End O' The Summer

After a long hiatus, I was finally able to return to Red Wolf Sanctuary to find that the puppies have just about doubled in size since the last time I saw them three weeks ago. Unfortunately, this is the last time I get to see them before I head back to school.

There were not many people at Red Wolf today, so I was actually needed to help with some work today. The morning started off with the feeding of a baby squirrel that had fallen out of the nest. I don't know if Red Wolf would be taking in squirrels if not for one of the workers who has a special soft spot for baby squirrels and their "fuzzy noses". The thing about fostering baby squirrels is that they need to be fed every three hours, night and day. So this worker's soft spot is especially demanding. As much as tend to detest squirrels for their bird-feed-stealing habits, I have to admit that this baby squirrel was awfully darn cute. I forgot to get my camera out to get photographic evidence of the non-evil side of squirrels, so you'll just have to take my word for it.

After the squirrel, we went to take care of the bears. We are feeding them dog food mixed with peanuts, sunflower seeds, raisins, apricots, and sunflower seed oil. They are almost done shedding their coats, just in time to start growing them out again for the winter. After we tidied up the bears, we fed the raptors. I took lots of photos, but only Harry the Great Horned Owl was feeling photogenic because he was angry as usual and thus looked "fierce and noble".

After the raptors we stopped to visit Akima, who has finally been moved to his permanent outdoor enclosure. Apparently he was not super pleased at first, because he had been an indoor fox most of his life and the sun was rather hot for his delicate sensibilities. Now he is settling in to his life as a "natural" fox and learning how to be photogenic. He's not quite as photogenic as Rosie yet, but he is working on it. He also loves to get up on people's shoulders to get a better view of his new kingdom.

After Akima we went back to the barn and said hello to the new black-phase red fox. He was dumped at a Petsmart with proof of rabies vaccination and that's about it. His name is Nova, and he is rather timid still. He was also somewhat grumpy because he had not yet been fed, but I managed to get a few good photos of him.

After my brief visit with Nova, I said hello to the new corn snake. It was a Petsmart snake that could not be sold because it had a "scratch" on it, but I couldn't find it. It is a beautiful red and orange corn snake named Maize. I couldn't take any photos because my hands were literally full with the snake. I also said hello to the Barred Owl Otro, who was being photogenic as always. He is making good progress with sitting on the glove, and has the potential to be a great ambassador bird.

I spent most of the after-lunch afternoon with the wolf puppies. They are more of juveniles now, but still incredibly friendly. They are much larger, but also much less pushy and rough with people than they were three weeks ago. They like to come over and plop down in your lap, which is fun now but probably won't be once they are full-grown 80-100 pound animals. But I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

Thus another summer of volunteering came to an end at Red Wolf Sanctuary. Jane (the co-owner of the place) asked me how I could leave for Chapel Hill when there are wolf puppies at Red Wolf. Honestly, it is very hard to leave them 9 hours behind me. I have had a once in a lifetime experience that I will use to help remind me of why I am suffering through physics and analytical chemistry this semester - so I can eventually work with these animals not just as a volunteer, but as a veterinarian as well.

It's a frog-catchin' sort of day

Hello again,

Today I took my next door neighbor/friend/budding herpetologist Alex out to Red Wolf Sanctuary with me. He just finished a week of zoo camp, but was still ready to go see some more animals and I was happy to oblige. I was glad I brought along some extra help - it would have been very tricky to feed three fawns on my own. Wallace the boy fawn is a little piggie and can be a little bit of a bully since he is so much bigger than the girls. Dixie the littlest girl will only drink out of one specific bottle, and Joey has a short attention span and tends to get distracted by the other fawns' bottles even though she has her own. Needless to say, Alex was a big help with managing these hooligans. The good news is that they are starting to eat solids, including grass and grains. Hopefully we will be able to start weaning them off of their bottles...they went through a grand total of eight bottles this morning, and that was just breakfast!

Dixie

Dixie (front) and Wallace (back)

After feeding the pigs-disguised-as-deer, we said hello to the wolf pups. They are just as friendly as last time, but bigger. Kiowa was having a grand old time trying to pull my hair out of its bun, and nearly succeeded in pulling my scalp out along with it. Their puppy fur is nearly all gone, and being replaced by the denser, more wiry adult fur. The other thing that has really changed is their eye color. Sioux's eyes have changed to a soft honey color, which suits her gentle personality quite nicely. Crioux's are fading from the green-blue to the more classic wolf-yellow color. Kiowa is the only one who has managed to hang on to the striking green color, which contrasts sharply with her black pelt.

After we hung out with the wolf pups, we went to visit with Rosie. She surprised me by being extra friendly today, even allowing Alex to pet her a bit. She was also extra ornery...she tried stealing my entire camera no less than seven times. When that didn't work out, she tried fishing my phone out of my pocket, and almost got away with it too. She must be Swiper the fox's long-lost sister or something.

