole bunch of deer haunches, various cuts of beef (donated from a freezer, not from last week's efforts), and a deer abdomen. It did not smell very nice. We were able to go into one of the wolf enclosures and watch a wolf eat. He cracked bones like it was no big deal. Luckily, he was much more interested in his beef than in us.

When we finally finished distributing the goodies, it was time to release the injured Red Tailed Hawk into a larger enclosure. We're not sure if he'll be a releasable bird, but for now he'll be spending time in the raptor center. The hawk was surprising cooperative, settling down fairly nicely once Paul got him out of the temporary box. We then put him (the hawk, not Paul) into a cat carrier and took him up to the raptor center. Now he's got a nice outdoor enclosure in which he can recover.

Paul removing hawk from temporary holding unit

Paul with resigned hawk

After relocating Mr. Hawk, Paul took us (us being the 3 other volunteers and myself) the extent of his property. It is so much larger than I imagined, and so beautiful! Paul has so many incredible ideas for this place, such as adding herds of elk and bison, adding birding stations (today we saw a scarlet tanager), and adding an education center. It has so much potential, but not so much money...

Rough approximation of Paul's property

 After the grand tour, it was time to go home. So, I guess that's it until next Tuesday!

Taylor