Updates on the gang....

Feeding time is just not the same without the gang we moved to the release site! Oh....Dolci usually hears me out there and is the first to investigate as usual..........and then she calls the rest of them out who begin gathering on the wall as usual....
.....but there is a lot more empty space there now! *Sigh* The gang out at the release site is doing great...with one little kink. Drake decided to release himself early! I went back a couple days after putting them out there and while I'm inside cleaning up, a raccoon shows up outside trying to get in! I was mortified thinking I somehow let someone slip out the door when I went in!! He was easy enough to catch and put back in and I did another head count...about a hundred times!.....and once I was satisfied everyone was in there I left.
Laurie calls me the next day and guess what! Drake is out again....hanging out quite comfortably in a tree next to the pen. He's a little shy with me, so he's definitely not coming down for Laurie. So now we know at least it wasn't me being careless! He's getting out somehow. I checked the entire pen and the only thing I could find was a little section on the top where he possibly could have squeezed through and I wired it shut. Not much more we can do about it. When I see him out there he's not stressed or scared or running to me to "save him from the big scary world"....so I brought an extra den box and put it on top of the pen so he would have a place if he needed it, and we leave food out for him in there...that's in addition to the feeder that's already out there anyway. He's been hanging out in the area near them....sometimes he's right in the tree near the pen and other times we can't find him, but he seems to be doing fine and definitely doesn't seem to want back in. I just feel bad he's by himself right now.....if the weather wasn't so crappy we'd let them all join him....but as soon as it clears up they will.

So it's Vin that has the big hole in his ass....and he's doing great, but if you were to ask him how he feels this would be his reaction! LOL
He's being such a good patient though! He's got so many little holes all over him, poor thing, and he's very good about just sitting there letting my pull off the scabs to keep them open and draining. In fact I think he actually enjoys it!

He's done with the antibiotics and now it just remains to be seen if he's healed enough to go back out this fall or wait till spring....

The 6 baby squirrels (Caramel and crew) are growing like weeds and are in the large indoor cage now and loving it!

Once the weather clears up it will be time for Qbert, Snarf and Snuffles to get released with their group. They are big and beautiful and ready to go!

The baby flyers are doing awesome at Lisa's. She's been decorating the large cage with lots of hollow trees and branches for them to practice gliding when they are old enough.

We are also working on a fundraiser at my house for October. Some munchies, some beverages and Silpada Jewelry! The proceeds from the sales will go toward our jewels of the wild! It's going to be a busy month with that and then 2 wildlife conferences to go to as well in NH and NY!

The second wave at the release site.

OK.....we moved a second group out to the release site this past Sunday. No one has been going back and the food had remained untouched the whole time until just before the weekend when Laurie checked the area and suddenly the feeders were emptied! Go figure! No one was around though and the cage was empty so moving day was a go!

It was much tougher parting with this crew though! I was a little more attached to these guys! Michelle, Drake, Quarry, the 4 beach boys and Pansy along with Laurie's gang are all settled in. Not without incident however!We've got everyone settled in and we're both standing in there watching them have fun. Most of these guys are on the small side so as I'm watching one one of Laurie's sitting on a shelf I think wow, he's pretty good sized, he's the biggest of the batch for sure, so I ask Laurie...."Who's that?" Laurie..."I don't think that's mine, that's one of yours." Me...."No that's not mine, it's definitely yours." Laurie..."No it's not mine!" Me...."It's not mine!"

Well suffice it to say light finally dawns on 2 marble heads! We both look at each other at the same time...."OMG someone was already in here....we never checked the den boxes!" DUH!

I go over to check him out.....and one of the attitudes was very happy to see us! He began licking my hand and chattering away....and what a good boy, he never made a fuss with any of the new kids. He obviously was not feeling very well either, but he was walking and climbing around fine and had an appetite! After spending some time checking him over, a large wound was discovered under his tail......we had to bring him in. Once we got him home we took a closer look under better light and it did not look good....Laurie figured surgery was going to be needed so we planned on bringing him in the following day to get checked. I had an open pen (short lived it turns out!) so we set him up in there.

We're actually not positive who it is! It's definitely not Gerry. I think it's LL or Vin. He's way to good to be Bruce or The Rock, even feeling as sick as he is.

*I AM GOING TO WARN ALL THE SQUEAMISH PEOPLE....SOME OF THE PICS ARE GRAPHIC*

JUST AN FYI BEFORE YOU LOOK AT THEM!

