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It’s been a busy week which involved a visit to London with Aquarius, the tiny badger cub. The Alan Titchmarsh Show wanted me to be at the studios early Monday morning so I decided it was easier to give him his feed at 8 p.m. Sunday night and then to travel up to London and to stay in a hotel overnight so that I was already in London for the 9 a.m visit.

Eyes open now , he's a pretty boy !

I arrived in London just before 11.30 p.m so just in time for his last night feed. I smuggled the incubator into the hotel room and the cub was still snug and warm with his hot water bottle, oblivious of his journey. Just my luck that he had a disturbed night and was calling for feeds every two hours. A badger cub being vocal in the middle of the night does sound horrendously loud and at one point we were both under the duvet trying to soften the noise! 

Anyway we got to the studio on time and Aquarius proceeded to sleep solidly all through the day making up for the disturbed hours! There were rehearsals and we were filmed at 3 p.m. and got away from London before all the traffic started for home. The piece goes out on this Monday 15^th March. Hopefully it will bring people to our web site and make them aware of the badger cull that is about to start in Pembrokeshire, Wales where thousands of badgers will be killed.

There was a demonstration outside the Welsh Assembly the same day as I was in London but I took the decision that hopefully we would reach more people through the television than going to Cardiff. There were still nearly 200 people at the demonstration and if nothing else, it shows the Welsh Assembly that we will continue to fight their decision. We just need more people to write to Elin Jones and protest at the stupidity of this Pilot scheme when science has already proved that it plays no part in the control of Bovine tb in cattle.

A tiny new born goat kid from Brean Down was found having fallen from the cliffs on Sunday March 7^th. It was practically dead with blood pouring from it’s mouth.  Luckily someone found it and it was brought out to us. He stayed overnight at the vets and returned to us on the Monday. He has got stronger every day and is now skipping around. He has a broken leg on the knee joint so there is nothing we can do for the leg but he is doing well and will probably be staying with us. The name is yet to be agreed upon !

Only a couple of days old, he's so much better now.

He has had a short run in the garden and has found the few flowers that are struggling to come though now that the sunshine is to be seen through the day. 

My days never seem long enough with goat kid, otter cub and badger cub to feed although the girls help during the day. The kitchen is more a nursery than anything else and it’s very noisy first thing in the morning when everyone wants their feed at the same time!

Aquarius has opened his eyes and is taking from a baby’s bottle now. At least this little cub will be safe from harm this spring. I can’t help but think of all badgers and cubs  that will not be safe and will be killed in Wales.

Taking from a baby's bottle now

Well, apologies to all re my blogs that have been absent for several weeks. I have to admit that I have been away for four weeks on a holiday to Australia which was certainly a holiday of a lifetime. It was all to do with the fact that I am reaching my 60^th year!

Luckily I had made contact with several people who are involved with wildlife care in Australia and I had a fabulous time visiting carers looking after joeys, wombats, possums and sugar gliders. Wombats are definitely my favourite – they are so like badgers! However it was a long time away from home and I’m glad to be back even if I have had to hit the ground running.

A baby wombat called Spud !

Judith, one of our animal carers, moved into my flat to look after Snowflake, the otter cub that I left in the cubby hole. I received a phone call while I was in Australia to say he was weaned and was it ok for him to go down to the Otter and Owl Centre in Southampton as they had another cub for him to go to. Of course, that was fine as far as I was concerned, but I was sorry not to have seen him before he went.

I was going to be coming home to an empty cubby hole – but I needn’t have worried as a young female otter cub was brought to Secret World the day I returned so I was soon back to bottle feeds!

 

Terra holding her bottle

This otter cub has been named Terra by Laura who is another of our animal carers, and she is helping me with the feeds which is just as well as, just a few days later, our first badger cub arrived. The cub had been pulled out from a badger sett by a terrier but she had been very gentle with it and had taken it straight to her owners. Only a matter of a few days old, the tiny cub was brought into us.

Aquarius - only about a week old

feeding on a small syringe to start with

I really must wear my glasses more often as I mistook the cub for a female and called it Crocus, a nice spring name but the next day, when I toileted the cub I realised the urine was coming from some where different ! She quickly became he and is now called Aquarius.

Lorrie, our newest member of staff, is helping me with the badger cub. All good practise for them to gain experience in rearing the cubs. Aquarius has grown so much in a matter of a few days and is now able to scratch with his back leg, move his ears and his eyes are starting to open. They normally would not open until the cub is 5 weeks old but as the cub is in daylight, the eyes often open sooner when in rehab.

Lorrie with Aquarius

 It’s been a lovely sunny day today and out in the car, it was great to see the catkins in the hedgerow. Oh! that all our countryside could be a safe and viable place for our wildlife to survive in.