Kidnapping coonies!

This past Tuesday I went over Laurie's and stole the 3 younger babies! LOL.

OK....really it was planned....they are weaned and ready for a small outdoor cage near the others so they can get used to each other. So I closed off the little outdoor section from the big kids. They were not thrilled about it! When I showed up with the babies this is what happens! LOL...they all squish into the entrance at once!Enter May, Amy and Moose!

They wasted no time climbing around checking the place out.

I gotta tell ya, it's so weird having such small babies this time of year!

Amy is the smallest girl but has the biggest attitude! Holy cow! Here's a perfect example....her body language says it all!

The encounter....she discovers strangers, the huffing starts and the ears (big indicator!)go down.

The threat.....her ears go flat, she lowers her head and begins posturing and snarling a little.

I mean business....she launches herself toward them snarling and nipping...showing no fear whatsoever I might add...just dives in! It's a good thing the wire was there.....for the big kids sake! Ha!

Then there is Moose......Oh hey there...whatcha doin'? Hehe....TOTALLY un-phased by it all! His ears never even twitched.

Then lots of play getting used to the new surroundings!

...meanwhile.......still squished in the doorway! LOL

They are doing awesome out there. The weather has been unseasonably warm so it was the perfect week for them to adjust to it. It will give them a little time to enjoy the pool before it gets to cold to keep one out there!

Poor Vin Diesel!

It was good to get back to Vin. I was worried about him taking his antibiotics while I was gone. He did fine though. His butt is almost completely closed up....it looks great. We're keeping him on antibiotics though because I discovered what appears to be another large abscess forming across his back. It's pretty sensitive to him when I touch it, but god bless him.... if I go slow and easy he lets me examine him and I can feel the abscess pocket. He's eating fine though and acting normal.....I think he's just using it as an excuse to suck up more attention from me! LOLHe came in this last time missing some toenails too. The toes are healing up great as well....minus the nail for now....and it doesn't seem to phase him anymore. He's also walking normal again! Whew!

So me being the sucker that I am.....he comes out chattering pathetically and I have to go over and "comfort" him. But not such a sucker after all......this gives me the perfect chance to scratch him all over...thereby examining him without him realizing my ulterior motives! Aha!
He gets a good scratching while I'm able pick off all the scabs to keep the wounds open and keep an eye on any new developments that pop up.......without him battling me because he thinks I'm trying to do something to him! Works perfectly and makes caring for him sooooo much easier! It just requires a little patience...not something I'm usually known to have! LOL

All the squirrels have been released now. The last cage was opened up just before heading to NY. Of course they are all still hanging out in there. That's fine. There is no one else to go in there this year so the pens will remain available to them to use over the winter if they need it. Little Monkey the red is still hanging around in the shed. There's a little hole for extension cords to fit in that is just the perfect size to fit a red squirrel! He's got lots of hidey holes to hang out in in there and he's taking full advantage of it....that's also fine by me! Don't mind his company at all....except when I go in there and he scares the crap out of me! LOL

Home at last!

We're finally back and settled after a whirlwind week of wildlife conferences! We got back Sunday night and it was good to be home. It's taken half a week to play catch up and get back into my normal routine.

As usual the New York conference was a great time. It was on Grand Island up by Niagara Falls so after settling in (Mary, Sue, Lisa and Laurie inspect the comfort of the beds).......

....we took a short trip up to check out the falls. It was wet and cold....therefore a short trip! Of course I ended up spending most of that time on the phone with the Animal Rescue League regarding a trap we have set up for a mangy fox! Even when you're away you don't really get away when it comes to dealing with wildlife!

Mary was the smart one and stayed in the nice warm car when we decided to check out this trail. Sue's hubby Jim was along for the trip too! This big guy loved having all tourists throw him treats! I walked right up to him while he enjoyed some almonds. We don't have these guys near us....he's a fox squirrel. Bigger than our grays and different coloring....but cute just the same!

We also took a field trip to Hawk Creek Wildlife Center.
I wish I had more pics like I did last time, but unfortunately we got there later this year and it was pretty cold and rainy. Between the darkness and the rain the camera didn't come out much. I did manage to get pretty good shots of these beauties though!

Three days packed with lots of great seminars and new things learned! Thanks so much to JoAnn and my sister in law Christine for keeping an eye on the gang while I was gone! Christine had the added bonus of taking one of my dogs (Bernard) to stay with her for the weekend....lucky lady! Mom and Dad lucked out with the other 2 dogs, Boo boo and Marly. It's not easy to go away when you have tons of animals that need sitters! Thanks to you all for keeping them safe while I was gone!

And great big thanks to Sue and Jim who managed to sneak around behind our backs and surprise us all with the new edition of Wild Mammal Babies! The first 48 hours and beyond. It's the wildlife rehabilitators bible and we couldn't wait to get our hands on it. We were wondering why Chris from Chris's Squirrels and More kept putting us off every time we tried to buy them! Sue squrrl beat us to the punch! LOL

An update on my extended family!

My coyote pair has grown! Near the end of the summer looks like mom and dad brought the kids out to show them the best places to visit.Looks like the kids learn fast! This little guy decided to beat the crowd and came back on his own early the very next night. Isn't he the cutest, most handsome thing! Absolutely gorgeous!
I'm happy to report everyone is behaving and getting along well....at least while visiting mom's house! LOL
Here we have one of the little stinkers, a coonie and one of the red fox's. How do I know there's a fox there you wonder??

