A few recent rescues.

This adorable little screech owl was sitting in the driveway all morning, so the resident called animal control. When I responded it was obvious this little guy was not feeling to great. It was very easy to just walk up to him and grab him. He is now up at Tuft's getting a little R & R.  Appears to have some minor head trauma and luckily there is no optical damage. Because he's a little on the thin side, they are keeping him long enough to fatten him up before I take him back to release him. How cute it he!!?

 

The next day a call came in for this poor red tail,  just laying in the snow.  He was easier to catch than the screech! He is suffering from something all to common in our raptors these days....rodenticide poisoning. It is very important that people realize when you put out rat poison, it is not just the rats and mice you are poisoning. You are also poisoning everything that eats those rodents....owls, hawks, fox, raccoons, possums, cats, even some dogs! PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE stop using poison!!!  Right now he is at Tuft's. This hawks blood is like water and he is bleeding internally. Only time will tell if he can recover from this. Lets hope he does not end up being another statistic that suffered for nothing!

A little community teamwork here. My sister in law is the Animal Control Officer in my hometown. As I was heading home from work during this past miserable snow storm, she was in the process of trying to capture a raccoon under a residents porch. It just happened to be down the street from my house! It was a successful capture in some very unpleasant conditions!

 

 

 

 

I wish I had good news to report about him. I got him settled in for the night. He looked good, was eating well and acting pretty normal (as seen in the video) aside from being out during the storm trying to get into the residents enclosed porch. He was vocal, but the vocalizations were normal and appropriate for the situation. The next morning I found him dead. I have no desire to share with you how....suffice it to say, he killed himself in a way that was, quite frankly, very disturbing...even for me. It is a pretty safe bet he had rabies. There was no exposure so it is unlikely he will be tested, but it goes to show you......there is no "classic case" of rabies. A very important reason why we must quarantine every rabies vector species we take in!