Thank you all and Happy New Year!

Forgive the drastic lack of posts, but the laptop has been broken and no idea when a replacement will be possible! Sneaking onto friends computers doesn't help much if you want to see cute pics of the gang because of course all that stuff is on MY computer! Ugghhh....

I did manage to sneak on here during my lunch break at work and happen to have some pics in the phone I can share though. I had no luck whatsoever getting the videos onto here though. >:(

Of the 6 reds and 5 greys overwintering, only one brave squirrel is willing to show themselves when I am around! Little Skinny Minny isn't so skinny anymore! She looks great and will be thrilled come springtime when she can call the rest of the great outdoors her home!

The raccoons are being themselves. On fairly decent days they'll come out and play. On the real crappy or bitter cold ones, it's a miracle if they emerge, just like they would out in the wild. And to be honest, they are lucky I even stop by long enough to toss food in there then scurry back to the warmth of my own den box!

The original 9 in the new pen are great and loving it.

Roxy and Henry in the old big pen equally loving it!

Unfortunately I couldn't get the cute video of  Henry on here (or of Muffin, Annie and Tuk hanging out), but if click the links here, it will take you to our Facebook page where I was able to post them! :)

Wishing everyone had a Merry Christmas and hope you have a very Happy New Year! 

We can't thank you enough for all of your support!! Thanks to you, 579 critters (that otherwise would have suffered and died) were given the care and medical treatment they needed to either heal and be re-released, have a chance to grow up and live free, or simply be given peace from pain and suffering humanely. We couldn't do it without you, our faithful followers!

Operation Syria.....Let's get the dogs out!

OK, so I promised to tell the story of Operation Syria a while back so........here we go!
Back about a year ago, I was put in touch with a journalist who was in the midst of war torn Syria. Some children had abused a couple of little puppies and were dragging them over to a ditch to dump them in to die. As luck would have it, Phil was able to intervene just in time! Even luckier, this same thing had happened to him the last time he was there, so he was better prepared than most to deal with it.  The pups were only a couple months old, and things as common as puppy replacement formula, puppy food, vets, medicine and many other things that we take for granted here, were a rare find in Syria! Despite all that, he did an amazing job with the little brothers!

He kept them safe and cared for, and they thrived under his care! Of course now that he had rescued them he was planning on trying to get them out of the country when he  returned to the states. He told me to put the word out that they would need good homes!
Seriously, like I wasn't going to step up for one of them! No chance! LOL  I had the room after all. (Unfortunately it was due to the loss of my dear Boo Boo, and following that, a little girl Panda, that I had pulled from a shelter in Texas. She became ill during transport and had to be euthanized....I never talked about that!). We didn't look much further for the other pup either! My sister in law took one look and it was all over. The brothers would live 5 minutes from each other and could always visit!
Now we just had to wait until February, and hope the pups and Phil could make it safely out of the country.

In the meantime, the puppies thrived. Then, finally, Phil began the treacherous trek out of Syria. Dangerous enough just for him, worse with 2 puppies in tow! A report on the news of bombs going off in Damascus, killing many the day he was going through there. The danger he was in becoming all to real! Finally word came that they made it out of  Damascus about 10 minutes before the bombs.....a close call. Then at last, they were on the final leg....the flight home into Boston! 
A couple months after it all started....they all arrive safe and sound at Logan! Me, my sister in law Christine, and Phil's fiance Emma are among the gang waiting to greet them.
At last, the boys are on the final leg of their journey on the car ride HOME!

Boomer wasted no time settling in and became fast friends with the boys!

Bruin and Boomer often getting together to visit...and growing like weeds....yes that's the same little piggy bed from above!

 

He's a gentle soul and gets along just fine with canine and feline alike!

Bernard is his best bud for sure!

For a dog used to the hot sands of Syria, he sure took to the snow very well!

Thanks to my good friend and awesome photographer, Heather Morey, for some awesome shots of the sand turned snow dog!

All the boys!

Still growing!

Still best buds! They play like maniacs when they get together!

Loves kids!

A sweet, wonderful, (at times little trouble maker) addition to the family....able to enjoy a happy life instead of dead at the bottom of a ditch in a country where so many are suffering.....

Heather says it best.....

Thanks so much Phil for saving our wonderful boys! Phil and Emma had a chance to visit the boys all grown up recently just before getting married and they were thrilled to see how well the boys were doing....and we were thrilled to thank them once again for going above and beyond to save 2 helpless little creatures!
You can hear the interview Phil did with NHPR about the rescue here.

Happy Thanksgiving and Hanukkah everyone!!