We knocked him out and got a good look at his injuries. Basically something chewed him up and spit him out! He had a lot of wounds over him, but the worst was under his tail....at one time a big abscess, now just a gaping hole! Luckily it was all tissue damage....the rectum and vital areas were intact so no surgery was necessary. All we can do is treat it like an open wound so we clipped and scrubbed all the areas we could find, gave him some metacam for pain, and started him on antibiotics.

After scrubbing the many minor puncture holes on his head, neck, side etc....we get to the doozy on his butt...it's a gross one!


All cleaned up and starting to wake up....poor fella!
By the time I got him home he was wide awake.....and in true raccoon form, nothing is more important than the FOOD! He did not hesitate to have a meal.

I am happy to report he is doing very well....eating, drinking and pooping like he should be. He's a very good patient and has no problem with his daily antibiotic shot, although he is none to thrilled with the granulex I have to spray on his butt! If we're lucky, it may heal well enough to send him back out with this group.

In the meantime he's playing the sympathy card pretty well....looking all sad and purring to get me to sit there and rub his head to make him feel better! It's working! LOL

Flying squirrel babies!

These 4 adorable little ones came in yesterday. The nest was in an air conditioner that was removed from a window. Luckily Maddy and Melinda were on the ball....they took great care of them overnight until bringing them here!

1 boy and 3 girls all doing great.
The little boy already has his eyes open and the girls will follow soon I'm sure.

These guys will definitely be wintering over. Lisa already has a few and thanks to Sue, a brand new outdoor enclosure to put them all in, so I ended up bringing them over to Lisa last evening ....although I hated to part with them even after a day! Unlike the gray's and red's, these guys are colony animals so she will incorporate them into her growing clan.....so they are better off with her. It's looking like there will be about 12 flyers moving into the new pen now!

The fungus ferrets!

Qbert, Snarf and Snuffles are big and beautiful and loving life in the outdoor pen with their new friends! In about a week they too will be out in the big world.....

.....making room for this gang once they are old enough! Here we have a group of 6 consisting of Caramel, the largest of them, a sweet boy that was well loved and cared for by the woman that found him. She had him for a couple of weeks but knew he needed to be with other squirrels and wanted to do what was best for him. So as hard as it was to part with the little bugger, she brought him here and he is thrilled to have playmates now! He's also a ham for the camera!

Caramel now has 4 sisters and a brother to play with. The 2 smallest girls came in together then there are the 3 middle sized ones, a brother/sister pair and a single female making it a family of 6 altogether.

All are doing great, eating well and starting to munch solids and even being pretty good at using the litter box (as demonstrated by Caramel....uh, a little privacy please mom! LOL).

So as you can see, the fungus encounter hasn't scared me off of taking in more squirrels!

No really, there's a seagull in my tub!

JoAnn's 3 possies have settled in nicely and are enjoying a large pen to explore. It didn't take them long to get comfortable and find a nice snack. In a couple weeks they'll have the biggest pen ever to explore.....the great outdoors!

Thursday night while I was working a call came in for an injured seagull, so of course after I got out I had to run over and check it out. He was still there and I had no cages in my car.....so I scrounged up a fleece, wrapped the little fella in it, and proceeded to drive home with him in my lap! Luckily it was after 11pm at night because I was one of those annoying people on the road doing a million things while I was driving! Of course I had to call Laurie and tell her I was driving home with a gull in my lap. While talking to her the damn thing managed to find an opening in his "wrap" and used the opportunity for a well placed bite on my finger. Didn't hurt, but scared the ever loving crap outta me! I screamed like a baby into Laurie's ear and swerved a little! Once again the image in my mind....."no officer I have not been drinking, it was the seagull!...he bit me and.......no I have not been smoking anything either!" LOL

Right now he's living the high life in my tub until I have a chance to drive him to Jodi who specializes in birds. Wings appear OK other than some large flight feathers missing and he's got one injured leg, but otherwise none the worse for wear and full of piss and vinegar despite the pampering he's getting!

Feeding time!

The younger gang are doing great! Very soon now I will have to choose the ones who are ready to go and send them out...I'm a little more attached to these guys so it's going to be tough this time around! Especially my sweet little Michelle! She's such a love.

So this is how it works......I head out toward the pens where all is usually quiet. Then one of the gang hears a noise and comes outside to check it out. (In this case it's Dolci)

Then the call goes out to the rest of the gang.....HEY!!! MOM'S COMING TO FEED USSSSSSSSSS!!

And next thing ya know there's an army of coons anxiously awaiting my arrival with the food bucket! LOL

Of course, I go into the pen on the opposite side of the cage in the larger 10ft section and they all know the routine.....so while I walk over to that entrance, they charge back through the inside and out to the large section to meet me......sounding like a heard of elephants as they go!

