Cheating.

Okay so I am cheating a bit... I sent an email to an old coworker/friend tonight and decided I would copy and paste most of the email into my blog since it looked like good sharable information. I will not be including any photos tonight and I know I never did explain the photos from the last blog. I have been pretty drained the last few weeks, the changing weather, days getting shorter, all seem to be a major key in my drive sometimes.

We still have 11 seals which are all the survivors for the year. With Shona taking a 3 week vacation right when we got to the point of being able to do blood draws on seals it complicated things a bit. So we have been holding onto them. I also wanted to be able to show Vanessa how to draw blood so I needed someone seasoned to sit on the seal (aka Shona). We did do a blood draw on 4 seals on Thursday and the plan is for a Oct 17th release. Next week we will draw blood on another 3 seals and get them out the following week. We have one seal who is ubber slow (18.8 kg for the past 3 weeks) and just won't eat on his own. He has been a problem child from the get go and unfortunately had some health issues so he got a little more use to us than we would have liked. Today he finally started to associated the fish slapping the water as food instead of just staring at the person for another fish. Hopefully we have seen the last of our babies.

Late season brought us 9 grey squirrels (all in the w mammal cage now), 2 Douglas babies (one in the orchard cage and one just came in 2 days ago and is still on formula, she also has a break to the femur that we will just have to wait and see how it heals), 3 flying squirrels that are running around the indoor mew, a few cottontails that have gone to mainland, and a euro rabbit who has probably just a few more days on formula before we can get him/her out to a hutch. Recently we got in a turkey vulture, one that is still alive and not in a horrid state, looks like some bad molting or feather loss so it looks like we may be having this one over winter. We also have a RTH and a Saw-whet owl, they both got tagged by cars and it appears to just be soft tissue damage on both so hopefully we can do quick turn around on them. Some of the coons are getting big, so I will be working on getting 4 or 5 out over the next week or so. The fawns are doing well, big, and no major fur loss like last year. And of course the otters are otters, they have gotten to enjoy live fish and live crab, which was very amusing. Something that I am working with that I am just not sure what to do with is a garter snake that might have been hit by a car, it has some abrasions and the head looks a little misshapen, I tried to take him/her outside to see how it did and there is just no sense of direction. when it lifts its head it basically falls backwards on to the back of the head then turns over onto the belly. You can stomp and shake the ground but the snake just sits there not feeling threatened or anything. Feels strange to think about putting it down because it is a snake, but the thought of putting it out and letting it slowly starve to death or freeze to death, or be come way to easy of a target for a predator seems unfair. /sigh

That’s about it for things from the hollow. Besides construction type work. Both septic systems got revamped while Shona was gone on vacation and it was a nightmare, the work went fast but the tearing up of the ground, lack of them communicating with us, and having to be very conscious of how much water we were putting down into the septic tank until it was online was nerve racking. All the permits have been approved for the maintenance building so they are going to start on that on Monday. Hopefully that goes quickly too. Once it is done, we will be moving stuff from the warehouse into the building, so that we can move some things inside. We have to become ADA friendly so we have to change the radiograph suite a bit and the processing room has to be changed (nothing major in either just some moving of equipment).

Shona and Ross are planning on heading for the hills for her weekend so I will be on call tomorrow night even though it is my day off b/c Vanessa took some time to go to a family function in Minnesota. I just want to get the kids out the door before I think about taking an extra day or two off. Then I feel like I will be able to take a deep breath and not worry so much. It has been chilly here some mornings, about 40 degrees, I just am not quite ready for it.

Everyone on mainland enjoy the changing colors for me, that is one thing I miss.

sorry

Okay so everyday I keep picking up my camera and thinking I am going to do a new blog update. Then I sit down, get a little sleepy, take a nap, and then just loss motivation. Including right now, I had good intentions for doing a blog tonight to also fill in some of the details from the last picture post.

So yeah, maybe tomorrow I will have enough energy to fill out a true blog post.

just a taste.

I posted that I should have some stuff for you this week and I do I really do. I just don't exactly have the momentum to post right now so here is just a taste of what I can hopefully get up tomorrow.

Only short explanations today: Septic system redo at work

Run foxes run

Obvious? Seals.

Fly Barred owl Fly.

Cute little frog.

Fire is soo cool.

Day at the beach.

catch up

Well, I didn't keep up like I thought I would but that is partially b/c it is slowing down at work. Which is a much needed break. We actually are getting just a bit of down time to do some teaching with the interns; I am very happy about that. I am hopeful that by the end of the week I will be able to piece together a much better post as we have some major releases that we will be doing this week!

As for regular life it has been buzzing. A large quantity of the tourist are trickling out, the only lingerers are the ones with out kids or the retirees who come after school has started. I have had lots of fun the past few weeks going bowling and just having some chill time with friends. I have pictures I could post (both of work and some of the animals at work), but my camera isn't close to me and I have marooned myself to the couch by mopping my floor. Sorry! I am extremely happy to have finally cleaned my apartment, no half assing it, but a full fledged cleaning. It has been awhile and with the time it took me I will have to keep that in mind to not let it go again for another full month.

I know short and only words but I thought I would let you know life is still chugging along.

