What I'm Thankful For...

It has been awhile since I have posted a blog, and thought today my be just a good day to do it :) I spend the day sitting in my parents house (with my truck blocked in so I am basically being held hostage), with my sister beside me to the right on her laptop a rubbermaid tub to my left with 2 little kittens in it. My sister rescued these from the elements when the wood pile they were living in with mom was moved, she took her other 4 but left these too.

But I have gotten to see lots of wilflife... here is a great example:

Turkeys walking down my hill.

My dad's cat.. he trumps my Onyx by roughly 20 lbs.

The kitties my sister is caring for

Aren't they just adorable?? Anyway, I am sure there are more but this is what I can emphasis in photos.. so I hope you and your have a good holiday.

Hollow Happenings

So check out Hollow happenings, it is blog that one of our volunteers does for us and she did one on our seal releases.. interesting photos and play by play of how things really do go down, in "seal poopy pants"ville....

disconnectedness blog

Okay check it out, I am going to go make some seal poop angels. :)

A week full of animals

So, this week has been a very busy week in the animal perspective. We have had 2 seal releases, 3 seals both times. I have also had many on call incidences this week. A fox at Deadman's Bay, the only good part -- I got to see Orcas breaching while I picked up a fox I would have to Euthanize. A HBC, layman's terms, hit by a car, deer who was DOA and I brought him back to butcher him up for meat for our carnivore critters. Making today one of the most on the go, exciting days?? in a while. It started with seals, one of them had managed to get himself twisted in a net (pls don't ask I don't want to explain), then onto feeding some squirrels -- getting scratched in the process by the oldest babies. Onto the deer butchering... not much to say there. I also learned how to give an oiled bird a bath today, with a gull we got in that had some trashed feathers from being in a Chemical warehouse in Anacortes. Just enough time for a quick bite and then onto the afternoon.

Prepping for the seal release, so much goes into this process. First we weigh them, then, we have to do rectal swabs on the seals we did on intake. This is a research project we have going to study the E.coli bacterium types and counts on admission and then the changes upon release. Next comes the hard part, doing DNA sample collection and tagging. Boys tagged on left rear flipper, girls on the right rear flipper. This involves using a leather punch to punch a hole through the flipper (you hear a hard crunch-- way to think of it, a cartilage piercing), after applying blood stop a red roto tag is placed in the DNA punch sight. I was shaking so bad on the first one that Serena had me do it was scary. The tag is used to ID them if they are ever seen on beach with illness or dead. The of course measuring their straight length, crating them up, and taking down to our release point. Open the crates, let them go, and watch them play in the water for awhile is a nice break from actual work, except for the fact that I got stung by a bee at the end.

Back to the Hollow, leads to looking a gull we had for the past 2 or so weeks that had a very bad neuro balance problem and waterproofing issue. After discussions we decided that he just wasn't getting any better. So I got to work on my venipuncture with him, yeah not something I don't want to practice, but something I need to for when I am on my own. Loads of paper work followed and me getting a little loopy meant it was time for my week to end!!

So here I am sharing my crazy, wacky, and sometimes not so fun work times with you, but I have included photos of the releases plus our lovely Great Horned Owl in all his glorious fluff & defensive pose.

Release #1

Nilas and Drizzle

Nilas, Drizzle, Ice Cube

Release #2

Monsoon, Deeno, Ice Cap

Piggy backin babies!!

Ice Cap leads the way, Deeno follows while Monsoon swims underwater behind

GHO

Bonus picture:

This is what Rehabbers really do, scrounge behind the counters for loose mealworms!!

Ode to Surgery Fawn

We did what we could,
We took cultures and samples of your nodes and knobs,
But yet we could not save you.

We monitored you for weeks,
Removed a growth on your head.
Worked you through a hyperextended leg,
And gave you surgery to remove the boney growth on your cheek.

I don't want to say we failed,
But there were so many things to fix.
You had antibiotics for infection,
All the food you could want.

In the end the antibiotics didn't work,
Your face became abscessed and infected.
You just couldn't shake to runs,
And your jaw was misaligned for eating.

All I can hope is you are at peace now,
I have taken you to a better place.
A place where you can prance til your hearts content,
And there is no pain (at least for you).

Everyone else is doing it...

…so why can’t I?!?

