Amendment

So, yesterday I was explaining that the cute and cuddle isn’t all I do at work. I realized today in the haste of me making that post that I forgot some other things that make the job not as fun as it may sound.

First off there is the on call thing. Yes, just like a doctor I have to be on call, this can range from one night (when we have lots of staff in the summer, up to 4 nights a week when we are down to just 2 staff members). I personally have taken a call as late as 12:30 pm, but I know other staff members who have gotten calls at 3 am to come rescue a fox. Other night things that can be included are night feeds. Now this is something that happens either in the early part of baby season or the late part of baby season. Like right now we are taking turns in going in to feed seals and the squirrels. Some times this can include feeds as late as midnight. In some of these cases I bring the animal home and house it in my bathroom. In the early part of baby season this can mean I have an incubator in my bathroom with a bird in it, and that bird can need to be fed every 15 to 30 minutes until 8 or 9 at night. That’s right, all day long!

And the last thing I will leave you with is the fact that this job has quite a strange perversion to it. When we care for infant mammals, we have to do something that the mom would do. Now, a lot of people don’t think of this, b/c well we don’t have to do it for our babies. But animals lick their babies to make them defecate or urinate. Please don’t think that we lick them, b/c well we don’t. But we do have to use a warm cotton pad/ball and gently rub their genitals until they go. I know, eww, right? But they have to have it done since I am playing substitute mommy…



This is what her neck looked like on the first day that we excised the necrotic tissue away (something had bit her neck and everything between the 4 punture wounds was dead!).



Here is a photo of the healed neckwound of Caracara (me holding the struggling beast heads up, and luckly not getting eaten alive!)


Hawt!! Those pants make me look soo good!