We are very thankful to all of you, our supporters, for making it possible for us to continue to protect and save our native wildlife! Still totaling the numbers, but this year it looks like we were able to help almost 500 animals in need...... and we could NEVER have done it without YOU!!!

Very humble thanks from all of us, and many furry xoxo's from the fur butts!

A little bit of everything.

At last, the rest of my squirrels are outside! The 5 overwinters are loving the wide open spaces of a much bigger cage to explore! Believe it or not there are still babies out there! Laurie just got one about 6 weeks old last week! What a crazy squirrel season this has been!

Lisa has some adorable overwinters of her own! She's got a little group of flyers she just  moved into an outdoor pen. Are they the cutest things or what!

 

The little stinker is making friends too. Since deciding to keep him for the winter, we decided to see how he would get along with Mary's 2 overwinters so he would have someone to cuddle with to keep warm. I guess it's safe to say all went well since all 3 were cuddled together in the den!

Now that Henry and Roxy are keeping each other warm in the den box they've been moved over to the bigger pen to give them a little more room.

Didn't take them long to make themselves right at home!

 

The rest of the overwinters in the big new pen are doing great and growing like weeds. They are all becoming as wide and they are long. Tis the season!

I think Munchkin here is the best example of roly poly by far! He and McFly want nothing to do with me! Tavi, above, is the same way, which is fine. I know they, along with Digger who is equally skittish, will be avoiding people at all costs once released!

Annie....still sweet as can be but getting less needy as the time goes by.

 Muffin, who is Munchkins real sibling, is much nicer than he is.

The big boy Tuk! He's huge! Had he not been raised as a single with lots of contact with people he would have been ready to go with the gangs we already released.

Everyone is pretty much set for the winter.....lets hope everything remains status quo!

Squirrel mania!

We are all still a little overrun with squirrels!

 On top of a lot of late babies coming in, there are several people who have called with single  older squirrels that they took in and raised themselves, and now that they are older and ready for release they want some place to send them. Once again, very well intentioned people, and great job raising them, however detrimental in the end. So back up on my squirrel soap box I go, forgive me! You can't just throw strange 13 week old squirrels in together and expect them to get along. Had we gotten them younger, we could have easily incorporated them into a group. At this age they can be very territorial and downright nasty to each other.

We rehabilitate a large volume of squirrels that we want to fear humans, so they don't get a lot of personal quality time with us. That is what their siblings are in there for. We have barely enough time to feed, potty and clean them and move on to the next group anyway! As they wean, they get less and less attention from us and wild up quickly. By the time they are ready to go outside they are impossible to catch, nasty, and eager to beat the crap out of any strangers.....of any species! They have all the tools they need to give them the best chance to survive out there. A strange singleton added to an established group like that runs the risk of some serious stress and being attacked and injured. 

Because of all the late babies, we still have a lot of our own squirrels, and as a result, all of the outdoor pens are full with more waiting in the indoor pens to go out there! There just aren't any empty pens to put any extra singles into!

There is so much more that goes into rehabilitating orphans than just getting them to live.....they need to learn to survive out there so they can be released. So please, as awesome as it is to rescue and save a baby in need, contact an experienced rehabilitator when you find an animal so it can have the best chance to be raised and released properly. 

You are awesome for stepping in and making the effort to save a little critter in need....(not many people would be bothered). Now give us the chance to make the time and emotion you put into helping that critter worth it!!

Life in the woods.....

So I finally went through some of the video of the "extended family" here at home and here are some of the more interesting ones! They certainly know how to keep me amused.
First we have a  coyote, raccoon and stinker all enjoying a meal together....and peacefully at that!

Remember the saying a bird in the hand is better than 2 in the bush? It's a lesson this silly coyote should learn! He kept trying to fit all the rolls in his mouth at once. It was pretty comical to watch, and he tried many times.

A grumpy raccoon decides it doesn't want to share with a poor unsuspecting possie! Coons, skunk and possie all in the melee. Of course the coons are smart enough not to mess with the skunk.

Not to worry though....the possie has been back with a few moves of his own. No more bullying him around!

The little stinker from the window well is  doing awesome and is just as sweet as can be. Mary has a couple spending the winter so I think we are going to try to see if they might all get along and spend the winter together.

The last raccoon I was waiting for has arrived. She's a big beautiful girl, Roxy, and is sweet as can be. She's much bigger than Henry, but very gentle. It took Henry a little time to get over his apprehension, but he has since learned how fun it is to have a friend to play with and they are officially cuddle buddies now! None to soon either with the very cold weather that has arrived.