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.

Sneak Attack Post

Hey y'all,

I know I said I wouldn't be going back to Red Wolf for a while due to a vet-shadowing commitment this Saturday and then vacation the next two weeks, but I ended up going out today anyways. My little friend from last week snuck a box turtle into his bag when I wasn't looking. We talked about why it is important to leave these turtles in the wild, and how it is actually illegal to take turtles from the wild in Indiana. With this new knowledge, my buddy gave me the turtle back and so I made a special trip to return him to his home. I named the turtle Nascar for fun. He was very happy to be returned to his home in the wild.

Before I go on to the rest of today, let me quickly recap yesterday. I shadowed a veterinarian at the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden. His name is Dr. Greg Levens. I just followed him around on his morning rounds and then talked to him a bit about what it is like to be involved in zoo medicine. The morning wasn't too busy - we stopped by to check on a new antelope that wasn't walking very well, then on to a zebra who had bruised himself banging on his door whilst trying to get at a female zebra in heat, and then some sort of mongoose-looking creature that I can't remember the name of but had some serious hair loss and skin irritation.

After rounds, we talked about how competitive it is to get into zoo medicine. Dr. Levens is concerned that the residency programs in zoo medicine, while really nice, may be flooding the market with zoo vets when there aren't enough zoo jobs. This was good information to know. I really enjoyed shadowing him, but I still think I would prefer doing wildlife veterinary medicine. He discussed some pros and cons with me about this particular field. For instance, with the human population growing as it is, he fears that conservation biologists/veterinarians often feel like they are banging their heads against a wall as they try to conserve species on continually shrinking lands. He gave me a lot to think about, but luckily I still have some time to sort through all of that. 

Back to today. I took my mother out with me today, and we had a grand old time. The morning started with puppy time, as always. 

The pups are fighting off a touch of the GI bug, plus it was super hot and muggy today, so they were pretty lazy. All they really wanted to do was nap or cuddle, and I can't complain. 

After spending time with the wolfies, we visited with Otro. He's the Barred Owl that RWS has been working to get socialized to be an ambassador bird. Both my mom and I held him for a while and he just sat there as chill as could be. 

After some lunch, we said hello to Rosie. She wasn't terribly excited to come out of her tunnel with the weather being as hot and disgusting as it was. So I took a few pictures of her and even snapped a picture of her shy enclosure-mate Axel and then left her alone to nap away the afternoon.

The next order of business was to see if we could find the fawns and say hello. They had already been fed that morning, and they can be hard to coax out of hiding without the promise of milk. Luckily, Wallace can't resist coming out to just make sure that we didn't have any bottles hidden away, so we got to say hello to him.

 That was pretty much it for the day. I gave Paul the portrait of Yuma I'd been working on for the last week or so, and then off we went to go home, shower, and watch the final match of the World Cup!