Riding the Storm

The good thing about storms is that they don’t last. Eventually the sun comes out but sometimes there is damage left in its wake.  To give an update on the previous post, Vlad is doing very well and will get his sutures removed later this week.  Unfortunately, the news about the goose is not so good.  Gertie did not make it.  She was such a fighter but her injuries were too severe.  We kept her as comfortable as we possibly could in her last few days.      

I’ve had a roller coaster ride of emotions over all these “little storms” this summer.  The open house was fantastic. Not only was it our highest attended and grossing event ever but the whole day really just could not have gone any better.  That same weekend our beloved pitbull Rigley got sick. He was simply lethargic and wouldn’t eat. It came on all of a sudden. Not only had he been fine but I even had him in for his yearly exam less than a week before.  It wasn’t so simple.  Rigley was crashing and was given only a few days to live unless we took drastic life saving measures. Nigel’s and my philosophy with every animal here is quality over quantity. While we hated to lose him we did not want him to suffer at all. The beginning of his life had been hard enough for him. We wanted the end to be with dignity.  For some reason, that dog touched me more than I ever realized. His death has been harder on me than I expected and I’m even fighting back the tears just writing this. 

Cesar, baby Chinchilla

Isela, baby Chinchilla

But I said this summer was a roller coaster so on to the good news. Baby Chinchillas!  We had been donated several chinchillas over the winter but despite having 4 of them, none of them were able to be used for our programs. They were not used to being handled that much and that would not be safe for anyone. Chinchillas are one of my favorite education animals for our programs so we decided to breed them specifically so that the offspring can be trained to be used in classrooms.  We had 3 little baby chinchillas born to Coco this summer. Unfortunately, chinchillas are not able to nurse any more than 2 babies at a time. The smallest one didn’t make it. We did our best to step in but it just wasn’t enough.  Coco was proving to be a great mom, until day number 3.  By then she got sore enough to bite both babies on the head. They became afraid of her and didn’t want to nurse after that. We left them together but supplemented the feeding as needed. Here’s the crazy part. This all happened a few days before my mom and I had to go to Florida for a graduation. Let’s just say that my skills are a little better suited for the nurturing of small mammals than Nigel’s so off to Florida we all went. They travelled well and bonded again with their mother. It took a few more weeks for their wounds to heal but they are doing great. The little boy has been named Cesar and the little girl has been named Isela. Recently, we moved the both of them and their mom into their big high-rise, multi-level cage.  The babies are so much fun to watch bouncing around. 

Most anyone that has ever been here has met my cat Sahara. She has taken over our kitchen table. We don’t actually eat there. She spends 90% of her time on the table. She has learned that it’s the best place to get fed first and to get all the scratches from the volunteers that come.  This cat, along with her sister (and litter mate) who is half her size, are nearly 17 years old.  A couple weeks ago she got very sick with vomiting, diarrhea and extremely lethargic.  I brought her to work with me fully expecting to have to euthanize another pet in just a few short weeks.  All of her tests though were inconclusive. Her bloodwork showed no real change. Her x-rays showed a few issues that were consistent with being sick but no obvious mass or answers. We put her on all sorts of medication and she is now doing very well, in fact it’s hard to believe anything was wrong.  At her age, I’m sure there’s more going on that we couldn’t find but I’d rather keep her happy on her table than put her through all sorts of tests.

Rabbits, rabbits and more rabbits!  We were donated rabbits. To be perfectly honest, they were all to be snake food but we had a small collection of them that Nigel decided to keep around. I take no credit for anything to do with the rabbits (at that point) because I am highly allergic to them. I am most grateful for all the volunteers that can look after them for me.  One of them had a litter of babies but the momma died when they were about a week old. Two of the babies survived so I took on the task of hand raising them.  It definitely tested my allergies but I think my body is finally getting used to having them around because it’s not as bad as it used to be. These little guys went everywhere with me, especially to work every day so that they could get their feedings.  The girls at work just loved them and you can imagine all the fuss 2 baby rabbits would get an animal clinic.  Last week they moved into their adult cage.  Then the next morning the rollercoaster headed downward again.  One of the rabbits was not using her back legs.  It’s heart breaking to see her drag herself around. I’m not giving up on her though. We had been given a bird that had paralyzed legs several months ago and he’s now moving both of them.  That’s what I’m hoping for this rabbit. I’m hoping that with time the use of legs will come back.  These are my babies. I have been up late at night and again very early in the morning to feed them. I’ve even had to sneak them into the store in my purse when I ran in so they didn’t get left in the heat.  I have fallen in love with these two little bunnies.

