An opossum with head trauma so severe that his right eye is literally hanging out of his skull.
A raccoon who seems friendly... too friendly.
A raccoon with bloody diarrhea that smells of death.
A sharp-shinned hawk with spinal injuries, so he can fly but not stand.
A phone call about a boar in someone's backyard who is apparently going to kill someone.
A little sparrow that got attacked by a cat and a dog, and is missing most of his tail.
A cottontail whose eyes haven't even opened yet.
A sweet cat, who really doesn't like to take her pills.
A phone call about a strange bird that is black and white and green and speckly... it's a Muscovy duck. Seriously people.
Getting bitten by a sick raccoon and having to scrub the bite for 10 minutes straight. Owie.
It's been an interesting week.
Closing down the clinic for the night and doing the intake of all the new arrivals has its pros and cons. I've learned how to deal with a lot of different situations, and there's always a new one, brought to me or asked over the phone, to figure out on the fly. While sounding professional. Not very easy, but boy am I ever learning!
Cardinal rule of WRR phone etiquette: never call an animal 'it', always 'he' or 'she'. Hard to remember sometimes, but thankfully I have a lot of experience with that already.
Running around for 9 or 10 hours, from 2:30 until midnight or later is rather exhausting, and it's not even baby season yet! I hope I'll be able to keep up... But at the same time, it's rewarding to know that you're making a difference for an animal that would otherwise likely have died. The animals come in, terrified, usually dehydrated, usually sick or in pain. I can immediately give them fluids, pain killers, food, water, and a warm, dark, and quiet place to sleep. Makes me feel good to know I started off their recovery on the right foot.
Heat rounds, on the other hand, go on the cons list. I have to drive the Mule around the (very dark and quiet) loop of road below the gate to check the temperature of each warm house. Each primate enclosure has a little house with a heater, bedding, etc. for them to shelter in on the cold nights. We have a lot of primates. It's my job to check that the heaters in each house are working properly. All alone. In the pitch blackness of a Texas country night. It's a darn good thing that I don't watch scary movies.
I think I shall sleep now. Hooray for weekends that start tomorrow :) I need the sleep.