Drive with Guinness

Well first we will start off with a few work things before I get into the title of the blog. We got in an adult Canada Goose in who is severely emaciated, so we have to tube the goose to slowly introduce food into the system so we don't over load him/her. Jen is tubing the goose.

Slowly putting the tube in the mouth.

Down the hatch.

All done.

Time to go back into the kennel.

Next up is the flying squirrels, I don't have the best photos once again, but I wanted to share this.
Look my eyes are opening. 2 of the 3 had their eyes open when I left on Friday afternoon!

We had a work BBQ for our interns, staff, volunteers, and board Friday night. These are the clouds that loomed over head.

And it wouldn't be a week with out another incident by me. What you might ask this time? Well it is a seal bite. We had a seal who was acting a bit lethargic and opening and closing her mouth. She would try to boo but couldn't. I was provoking her, but never expected her to turn her head and completely snap at me... silly of me to think not. I think she might have just had a bone stuck from the fish feed she got earlier.

Now for the meat of the story. I month or so ago I mentioned how my friend's dog Guinness was having some issues. Well, talking to him recently Guinness had gotten a lot better and has peaked at his recovery. He still doesn't have complete full use of his back legs but he can go for walks and get in and out of my truck pretty well through the side doors; he never will be able to jump up on the back of my truck again like he use too. I will definitely take this over anything. He was very excited to go for a car ride and to get out and play a bit when we got to where we were going. Where were we going?? Well, it is actually a sad story. I wanted to see how the south end of the island looked after a purse seiner sank last night. Here are some photos.

A commercial crab boat moves through the South Beach area.

A look toward Vancouver island, upper end of South beach/Eagle Cove area. Not all those boats are there to help clean up.. some of them are fishing boats.. makes you really wonder what you are going to eat huh?

I was shocked by the number of boats up that area.

If you look along the beach you will see part of the cabin from the Anna J.

Clear day.. I really don't see much of a slick so that makes me a bit worried about how much it dispersed.

Part of the cabin.

Looky!! Guinness, licks his mouth.

What is over there boy.

He is looking at me wondering when we are going to walk some.

Up and moving. I was soo elated!!

coming to me.

He was sniffing the air, must have been a fox near by.

Didn't like me sitting still.

Come on Penny, let's get going!!

On our drive down I ended up right in the middle of a classic sports car ride, here are a few pics I snapped out my window as the last part of them drove by me as I pulled off.

a closer view of the cabin.

the crab boat.

I hope you enjoyed the pictures and I know a few of you have been wondering how Guinness is and I hope you are as happy as I am that he is up and moving. If he tries to run he ends up bunny hopping as the rear right leg just isn't as coordinated as it use to be and about the third time in and out of my truck was a bit tough for him, so I gave him a hand. He still has his I am still young attitude (even though he really isn't) and full of life. Like I said earlier. I am soo excited with how he is compared to how I saw him after the incident.

Thanks for stopping by!

yay! I actually am keeping up (at this moment)

Okay well looks like I am keeping up, at least for this week. Not much has happened besides me causing more physical damage to myself. No, not another staple- that has healed nicely by the way and is only sore if I push on the place where the staple actually entered my hand, but from me whacking myself in the nose with my cellphone. Short story, I had my cellphone in a hoodie pouch and when I went to take the hoodie off the cellphone decided to stop on my nose, giving me my first nose bleed in years as well as much pain.

Work has been interesting as well as quite challenging this summer. It seem that there have been many scenarios that I have never come across hitting me one right after another, sicknesses, injuries, and just plain animals- one being showcased further down in pictures. So I will quit boring you with words and get right into the pictures-okay- :) as always don't forget you can click on a picture to make it bigger.

Kanab checks me out as I check on the seals.

Dragonfly and Lotis enjoy the haul out as the sun is getting low.

Chitenango keeps a flipper over the edge.

Not quite feed time, but they don't care you are they they want food.

Chitenango comes to visit. sorry no fish yet dude.

Found something more interesting to watch.

Abalone is napping, yes under the water.

In just a few minutes came up for a breath and moved to be wedged between the pipe and side of the pool all while still napping.

Segundo is curious to what I am doing.

As is Fatmucket.

Swim little man swim.

And the newest arrivals at Wolf Hollow and animal that I have not had the pleasure of raising yet and I am extremely excited to get this opportunity they (3) even spent last night at my house in my bathroom, so I could get them a late night feed.

A baby Northern Flying Squirrel!!!! How stinking cute!

The skin that will later be used for gliding.

sleepy time as we are getting ready to feed at 11pm.

stretch out!

yikes this picture looked good before I added the others from my Nikon.

Itty bitty feet.

an Itty bitty tail.

The extra skin attaches to the knee.

found the gray squirrels all cozy asleep right before a feed I couldn't resist a photo.

back to the flyers.

whiskers.

big head.

so small in my hand

stretched out.

Caught in the act.. in the food dish eating on his/her own.. Wait a minute.. that is a barn swallow they catch on the fly... what is he doing.

Checking out the moving meal worms.

Last but not least a video for your viewing pleasure. We have in a Juvi barred owl that got tagged by a truck (actually the side mirror on the truck). He most likely have a coracoid break so is on cage rest. S/he loves to hoo at me when I peek in the kennel.. soo cute.

Hope you enjoyed!