Do you have any idea what it is like to have 13 hungry bundles of fur and claws charge toward you like maniacs while you hold the object of their desire in your arms!??

A little like this..... x 13!! LOL!

If anyone happened to wander into my backyard at feeding time they would think I was being mauled by a gang of rabid raccoons as I stand there with 13 clinging bodies hanging on me to get to the bucket of food in my hands faster than I can toss it all out in there! It's like wearing a raccoon fur coat, only they are all still alive. (Luckily I am prepared for this...thus the layers of fleece I wear in the pen, and thick jeans...or I'd come outta there a bloody mess....because yes, they literally leap onto me and climb up!)

Finally the fervor dies down...I am able to spread the food around and one by one they disengage their claws from my body and head to their own separate piles of food.

A couple of the beach boys pick a spot.

My little oh so adorable Pip....along with Michelle she is one of the sweetest little girls! She will most likely be spending the winter so we'll see more of her!

Kinky will also probably be spending the winter. Merry and Dolci will probably stay, and if Dolci does her brother Scrappy will too...they are pretty bonded to each other and I think it would be too stressful to Dolci (who is already skittish to begin with) to be separated.

The 4 beach boys, Drake, Quarry, Pansy and Michelle will all be going soon I think. I'm already bummed thinking about it.....especially Michelle....sigh........this is the time of year I hate!

I've got a few more guests at the inn. JoAnn's 3 possies are going to be ready to go soon so they are here for a couple weeks or so in a release pen getting adjusted to the great outdoors in a large pen with plenty of room for climbing and exploring.

Qbert, Snarf and Snuffles have also joined 5 of JoAnn's squirrels in an outside release pen. They too are weaned and will be ready to go after getting acclimated in one of the large outdoor pens. We put both groups out there in neutral territory at the same time so no conflicts among them and they are all hanging out like one big happy family!

All the pens are filling up fast....hopefully most of them will empty fast too!

A little humor....

Mary's birthday was Sept. 9th so we all got together at JoAnn's this past Sunday evening for dinner and to celebrate. Lot's of great food and fun (and babies to feed!).....and most humorous was this gift certificate for a manicure she got....it was for a whole Fity dolla! Haaaaaaaa! And this was the final fixed result after a lot more confusion on the employees part!

The next day it was time for Lisa to "decorate" her outdoor squirrel pen. So Laurie and I gathered some "branches" (ok...maybe small trees in this case..hehe) for them to bring over.

They were too big to fit inside so we figured what the hell.....and just strapped them on top! Meanwhile there was a very angry adult squirrel delicately contained inside the car that had been injured and now well enough to be released back at Lisa's where he was found. Hehe...I'm glad I wasn't along for that ride. I could picture it....with the window cracked ever so slightly and a psycho squirrel running loose in the car trying to kill them..."but officer, we needed new branches for the squirrel cage!....." LOL

Needless to say, everyone made it to Lisa's in one piece, without escape and without having to explain it all (or at least try to!) to a police officer!

In the meantime there are lots of baby squirrels to tend to! I'll update you on that crew soon! Still no sign of the gang released in Littleton. Short of sitting out there all night long, I don't think we are going to encounter them again. In fact, they dispersed so well we may send a second group out there soon!

The first release.

OK...sooooooooooooo......no luck figuring out how to get the @!#$*&# video onto my $#%@* computer! If I had to guess, it has to do with the way I formatted the disc in the camcorder so that it can only be played like a dvd. I can watch it but I can't do anything with it! Of course I videotaped the release so no actual pics of it. I do have these though....taken while we were hanging out saying goodbye just before we opened the doors!

What a bunch of clowns! They were in rare form!

Once the door was opened most came out in a mad rush. A couple of the Attitudes were the last ones out and needed a little reassurance by me that it was OK.....but eventually they were all out and hell bent on having fun, running and climbing all over the place!

The next morning Laurie and I managed to locate 4 of the gang out there hanging out in the trees. That was the last we've seen of any of them!

Been back a few times, and Laurie and I went late Monday night to see if we would run into anyone and nothing. The food is barely touched so they are not relying on the pen and feeders either. Although it's sad we probably will not get to see them again....in this case it is a good sign. It means they are very independent and don't need to rely on us. It also means that there is plenty of natural food out there for them! We knew we had a great release area when we saw it and their lack of dependence on the actual release site tends to support that. Complete with a lake, swamps, tons of trees and PLENTY of room to roam away from any human habitation....they are having the time of their lives out there I am sure! They were soooo ready to go!