Next was a visit to the raptors. We fed them today - mice to the owls and hawks and chicken to the turkey buzzards. The hawk was quite hungry today, pouncing on every mouse we threw in and slurping them right up. I even managed to take some pictures today:

Great Horned Owl 

Red Tailed Hawk

We visited the bears on our way back to lunch, and they were chowing down as bears are wont to do.

Tecumseh the male Black Bear

After lunch, Alex and I went frog huntin'. This was strictly catch-and-release hunting, but hunting nonetheless. We caught numerous small frogs along the creek and got our boots stuck in deep mud for our troubles. Alex managed to catch four good-sized frogs who had taken up residence in one of the horses' old water troughs. My catch of the day was a frog who I dubbed Freddie (or he could be a toad- I actually think he's a toad, but don't know my amphibians well enough to say for certain). Observe my fine specimen of a frog/toad (as held by Alex):

Freddie the fine frog (or maybe a toad - my herpetology is not up to par)

Thus ends another Saturday at Red Wolf. Next weekend my Saturday will be spent at the Cincinnati Zoo shadowing a vet, which promises to be exciting but also lacking in wolf puppies. The following weeks I am with family in North Carolina, but I should be able to get back to Red Wolf at least one more time before the summer is out (I hope!).

Thanks for reading
T

I'm feeling hot hot hot

NOTE: I finished writing this on June 22, but my photo processor was being silly and wouldn't let me get my photos until today.

I've been really lucky the past few weeks with cooler Saturdays, but since today is the second day of summer I guess the weather decided it wanted to act like summer. What I am trying to say is that today was very hot. As in, we arrived at Red Wolf at 9:00 AM and it was already 75º F outside. Due to this weather condition, we decided to work on the still-in-progress puma enclosure first before things got too hot. This time I was not sitting on top of the whole enclosure, at least. Instead, I was balanced on top of some somewhat wobbly ladders armed with hog rings and a giant screwdriver. The entire morning was spent finishing up the front of the enclosure. We completed nearly everything - all that is left to do is the  big front gate, which needs to be fitted a little bit better because it is not lined up quite correctly. Fixing the gate requires another pole to be put across the bottom, which will take a good amount of time and effort since the pole needs to be cut and then fixed across the bottom. So when it came to be noon, we decided to call lunch and retreat from the sun. I did manage to remember sunscreen this time around (after my dermatologist made fun of my awkward tan line from last weekend).

After lunch my friend and I did a quick bear-run in which we scooped poo and fed bears. It didn't take too long, which is good since it was quite hot and there is nothing quite as (un)enjoyable as hot bear poo. After the bears, my mother and brother actually came to see the place where I have disappeared to every Saturday all summer. Since my brother is especially fond of raptors, we saved feeding the raptors until they got there. So my friend and I took them on a tour of Red Wolf. We stopped by and said hello to Yuma the puma (and my mother talked to Yuma as if she was just a slightly large house cat. Yuma, of course, remained unimpressed). Next we looked in on the silver-phase red fox (whose name is escaping me right now) and on Joker, the white-phase red fox. As a special surprise, we even saw a few of the wolves, which I was not expecting due to the heat.

Gray Wolf

Next stop was the raptors. The raptor center is completely full right now, occupied by: two great horned owls, one barred owl (Uno), one red-shouldered hawk, two red-tailed hawks, two buzzards, and the three baby screech owls (who were moved out into the center earlier this week). By this time, the temperature was reaching nearly 100º in the sun, so the birds were not terribly active or hungry, but they were still fun to feed and watch for a while. I even remembered to take my camera with me this time!

Red-tailed hawk

Red-tailed Hawk

Great Horned Owl, missing right wing

Great Horned Owl

Great Horned Owl

Great Horned Owl

Great Horned Owl, "Unimpressed" Face

Uno the Barred Owl

Uno the Barred Owl

Not-so-dignified Great Horned Owl

Of course, what tour of Red Wolf is complete without a visit to Rosie? My brother and mother finally got to meet the diva fox who has been the subject of many conversations and photo sessions. She was very friendly, and much calmer than usual (which was probably due to that lovely heat). Then we went down to see the bears. My mom and bro brought a brand new wheelbarrow for the bear bunker, one that doesn't have a giant crack and leak bear poo everywhere! It is very exciting. It was so hot that the bears were literally lying on the floor and raking food with their paws into their mouths.

Tuck was a little more lively:

After the tour, it was time for me to head out because I had plans to go to a Roller Derby match. I had never been to one before, and the entirety of my knowledge came from a quick glance at the Wikipedia page (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roller_derby). This was a big grudge match between the Cincinnati Roller Girls and the Northern Kentucky Black-n-Bluegrass Girls. Apparently there is a lot of rivalry because there used to only be a Cincinnati team until the NKY team formed, at which point some of the Cincinnati team girls went over to the KY team. I only know this because the girl who tames my hair whenever it needs a cut is on the Kentucky team. Anyways, it was pretty fun to watch, especially if/when there were body check and wipeouts involved.