Baby Bunny

Baby Bunny

Today was bitter sweet for me. I said good-bye to my little baby bunnies. They have moved on to their new home. The sweet part is that it will be a great home for them. Not only will they be spoiled but I know that everything possible will be done to continue the nursing care the white one needs.  The other good news is that they have gone to live with some of our volunteers so we will definitely get to continue to see them.  For now, I’m ready for calm but our life is full of adventures and good or bad, I would not have it any other way.  

Raising Bardou

So it’s about time for another update on raising Bardou, the coyote pup.  He’s 13 weeks old now (time flies!) and quite the explorer.  There are no bottles or cute little pups curling up in your lap. He is full of energy with very sharp nails and even sharper teeth.  For the first few weeks he was so small he could stay in the bath tub and not climb over the side. Those days are long gone and he now stays outside.  He stays in a small enclosure close to the house. When he has grown he will be moved into a much larger space.  It’s at this age that hand-raising a wild animal is the most difficult. All he wants to do is play, which can be quite rough. This is how pups learn from one another.  It is up to us to fill this role of other coyotes and let him know what the rules are, yet still let him have his fun as a young canine.

The baby picture, 3 weeks old.

Twice a day Nigel and I take him out for “playtime”. He gets to run around the yard and interact with us. What we do with this time is very important to his growth.  I love just sitting and watching him and Nigel. He is so in tune with his “dad” and they run and run around chasing each other. Sometimes I can’t tell who’s supposed to be chasing who.  I always see the biggest smiles on Nigel when he’s interacting with our animals.  I love when Bardou finds a bug. He jumps up with all four legs and pounces on it. Then there are the moments where he finds a clump of grass.  He spends a great deal of time tossing it in the air chasing it and pouncing on it.  He knows exactly where it has landed and always seems to go back to it until it has completely broken apart.  The most amazing thing to me is that we have 4 other canines, domesticated canines at that, and none of them fetch.  Bardou, the coyote, will fetch. He loves his tennis ball and actually does bring it back. Lately he’s chased after it and then gotten very easily sidetracked on all that’s going on in the yard.

10 weeks old

The wild coyote does come out in him. He’s often passed some blackberries and stopped to eat them on his way by, or even a grub or two, even after having had his dinner.  He plays rough with a lot of jumping and he can be mouthy. Not that he’s trying to bite but it’s the way he would have played with other pups. His teeth are a bit too sharp for human skin that isn’t covered in fur.  He is very different when other people in the yard with us. He does not like strangers and any of the volunteers that want to work with him has to keep up contact with him and get him used to him and the right way to act around him.  New people freak him out all-together even though he’s been hand-raised.  Which is why there are so many coyotes in the wild yet very few are actually seen.  They do their very best to avoid people.  At work the doctor and I were told a story where a man was walking his 2 small dogs down the street and a coyote came up and snatched one of the dogs off the leash and killed it.  I can tell you that if that story is true it either was a dog of some type or a rabid coyote. I have learned that even a healthy, hand-raised coyote does NOT like confrontation and does not like to go near strange people.  It’s been amusing to watch people’s reactions to him that really want him to act like a dog or puppy that just always loves people.

Me and my boy, 13 weeks old.

My favorite part about raising Bardou isn’t just about working with a coyote. Nigel and very rarely work on projects together. We just get so very busy with so much to do around here.  Training Bardou every night is a project that Nigel and I are working on together.  More formal training will come later, but for now we are just learning our “manners”. 

THE Bite, Part 3

I’ve now attempted to start this next part about 3 or 4 times but it’s proving to be very difficult to write. The early years were full of extremes. At the time I lost my finger my parents had just split up after 24 years of marriage, I split up from my fiancé at the time 6 weeks before the wedding and I had just moved to South Carolina from Connecticut less than a year before and didn’t have a whole lot of friends. My life seemed to be in shambles and then I go and lose a finger. Maybe I simply went into survival mode but I made the best of the next couple of years. I made lifelong friends and had wonderful experiences. It was also the beginning of what was to become a life of being a work-a-holic.

It’s now been 20 years since the bite happened and as cliché as it sounds, I really do remember it like it was yesterday. Last week Dave came into town and we got together with everyone we could to celebrate that anniversary. It was wonderful to see everyone and great to reminisce. It’s bitter sweet though to think of “that” place. So many good times, good memories and good people but unfortunately there’s a side that is unpleasant. Back when we were there it was a privately run zoo which gave us amazing opportunities and taught us so much. Now that I have a whole lot more experience there are so many things that really should have been done differently. It’s true what they say, ignorance is bliss. For me, I will cherish the memories and be grateful for the lifelong friends I made. One thing about it is that we all formed such a tight bond. We were (are) family.

