Day 23 - Rehabilitation

Oh yeah, back on Rehab and it just so happens to be Sunday Funday too!

This morning I revisited the thought of how I am here. In other words I am still in disbelief and yet still so happy about it. I have fallen in love with Wisconsin and Northwoods Wildlife Center....and cheese curds. If I could I would donate $1000's to this place but sadly I do not have those sort of funds so I was curious if I could maybe encourage someone else to donate at least $10+. To all of my fellow readers please consider becoming a member to the center, sponsor one of our animals, or even both! I would greatly appreciate it and I am sure the staff and even animals would too. Every little bit helps and I would be ever so thankful :).

Check out the website for how and comment below with any questions you may have.
http://www.northwoodswildlifecenter.org/


Thank you for taking to the time to read the above. As for how my day is going so far (its currently lunch time) the word is Awesome. I started off feeding/watering all the mice while the other two interns prepared formula and such for our (11?) baby raccoons. Once mice were done we fed the raccoons and changed their bedding while someone did dishes. After this I filled their charts and prepared squirrel/bunny trays. Yes, we did acquire (4-5?) more little bunnies! Still need pictures of the raccoons and now of these bunnies. Another intern started helping me with trays and together the two of us fed squirrels while I covered solids for bunnies.

Once this was done the staff member, a volunteer, and two of us interns went out on a coffee run for Sunday Funday. I got my good old favorite Heath Klondike coffee shake (Starbucks can't even match these guys, best coffee place EVER) and once everyone was loaded with coffee we hit up McDonalds for breakfast and then Walmart for supplies for the center. We needed Timothy Hay for our bunnies especially but also other mechanical stuff. After this was taken care of we returned and prepared for the noon coon feeding session. Round two with the coons; this feeding went much better then this mornings feeding. We also took lunch shortly after this feeding which is why I am typing right now. The volunteer is still out working on our Eagle Flight Cage I believe. Have to perform some structure repairs on our outdoor facilities since facility inspection is coming soon for advanced license and we have not used these buildings and such for at least 2 years I believe. Cannot wait for this place to be up and running for sure! They just deserve it so much!! Northwoods WC, you have managed to take a place in my heart for sure. Right next to Five Rivers Metroparks; miss all of you my past fellow coworkers (well except one, we all know who that is...).

Will update after the day is over so stay tuned.

UPDATE: So after lunch we went back downstairs and ended up in a small game of hack. However this did not last long because the executive director came out and was rather agitated. So back to work we went. A few of the guys started to work on the Raptor Flight Enclosure again while an intern and I left to work on fixing a small hole in one of the squirrel cages. This was manageable and somewhat easily fixed; mainly because the other intern truly knew what to do. I'm truly not the handy man unless I know all my resources 100%. Which I currently kind of don't. After this we shoveled peat gravel into a wheel barrel and filled a recovery cage where some mesh was showing and cut some plastic strands. We were able to check two enclosures off the list but still have more to do before inspection day.

Once these two things were done it was time for 4pm feeding so we made squirrel/rabbit trays and prepared formula for raccoons. After these were all fed I did the dishes in the Raccoon Isolation Room (RISO) and then swept, mopped, took out the trash, and replaced booties. Went back inside and did dishes in tub and kitchen then took out all the garbage. Wondered outside to help with the Raptor Flight Cage but by this time our day was almost done. We were on our feet most of the day so some of us are pretty tuckered out. Only one out of four poles are done on the raptor flight cage but this is because the process is truly tiring and rather tricky. I saw them trying to put the second one on the cage and it just looked like a huge pain due to all the lifting.

Day is over besides feeding coons at 8pm. I think I am on phone duty tonight (I kind of said I would take it anyway) unless someone else ends up wanting it. Need to go out and talk to Errol the Great Horned Owl again of course but otherwise not much else. Game night possibly but truly just tired so probably not going.

Education tomorrow.