Okay so I have been noticing a lot of blogs being put up from people who blog on occasion and that made me realize that I really need to get on the ball and do so life fill in. First off I have spent a couple of weeks in a row now trying to do bodily harm, thank good I really haven’t managed to off myself. First came falling in the shower, leaving a very very lovely bruise, and then the near apartment up in flames, thank God I got to it in time but it left a 2^nd/3^rd degree burn on my hand.. This pic is actually taken about a week after the accident.. lovely ehh?!?

I was looking through my photos to see what I haven’t shared from the “night out” events, but strangely enough I don’t have any, could be the fact that it has been warmer out and I haven’t been carrying a coat to keep my camera in it. I have been traveling light these days when I go out especially since I walk to “downtown”. But here are some pics from around.. Me and my buddy Guinness at Lime Kiln enjoying a day of whale watching and kayak watching, his owner was working out on the water that day.

And another fun thing Onyx decided my laundry was a fun place to crash the other day..

I wish I had a better picture of this, but in the middle tree at the top is a great blue heron that flies over my head every morning when I leave my apartment.

Animal wise, or course there are photos to share.

First off as hasn’t been seen and to get the brutality out of the way… Me being the deer butcher. Don’t worry we don’t take in the animals in order to feed them to others, but sometimes we get the “I hit a deer and it is dead, can you use the meat?” calls.

It is baby season and this year I get the pleasure of working with some unique babies. Harbor seals is a big one.. here is our first baby of they year Ebb Tide. He came in mid-june from the outer coast and right now we are prepping for his release, or course that mean getting someone to fly him back to the outer coast for release, different genetic population than what we have in the sound.

Then

NOW

We have also had in a few differing mergansers, a hooded and one that we can’t tell if it is a red-breasted or common.

Another fun addition to our animal group is another mutated/genetic anomialy/ or some kinda defincency .

I have posted pics of the chipmunks when they were babies. Here is a pic pre-release from them mid-july.

My question is to you, have you ever seen a baby gull, you think they are just as “ugly” as the adults?? Well they actually look like little leopard birds!!

Of course we have had a barn owl, great horned owl, and a fledgling bald eagle in.

I will leave you with more seal pics.. they are all grown up!!

Wow that took to long to do, maybe I will start doing them on a regular basis again to avoid the time it takes!

okay kids get ready for some high flyin action!!!

Alright well we all know that I have been the biggest slacker in the world when it has come to keeping up on this blogging type thing. I use to be ubber good at it but the lack of internet and energy has really brought me down.

So I thought I would just do a fun little update for you. As you have all seen from some of my new profile pics I have been having a good time on weekends at the bars, the camera hasn't come out the last few times so no pictures incredibly new, but I can share some other photos.

Lets start with some manimal pictures!!! Here are some of the critters we have been caring for or are still caring for:

This is our tail-less merlin.. he came to us for some longterm housing while his tail grew back; the good news- he was sent back to be released this morning.

This is the killdeer we got in at the end of April.

And this is him pre-release. I sent him back out into the wild on Thursday. it was a gorgeous sight! :)

This is our Piebald (or Scewbald if you prefer) fawn, she came from Orcas island where this genetic anomoly happens, she doesn't show any other signs of the disorders that tend to go with this only, coloring.

This one of our lovely little grey squirrels from Lopez. he is quite an active little critter!

Alvin, Simon, Theodore, and ?? we got in 5 tiny chipmunks Thursday. one passed away over night, but these guys are uber soft and very small (like the size of my thumb)

here we have our odd couple. a Hooded Merganser and a Cali Quail. they both came in late in the day on Thursday. the Mergie is only 26 g and the Quail a mere 6 grams. They are awfully cute together.

Here the Merganser joins a mallard for a swim in the sink. Everyone loves bath time!

Okay so enough with the animals, I have been spending my weekends doing some hiking and just kickin it around this islands. So I will share some of those photos with you too.

Sunset from my the back deck of my friend's house.

One of the fox kits that plays along side of the road on the way to Lime Kiln. FYI I was sent to rescue one of them the other night that someone thought was "injured" I couldn't catch him for the life of me. But we did get in one of them who was hit by a car and died in care b/c of internal injures.

the view from a top of Mt. Constitution on Orcas Island.

One of the many beautiful waterfalls on Orcas Island.

Now time for somewhere that I loved. the mausoleum, I took loads of pictures but will just share a few.

Ready for the sacrifice? I think she is the only one who would be pure enough for it!

Michael and 2 of his 3 muttles wonder around.

Okay thanks all for bearing with me. I hope to get more to you soon and what not.. :)