(no subject)

I woke up yesterday morning after I remembered in a dream that I had a wildlife rehab class that day. I had forgotten all about it until my dream reminded me! Unfortunately I slept in and missed the first hour of the class, but I am SO glad I rushed out there as fast as I could and attended the class anyway. It was one of the best rehab classes I've been to in a long while! A local avian/exotic vet (my dream job) spent about six hours with my rehab group going over advanced (for wildlife rehab, anyway) diagnostic and treatment options, and I learned SO much from this class. I loved it. It was surprisingly high level, so I was proud of myself for getting so into the material and having a good understanding of what she was talking about. It was so interesting and exciting! I wish it had been longer. :( Which is saying a lot, considering it was six hours to begin with.

After the course, I got to look at a dead juvenile bobcat that one of our group brought in. Poor little guy--he had been run over and his spine was completely severed, so he was euthanized pretty much immediately upon arrival. You could easily feel the severance of his spine and he was gorgeous to examine. His paws were so big and cute and his markings were so lovely. It was a shame he faced such an awful fate--I would have much rather examined him alive. Either way, it was so interesting getting to look over a baby bobcat so close up.

One of our educational birds, a red-tailed hawk named Shikoba, is almost certainly being put down within the next day or two. It's a sad situation because Shikoba is fairly young and she contracted aspergillosis due to no fault of anyone in the group at all, and after all the time and money and care and love put into this bird it's just a shame. The raptor center people were quite emotional about it because some people believed she should be put down today to prevent her suffering and others wanted her to be seen by the vet one last time tomorrow and want her handler and caretaker Kari, who only got back from vacation a few hours ago now, to be there when she's euthanized. There was much debating about this going on as an undercurrent. Here's a picture of her on our website, from when our group was looking for donations to help save her: http://www.cawildlife911.org/news/shikoba.php

Hmmm, it's past 4 AM so I suppose I'll stop there. I love my wildlife rehab group, though, seriously. ♥ I could ramble about rehab forever. I think it's a shame that most people will never get to have the priceless experience of (often almost singlehandedly in my group, seeing as we do rehab out of our homes instead of having a center) saving the life of a wild animal and watching them go free and live as they were supposed to. There's hardly anything that can be compared to that, I think. ♥ It leaves you with countless interesting stories, too--the wren who bathed in watermelon, the magpie and the crow who become best of friends, the wild turkeys who broke my heart, exercising golden eagles, baby quail who bonded with my hands, taking care for a bunch of fawns on my own and getting my legs licked by them every morning, and hundreds of others. Happy, hilarious, heartbreaking, eye-opening, moving... It's just one of those things where, once you've done it, you can't help but feel proud and almost like some piece of you has changed in a great way. It's hard to describe.

At the meeting last month, they showed a video of the release of a golden eagle our group had last summer, and I think almost every rehabber in the room teared up, regardless of whether we had worked with or even seen the eagle or not. It's just that powerful, seeing a wild animal who was nearly dead and came to us in pitiful condition restored to full health and able to fly off on their own to live out their natural lives. Of course, this is with hundreds or thousands of hours of care and hard work and love and devotion, but that's partly why it is so powerful to begin with.

(no subject)

I woke up yesterday morning after I remembered in a dream that I had a wildlife rehab class that day. I had forgotten all about it until my dream reminded me! Unfortunately I slept in and missed the first hour of the class, but I am SO glad I rushed out there as fast as I could and attended the class anyway. It was one of the best rehab classes I've been to in a long while! A local avian/exotic vet (my dream job) spent about six hours with my rehab group going over advanced (for wildlife rehab, anyway) diagnostic and treatment options, and I learned SO much from this class. I loved it. It was surprisingly high level, so I was proud of myself for getting so into the material and having a good understanding of what she was talking about. It was so interesting and exciting! I wish it had been longer. :( Which is saying a lot, considering it was six hours to begin with.

After the course, I got to look at a dead juvenile bobcat that one of our group brought in. Poor little guy--he had been run over and his spine was completely severed, so he was euthanized pretty much immediately upon arrival. You could easily feel the severance of his spine and he was gorgeous to examine. His paws were so big and cute and his markings were so lovely. It was a shame he faced such an awful fate--I would have much rather examined him alive. Either way, it was so interesting getting to look over a baby bobcat so close up.

One of our educational birds, a red-tailed hawk named Shikoba, is almost certainly being put down within the next day or two. It's a sad situation because Shikoba is fairly young and she contracted aspergillosis due to no fault of anyone in the group at all, and after all the time and money and care and love put into this bird it's just a shame. The raptor center people were quite emotional about it because some people believed she should be put down today to prevent her suffering and others wanted her to be seen by the vet one last time tomorrow and want her handler and caretaker Kari, who only got back from vacation a few hours ago now, to be there when she's euthanized. There was much debating about this going on as an undercurrent. Here's a picture of her on our website, from when our group was looking for donations to help save her: http://www.cawildlife911.org/news/shikoba.php

Hmmm, it's past 4 AM so I suppose I'll stop there. I love my wildlife rehab group, though, seriously. ♥ I could ramble about rehab forever. I think it's a shame that most people will never get to have the priceless experience of (often almost singlehandedly in my group, seeing as we do rehab out of our homes instead of having a center) saving the life of a wild animal and watching them go free and live as they were supposed to. There's hardly anything that can be compared to that, I think. ♥ It leaves you with countless interesting stories, too--the wren who bathed in watermelon, the magpie and the crow who become best of friends, the wild turkeys who broke my heart, exercising golden eagles, baby quail who bonded with my hands, taking care for a bunch of fawns on my own and getting my legs licked by them every morning, and hundreds of others. Happy, hilarious, heartbreaking, eye-opening, moving... It's just one of those things where, once you've done it, you can't help but feel proud and almost like some piece of you has changed in a great way. It's hard to describe.

At the meeting last month, they showed a video of the release of a golden eagle our group had last summer, and I think almost every rehabber in the room teared up, regardless of whether we had worked with or even seen the eagle or not. It's just that powerful, seeing a wild animal who was nearly dead and came to us in pitiful condition restored to full health and able to fly off on their own to live out their natural lives. Of course, this is with hundreds or thousands of hours of care and hard work and love and devotion, but that's partly why it is so powerful to begin with.