Emma's Fantabulous Blog

Also best moving iguana icon ever.

Watching this makes me giggle endlessly.

This is a pic that was snapped by Devon while I was out of town. Apparently Fifi has a very definite preference in her fiction literature. Silly iguana. She’s so adorable when she messes up my alphabetized bookcases.

I worked another shift at the Wildlife Center again today. Once again I got a box of animals with release papers and a map. Last shift I got a little songbird. This shift it was 3 opossums that were brought to us as orphans (a male and 2 females, btw.) headed to Terrace Creek Park in Mountlake Terrace, WA.

Terrace Creek Park is another really cool park that I’ve never heard of. I’ll definately be visiting it again in the future. Lots of trails through the woods to explore, a rocking playground with candy cane striped equipment, a creek that’s perfect for dogs to get all messy in, and a disc golf course!!! In addition to this all, its an awesome place for the little opossums to reside.

Good luck ladies + little dude!

So it turns out that the raccoon from last week had a pre-existing condition with his elbow, and he ended up getting put down. Other than that my shift this week was pretty uneventful. Just lots of cleaning, laundry and dishes.

As I was about to leave after my shift, I was stopped by one of my fellow volunteers and asked if I wanted to come along on a mallard release with her. She was given some forms, to prove that we weren’t just dumping animals, and a box with 2 mallards in it. The mallards had been orphaned and raised with us until they were big enough to be released.

We took them to Scriber Lake in Lynnwood, WA. It’s totally an oasis for ducks. Lots of water, mud, grass, as well as lots of other ducks. We opened their carrier and they waddled out, scoping out their new posh digs. They took right to the water, and as soon as they did, about 20 other ducks came over to check out their new neighbors. Our 2 mallards ended up getting pecked a bit, but they were perfectly capable of getting away from the bullies. They started munching on some fresh reeds and swam away.

I took some pics with my phone’s camera & i apologize for the fuzziness. But not for the mallard fuzziness. (click on the photos to get a larger version.)

Here is a trivia quiz that I took during a wildlife ethics class at PAWS. Some of the answers are pretty surprising. Let’s see how you guys do. I’ll post the answers in a couple of days. And no cheating by looking at other people’s answers or by finding them online! Good luck!

1. True or False: Canada Geese mate for life.

2. What percentage of black bear’s diet is vegetation?

3. True or False: The English House Sparrow has more bones in its neck than a giraffe.

4. What is the only marsupial in North America?

5. True or False: Crows are particularly fond of young corn plants.

6. What is the fastest flying bird? (It can reach speeds of 200mph.)

7. True or False: All of the bats in Puget Sound (around Seattle) are insectivorous.

8. People in what area of the country put out the most bird feeders?

9. What is the largest songbird (passerine)?

10. True or False: Seals are born underwater.

Yesterday’s shift at the Wildlife Center was tough for my heart.

I was assigned to clean one of the outdoor pens/cages for the “teenage” raccoons. The metal cage is circular and the mesh sides go up about 15 feet. The raccoons really enjoy climbing up and down the sides. Sometimes they fall, so there’s rubber matting on the floor to break their fall. When I clean the pen, you’re supposed to pick up all of the mats, so you can clean the floor and spray off each mat. So of course, during the short time period where all of the mats were stacked in one spot, one of the baby raccoons lost his grip and fell about 10 feet. It was terrible.

He was walking around but not using one of his front hands. Luckily, a senior volunteer was right there and picked him up to examine him and bring him down for one of the rehabilitators to take a look at. But the little guy was hurt and scared and he started screaming. I’m used to their grunts and their screams that they use when they’re fighting, but this was something entirely different. Just crazy, ear-piercing shrieking. It was horrible.

The vets are going to take a look at him and see if its a sprain or a broken bone. If its a sprain, they’ll just keep him confined to a small pen that he can’t climb in. However if its broken, he will get put down. Partially because they are such natural climbers and explorers that it would be hard to keep the hand totally immobilized. The other reason is that we’re over capacity for raccoons as it is, and it would be a resource drain that could be used for other, less thriving species.

