Rehabilitation day! Cannot believe it is Saturday already. Where has the week gone? Lets be honest, I am still wondering where May went. Not sure what I am going to do with myself once June is gone too (which it will be in a week as hard as that is to believe). Remember to use your days wisely everyone because they fade fast! Even though you wake up early!!!
8am means first thing in the morning raccoon feeding. We had to make more mash, eggs, and formula. We managed to do all of this in about a half hour. In the mean time I check charts to see who gets what type of formula (since we now have 14 raccoons!!!) and managed to remind people about panacur dosage (dewormer). Made more formula for the one coon that was different while the other two rehab interns weighed the coons in order to figure out how much formula they each receive. Once I was able to jump into the mix and most of the raccoons were weighed we started to feed, change bedding, give them dishes of water and solids, and eventually another intern did dishes while us other two put food away. I then filled out raccoon charts while the other intern did something else (I think restocked blankets in the raccoon room?). He then started on feeding mice at some point while I managed to fit in "eat a donut" time. Donuts are provided almost every Saturday thanks to one of our wonderful volunteers. She always manages to bring in the best so we thanked her of course! I helped feed mice afterwards then filled out charts for them as well. Updated the white board as well, signed my name wherever necessary to testify that the raccoon received its dosage of dewormer, and then checked the to do list for more tasks. Protocols are still in mind of course but some things come first before we have another "protocol party".
While checking the to do list I somewhat helped the other two interns figure out tasks too. By that I mean I asked who wanted to pick bunny greens and one said he would. I threw out how we needed to restock and offered to do this but ended up going out and burying Snapping turtle eggs. Whoa, wait, Kelcie you just said WHAT?! Yes, buried Snapping turtle eggs. Now this does not mean they are not likely to survive. This is not a bad thing whatsoever.
Snapping turtles are not exactly the best parents in human perspective. They bury their eggs and then leave them to fend for themselves. Once the eggs hatch the babies are still on their own. More or less they dump and go without caring for the young whatsoever. So yes these babies may actually survive if the conditions are right. Never dig up turtle eggs. It is illegal to do so. If you feel that they are in a dangerous area (as in they could possibly be ran over or threatened by people) then feel free to call a rehablitation center first to discuss the situation with them.
After this shindig I helped make more solids for the 2pm feeding later today (Raccoons) and while the solids were cooking up I made formula for the 12pm feeding (still Raccoons). After 12pm feeding was covered I quickly did some dishes and made an attempt to do dishes in the kitchen. However I never got to this but at least the dry stuff was all put away. Helped with animal charts I believe and then did dishes. Went to lunch after!
Did more dishes after lunch and prepared for the 2pm feeding. Us three interns cut up some fruits for mash for raccoons while staff fed the squirrels. Once this was all made up we dished out mash and other solid foods to the raccoons and then had another protocol party until about 4pm. We had to make squirrel trays for the squirrels (which were too big so we had to condense some food and feed the rest to the mice, oops). After the squirrels were given their trays and new water I filled out charts and then we began to clean. I swept while another intern mopped and the other took care of sweep/mopping/dishes in the Raccoon Isolation Room (RISO). One staff took out trash, recycling, and compost while the other fed the squirrels their formula. Once cleaning was finished up some of us went home while others ate or worked on protocols.
Whatever we worked on it lasted until 8pm raccoon feeding. During this we had a call about a red fox kit. Five of the six interns loaded up into the truck or their personal vehicle to go look for this fox but no one saw it beside passerbys. By this time it was dark anyway and despite flashlights and carlights we did not see a thing. After this was over with and we returned empty handed; everyone went upstairs except for me. I think this resulted in bed for most but I ended up staying up until 6am the next morning working on protocols.
Good news is I finished the Long-legged Wader protocol (98% at least).
Bad news is I messed up my sleeping schedule because I ended up waking up at 2pm.
DAY 44 - DAY OFF
After waking up at two and eventually showering, we played a game of hacky sack for maybe 5 minutes. Everyone was copped up in the office all day working on their protocols so they needed a break and I needed to wake up. Once this small game was over it was back to work. I have been working on protcols all day with almost everyone else. The rehab staff on today had to continue working so they have had to feed as well. I am mainly working on songbirds now with one of the staff members; trying to help them out so we can finish this HUGE protocol (have you seen how many songbirds there are, just imagine the warblers).
No comments:
Post a Comment