Surprise! LOL

The coonies and the stinkers pretty much have no problem with each other and often visit together. Here is Quinny politely enjoying a meal with a stinky guest!

Even more incredible........

Yup....no one screws with the skunks....at least not at mom's house! LOL How amazing is that? We could learn a LOT from our wild friends!!

And a special thanks to Kristen and all the wonderful people who send over goodies for the gang. As you can see the occasional sweet treat is greatly appreciated by the coonies who are not about to share it with anyone!

I'm outta here and I'm takin' the pie with me! Ha ha...what piggies!

This years overwinters.

Laurie's 5 overwinters were brought over here a couple weeks ago to spend the winter with my crew as one big happy family! After a little getting used to each other (some better than others! LOL)...... .....everyone has become friends and gets along great!

One of Laurie's boys wasted no time getting comfortable on my shoulder!
Now they are all buddy-buddy with each other and cute as can be.

Of course my little Pip is the cutest ever! When she is in mom's lap the new kids are not allowed to share and she makes that very clear to whoever tries!

Kinky's pretty cute too!

Finally one of Laurie's gets the chance to get some attention without being chased out of my lap!

Then there is Vin! Poor, beat up Vin! He's doing great too. Eventually he will be able to join the gang, but not until he's healed up better. Not surprisingly he pulled out some of the stitches, but it still looks good and his appetite is back so all he needs is time now and he'll have plenty of that!

Checking the release site.

We've been keeping an eye on the release site of course and so far so good. A couple have been back with injuries, but nothing that warranted us bringing them in.

One day Camy, one of Laurie's from Vin's original group was holed up in a den box with a bite wound to a rear leg. But the wound looked good and clean, wasn't bleeding anymore, and he was using the leg without a problem so we left him there.

The next time I went out I opened the box Camy was gone and one of the beach boys popped his head out! He was very happy to see mom....

....and upon realizing I had some tasty marshmallows as a treat he was more than eager to come out so I could check him out for injuries.

He also had a bite wound on a rear leg. Unlike Camy though, he wouldn't use the leg to walk on. However after watching him for a while, he did use the leg to try to scratch his ears....so he can use it, he is just choosing not to, probably because it is very sore. The wound is easily accessible to him to clean and chew at so I have no doubt he'll keep it clean and if it does abscess he will be able to keep it draining and it should heal fine on it's own. He was gone the next day also.

I'm sure if either of them get as bad as Vin did they will be back....they obviously know they have a safe place to stay when they need it. These are wounds they get out in the wild all the time and most times they just hole up until they are healed enough to get back out there. Our gang will have the added advantage of getting help if it does get worse instead of better like Vin's did.

And then there is Vin! I ran into him in one of the den boxes Wednesday. He appeared fine and walked out of the den box but he was not about to let me get a closer look at his ass! LOL He kept it tucked out of sight and out of reach into the back corner of the den box every time I tried to look. Laurie headed over the next day to check on him and while I'm at work I get the call...."I think he needs to come in." She forced him to get out of the den box and walk around and he wasn't walking right. Soooooooooo....I meet her over there after I got out and we take him in.

*Sigh*....Vin, Vin, Vin....what the heck is going on out there with you!

Well he's got new wounds, re-wounding the original ass wound and both hocks are very swollen and sore. It was a late night working on him until about 10pm so sorry, not time to stop and take pics....we just wanted to fix him up and get outta there! We took an x-ray of his hips just to be sure nothing was broken because of the way he was walking, (whew! nothing is!) then Dr. Grange ( who was kind enough to stay that late to help him...thank you so much!) decided to try and just close the wound up. She did an awesome job....now we are just hoping he decides to leave the sutures in! But I'm not holding my breath! It's worth a try though, and worst case if he pulls them out we just continue to treat it like an open wound like last time.

Once again he is being an awesome patient! He will be easy to treat thank god and it's safe to say now he is officially one of the overwinters...so there will be plenty of pics to come.

The rest of the gang are emptying the feeders regularly out there...so this gang is sticking around more so than the first, although Vin and Camy coming in to utilize the safety of the den boxes shows the first gang hasn't totally forgotten!

All the squirrels are in release pens!

Well squirrel season is almost officially at an end finally! All the buggers are out in release pens and will be on their way very shortly. There are 3 release pens out there. The "deluxe suite" has a large indoor and outdoor section. That's what we use if there are any overwinters. Qbert, Snarf, Snuff and some of JoAnn's crew were in that one and have been released but are still hanging out in there a little. The middle cage is smaller and is now occupied by 5 of JoAnn's crew. You can see one of them in the background here behind Caramel. Caramel and my crew of 6 are in the third larger cage with 7 more of JoAnn's babies. It's a full house but they are loving the hollow trees and logs in there as they acclimate to the area.

Depending on weather conditions, the 5 in the middle cage will go this weekend and Caramel's crew will get released next weekend.

I'll also have to work it around the wildlife conferences we are going to on both weekends. We have the Wild in Vermont conference to go to this weekend and then up to the Niagra area for the New York State Wildlife Rehabilitation Council conference next weekend! Things are going to be a little crazy for the next week or so. The fun part is getting critter sitters for everyone....and wildlife isn't the only thing I've rescued! I have 3 dogs and 6cats...all but one of the dogs were rescues. My family dreads it when they hear I am going away! LOL