I (as with most of the others) did pretty much everything there since it was a small zoo. I cared for animals, did group tours, stage presentations and other educational needs. But one of the best experiences I had back then was being able to hand-raise some of the babies. The theory was that if all the animals were hand reared they wouldn’t be afraid of people and make for better exhibit animals. It was a novelty and seriously, who can resist a baby anything?  Today I prefer any babies to be parent reared (whenever possible) because it really is better for the animal.  I was fortunate enough to hand raise black leopards, lions, tigers, jaguars, caracals, monkeys, wolves and bears. They came home every night so they could be cared for through the night. It wasn’t easy because you had to learn to distance yourself no matter how much time and effort you put in.  These animals quickly grew up to be big and dangerous so it’s not like they were staying as pets. I must admit there is quite the adrenalin rush when the animal you’ve raised is full grown and you could still work with it. I clearly remember one of the black panthers I raised bringing his chicken over to eat while sitting in my lap. 

Little did I know that raising such a variety of animals back then would be so useful for our own rescue today. Here at Safe Haven we’ve had animals come in pregnant, monkeys that had birth control failure and babies dropped off.  One of the monkeys (Valentino) had to be hand raised because he was rejected by his mother. Nigel was still in England at the time and I went at it alone but he was good enough (for a monkey) that we used him for programs. Most recently we’ve been raising Bardou, a coyote pup that was dumped in someone’s yard (as mentioned in one of my earlier posts). New things and circumstances come up all the time when you run your own sanctuary; I still get surprised when I look back at my past and find some connection that has truly benefitted our own animals.

Introducing Bardou

It’s been a lot longer than I anticipated for my next post. When one is in pain the ability to do so many little things is lost. I managed to get bit by a fire ant (or possibly spider) and have an allergic reaction to it. I was in a great deal of pain for 5 days. For me that's saying a lot because I have a high threshold for pain but I am finally on the mend although the site looks quite ugly. I will spare every one of the nasty details.  I got bit because I was sitting in the grass with our newest animal.

We have been hand-raising a baby coyote for about 2 weeks now.  The couple that turned it in found it in their front yard. The strangest part about this was that they live on an extremely busy main road.  They knew it was not just a puppy and could not possibly care for it properly, not to mention he was badly dehydrated and not doing well. We took him in and found that he was less than 3 weeks old. At this age it’s remarkable at how much wolf pups, coyote pups and fox kits all look alike. He was named after a wolf, Bardou, although it was the least likely option because of his size. In only a few days enough of him grew to see the details. To be perfectly honest, we had to send photos to experts because we do not have the experience needed to see such minute details in wild canids (aka canines). What we have is a coyote and why he was in someone’s front yard will forever be a mystery. It was too late for him to be rehabbed and released (unfortunately) because he had been imprinted on people so we decided to hand-raise him ourselves and use him for education.

Nigel and I both have hand-raised quite a few animals but it has been number of years for each of us. Our combined list includes lions, tigers, leopards, lemurs, parrots, monkeys, bears and wolves (among others). It’s an amazing experience. Very rewarding and exhausting at the same time.  People always tend to offer to the help through the bottle feeding days but they don’t realize that that is not the hard part. The tough times are when they get a bit older and more mobile. You not only have to keep up with them but teach them all sorts of new things about being a wild animal living among people.  It’s the little things like not allowing anyone to “play rough”. It’s cute when they’re little but when they grow up to be a full grown lion (for example) it’s not so cute. 

Bardou struggled in his first few days so we didn’t even announce him to the public.  He had to overcome his dehydration only to get constipated by baby formula. It was all a new change to his little body. We got him through it all and he is now eating canned food very well.  He’s exploring more and more now and it’s wonderful to see the world through the eyes of a baby animal. Every noise, every insect, every movement is something new to his world. What a way to learn to appreciate the little things. Although… I got a bit too close to those at least one of those little things. See, now you’ve gotten the first ‘bite’ story and I didn’t even plan on that one.  I don’t do well with fire ants. I would much rather deal with blood and guts before creepy crawly fire ants.  Enough about the bugs though, I got a bit side tracked. I'm sure you will get many updates on the adventures with Bardou. He has already won over the heart of everyone that has seen him.