Goodbye WBR

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I have been crazy busy. The last two weeks consisted of getting a new fox that was someones pet...yes. All she wants to do is crawl into your lap and be pet. It's actually sad to watch her because all she does is gnaw at the bars of the carrier wanting out and attention. We had to put down a rabbit that had a broken back. We had a squeeky mouse toy that I gave to the grey fox and he LOVES it. We got in a new groundhog that couldn't move his back legs. Most likely because he was really old and just had arthritis. We got several new squirrels in, and are now up to 18 babies. While trying to get yoda out of his cage to be released on someone elses propery, he got out and burrowed under his outside cage. We tried to set a trap with food out but we never caught him so now he just lives on Hope's propery. We have tons of wild squirrels in the area so our concern was him eating all the squirrels that we care for and release. But Yoda has been seen playing in the yard with wild deer, so I guess he's doing well and is happy. Rafiki, our groundhog was released and he has not been seen but we are still leaving out a bowl of formula for him and he's been licking it clean. Most of the opossums were released and the fawns were herded out into a new field that is bigger then the one they've been staying in. We've gotten in about 20 bunnies because of all the rain and flooding of their dens. Some are still being syringe fed but most were released or are close to being released. The four barn squirrels and the grey fox were put in outside cages to get preped for release within the next month.

I loved my internship at WBR. It offered valuable hands on experience and taught me the battles and how hard it is to run a rehab center. I'm going to miss it while I'm in Maine but I hope to go back in December and visit.

Mamma 'poss' and her 7 babies

Grey fox

The 'pet fox' that was obviously thrown out into the wild for this reason

Clean Up Day

Last week consisted of feeding the outside squirrels, cleaning and feeding the opossums inside, making the groundhog's food dish, moving the 8 baby oposs' to the barn, got three baby oposs', a mother with about 12 babies, a giant fawn twice the size of our biggest one we had, Bumper- one of the newer fawns went to the barn (but died two days later), tons of baby squirrel feeding, bathed and dried the squirrels, tube fed opossums, and in general took care of the squirrels and opossums.

Today was our crazy clean out day because Monday always has the most volunteers so we cleaned out the entire nursery, barn, and refrigerator after feeding and cleaning out all the animals. I did the counter and organized/stocked the cabinets. It took FOREVER. We have so many baby bottles, syringes, cans and jars of food, milk replacer formula, vitamin supplements, and dishes for the animals but most of it does get used. Two of our opossums died for unknown reasons and we got in 7 bunnies and are getting more because it's been raining for two days straight and their dens are being flooded out.

Baby Oposs'

4 of the 8 baby opossums moved to the barn

"Crash" the giant fawn was caught between a brick wall and a fence

The fawns don't get formula anymore and are not very happy...

so they eat everything they see when we go in with them

Whoa, it's been busy lately at WBR. Today I started by making up the squirrel dishes for the ones outside which have all been released and the 4 in the barn. We continue to feed and leave the doors open to all the outside cages so that the squirrels can venture out and then come back into their nesting boxes until they find somewhere to live in the wild. I also made up Rafiki's bowl of peanuts, carrot, apple, peach, and kale, along with another bowl with a jar of applesause and formula mixed together. Then I went down to the barn to clean the barn squirrel's cage out and give them their food and new water. A new fawn was brought in Friday that has head trauma from being hit by a car but he's doing well. His IV was taken out today because he is eating well and definitely active because he's already jumped out of his playpen he's been in. We are also up to 14 baby squirrels which are all in an incubator and  fed every 3 hours. Then I got to learn how to tube feed opossums! We have four babies that need to be tube fed. The tube is lubricated and put down their mouth to the point of the black line of the tube, then we use the syringes that we use to feed baby squirrels to connect to the tube and give them 3 each. Then the tube is slowly pulled out and they are done. It was a lot easier then I thought, but the first opossum I had would not cooperate at all. After the oposs' were fed the baby squirrels were fed again. A humane society called today and were going to bring a few opossums, one with babies, a fawn, and a squirrel in today but they did not get there by the time I left so I will see them tomorrow. We got all the cages ready to house them so that didn't need to be done when the animals got there.

New fawn "Bumper"

Baby Squirrel

One of the opossums that gets tube fed

Hello again! Last Thursday Hope went out with her husband and took the day off. I took care of feeding the 4 baby squirrels (not the tiny ones, Hope did those before she left), cleaned out the incubators and fed the 10+ bunnies, gave apple to the adult rabbit that was hit by a car (which died later that day), and cleaned out and fed the 4 cages of barn opossums.
I also worked Friday since I could not make it on Tuesday. It was only Hope, Kelly, and me but we got everything done at a decent time. All the squirrels, opossums, raccoons, fox, groundhog, and barn stalls, along with laundry and dishes were done.

Today started off with me releasing the 3 remaining bunnies we had. We have one left but it's young and its eyes are not opened yet. I cleaned out their incubator and reset it up in case we get more bunnies. When doing the outside squirrels today, I found one of the squirrels dead in a nesting box in one of our newer cages that we picked up from the other rehab. Not sure what happened to it...but all of the squirrel cages were opened today to start their release. The rest of the day was making formula for the opossums, cleaning the stalls, and sorting through the donated veggies and fruit. The 4 baby squirrels were moved to the barn and 6 of the skunks went outside today.

We are up to 11 tiny squirrels that we will be able to feed in a week or two once they are big enough.

Here are some pics:

Barn oposs' made such a mess

Eyore really needs to grow into his ears

Many of the fawns are losing their spots

Leia with mange

Only has one eye, but is doing very well

Bambi

Baby squirrel