So I’m really bumming about the little raccamundi. Apparently this sort of thing has happened before, but I just feel awful that it happened on my watch.

In other PAWS news, we just got in a Hummingbird that a lady had been feeding milk to… (rolls eyes). We also got in a bobcat! Luckily I’m not allowed to clean that guy’s cage…  “Just stick your head in there, Emma, and see if he’s still hungry.”

Fifi has recently become facinated with the ivy growing by the side of our house. I think she likes it because it makes her feel like Godzilla in the jungle.

Today was my 4th shift at the Wildlife Center. As usual I’m totally and completely exhausted.

Apparently, Wildlife and 4th of July fireworks don’t get along so well. The Center has 3 baby skunks that were being housed inside because they were still little guys. However, last night the fireworks were freaking the baby skunkys out and they kept spraying and stinking up the building, so they ended up getting moved into an outdoor enclosure.

On a sad note, I was cleaning the outdoor aviaries with the Steller’s Jays and came across a little guy who ws laying on his back, with his feet up in the air & missing a good portion of his tail feathers. Eventually he was able to stand up and walk around a little bit. I let the Wildlife Rehabilitator know that there was something wrong and then continued cleaning his area. Then, I found a used bottle rocket. I dunno if the bird was hit by it, or maybe the jay just freaked out flew into the mesh netting when the rocket landed in his enclosure.

Personally, I’m not too impressed by some of the P.A.W.S neighbors. You’d figure that if you lived next to a wildlife rehabilitation center you’d try to not shoot off fireworks towards it. Also, today a neighbor was blaring their radio so loudly while I was cleaning some of the cages it was almost like I was listening to my own iPod. I mean, come on guys! Way to be a total a**hole and look super white trash. Sickly barn owls definitely don’t want to listen to your crappy music. (Also, I hate saying this, since I don’t have a real job, but I’ll say it anyways. It’s 11am on a Wednesday – Get a damn job!) It just reaffirms my poor opinion of the general public.

Anyways. On a positive note: Some of the orphaned baby mallards got released in the last week. The baby raccoons are growing (and breeding, apparently) like weeds.  The seal pups are learning how to catch their own live fish. The skunk scent glands are definitely working well.

Alrighty. I’m going to go curl up and snuggle my lizard.

Fifi and Devon like to snuggle indoors. Hello super cute-ness!

I just got home from my 3rd shift at the wildlife center. Boy, am I exhausted.

Today I:

• Cleaned out “Raccoon City”. (the smaller cages for baby raccoons once they don’t need to be hand-fed anymore)
• Cleaned the “Raccoon Room”. (the room for baby raccoons after they weigh 100 grams/move out of Raccoon City, but before they are old/big enough to go into the outdoor “Runs”.) They are just old enough to be super curious and climbing up your leg, but not old enough to be scared when you stomp and yell to make them get off of you.
• Cleaned Mallard chick cages, and got to pick them up to move them. Squirmy little feather balls.
• Defrosted some feeder quails and mice. Yummy.
• Washed more dishes, of course.
• Mixed baby Deer formula.
• Mixed baby Raccoon formula.
• Went to Albertson’s (a grocery store) to pick-up old produce that they donate to us.
• Picked tons and tons of seeded grass for the Geese… Talk about tedious!

Today wasn’t insanely dirty like last week. Which was nice. I got to handle a bunch of cute little fur and feather balls.

But there’s always something sad happening as well. We have a garter snake that was brought in last night. Apparently he had accidentally been run over by a bicycle and the top of his mouth is fractured and he can’t use his tongue. He’ll probably be euthanized in the next day or two. I did help collect some mini-slugs for him to eat, so maybe he’ll be able to enjoy those beforehand.

But yeah. An interesting shift to say the least.