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Less than 2 weeks to go to Christmas and we are receiving some lovely Christmas cards from many of our supporters. With a very wet Christmas Fayre at the end of November, the decorations are already up and we are getting into the Christmas Spirit.

Some of our long term casualties have been released which is always brilliant. A buzzard rescued by one of our response drivers came in on November 16^th. The buzzard was suffering from concussion and had gone blind but we were hoping that the sight would come back. After several days we were worrying that he was still unable to see and Lisa, our vet nurse, noticed that the pupils of his eyes were dilating with the change of light. We all crossed our fingers – and within 2 days his sight was back. He had a couple of weeks in an aviary to build up muscle and finally went for release about a week ago.

We also had a badger in for several weeks, again suffering from concussion. He had arrived during the night, was put on a drip and for many days seemed completely out of it. After a few days of not eating, he was tube fed with honey, complain and egg which he took very well and he was soon on the road to recovery. Again, he was released last week so hopefully will be with his family for Christmas.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lisa, our vet nurse, is buzzing around with so much going on in the last few days that she will be with us. She is off to Australia for at least a year and we are all going to miss her. I’m sure she will have great time down under but we hope she won’t forget us – qualified veterinary nurses with so much wildlife knowledge are hard to find.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The otter cubs are doing well. Tiny Toni is also learning to swim but she gets to bath on her own as Puddle is too full of energy. She’s swimming a bit like I do with her head held high above the water (!) but each day she becomes more confident. Puddle is full of it and the water often slops over the side of the bath where she moves so fast now chasing toys and retrieving shells. Bath time ends when she pulls the plug out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I don’t think Tiny Toni much enjoyed having a wet bed mate after Puddle’s baths but now they both go in and so they squirm together in the towel to get dry. This is usually followed by playtime until it’s time for a sleep.

 

Tonight is the first time the lights will be on in the otter enclosure so hopefully you should be able to see Hope and Ozzy playing in their pond on Web cam 4.

 

Well the Christmas fayre is over but it was certainly very wet and cold !!! Amazingly people still came and visited and we were so lucky that the rain held off for the Carol Service on Friday evening considering it had poured nearly all day !

It was good to catch up with some of the regulars as well as my kind supporter who sent me a box of peanut Kit Kat a few weeks ago. As supporters, you don’t realise how much your help means to us both in money and kind thoughts. It’s often enough to turn a bad day into a cheerful one and can make us remember how lucky we are to care for the wildlife.

Graeme, one of our response driver, had a long winded rescue on Friday when he was called out to a Harris Hawk that had obviously taken flight when out with its owner. The jessies on his feet had become trapped in the branches and luckily someone had realised his predicament and contacted us. In the first instance Graeme had to check that the bird was trapped. Then the fire brigade was called out, who then had to call out an engine with a pod so that Graeme could go up in the branches and rescue the bird.

5 Hours later the bird was safe in a warm pen but we really do realise how lucky we are that so many people are prepared to help. Saturday brought in a Bearded Dragon that had been found in a garden and then Saturday night we were called out to a young seal on Minehead beach. So it was a weekend for unusual call outs.

The seal was barely alive by the time Terry, another response driver, arrived to collect it. He took it straight through to the vets. Liz was on duty and on examination it was obvious that he had ingested something toxic that had caused a badly infected mouth and lesions to the tongue. Not knowing how much damage had been caused he was given antibiotics and stomach tubed with lectades. When he finally reached the centre he did appear to be a little stronger. I gavaged him with Laura around 10 p.m. and then Simon and I gave him another lot around 2 a.m. Unfortunately by the morning he had died – we had been unable to save him.

A sunny day yesterday was the day for our buzzard that came in so poorly on November 16^th, to finally be released having fully recovered. Today the owner of the Harris Hawk rang and came to collect him so it made up for our miserable wet weekend.

I’m having to pay for not being in my office for the past few days. My Cockatoo, Tikka is voicing his disgust at me not sharing time with him in the office for the past few days. It’s very hard to speak to people on the phone with a parrot screaming at the top of his voice. He’s a bit quieter this evening so perhaps I have been forgiven!

A really hectic day for the staff with few volunteers to help. We desperately need volunteers to help with the animals at weekends and evening shifts. Thank goodness that we have some students that have finished their courses for the summer and can help. Laurie is one of them and is a great help feeding the baby birds in the hospital room. We still have lots of baby garden birds, herring gulls (!), pigeons and collard doves needing feeds on the hour every hour.

I went over to the Forest of Dean to visit Jane, who is a trustee, to help her move some furniture. She runs a rabbit rescue called Carrot Tops. With over 60 rabbits needing care, her house and garden is full and yet they are all kept so clean and each one given love and affection. So if you ever want a pet rabbit – Carrot Tops is the place to go with all rabbits being neutered and vaccinated.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Natalie was doing the late shift tonight. This is her report:-

 “I only had one call on Saturday but this will make you laugh, we took the kids out to Pizza Hut and got a call for a buzzard that had been picked up by a woman on her way out for a meal in Yeovil, so she was in Frankie & Benny’s in Yeovil with a buzzard in her car and I was in Pizza Hut with the children! I got a response driver to get it from her and bring it to me, luckily we were just finishing up so I went out to the car park to get it. The response driver wanted his box back and we had left our box at home, so I asked the waitress ‘Do you have a box please’ She said ‘yes, for pizza’ ‘No’ I said ‘It’s for a Buzzard’ The look on her face was classic! Then I had to explain and she was more than helpful, poor buzzard travelled back in a pizza hut mozzarella cheese box!!

The kids don’t think anything strange of driving home for a meal with a buzzard in the car and stopping off at Secret World on the way back! To them it is becoming normal behaviour! Emily (rob’s daughter) did say ‘at least we aren’t stopping to inspect dead badgers this time!

You have to be a special kind of person to sort that lot out !!!

I can remember when Derek and I were travelling down to Kent with a baby badger in the car. We stopped at a service station by a Road Chef and it looked busy so Derek went in to see if there was a table available while I fed the cub ( milk all kept warm in a thermos ). He must have said I was feeding a baby to the waitress because he came back and told me there was a table we could have and when we went in the table was reserved with a high chair in place !

Unfortunately I was left in charge of Rocky, my son’s Great Dane. He came over when I went to put the otter’s food over in the enclosure in the evening. Rocky managed to find some nice smelly droppings to roll in. 8 stone of dog covered in sh** it no laughing matter and very smelly.

 

We did not leave Lyme until 4 but must admit I was jazzed out by then !

I was straight down to the fawns to see how they were. Lisa had let them out into their paddock on Saturday so they were all out in the grass and looking great. They had all freaked when she went in to fill up their bowls while I was away so there was no point in trying to syringe feed Rob and Derek. As I went into the paddock Derek and Rob came up to me for a fuss but neither wanted a syringe feed so hopefully everyone is lapping now.

 I got a lovely picture of Stuart laying up in the grass and they were all excited to get fresh browse. I noticed the buzzard in the long pen by the fawns. He is flying well. Found a couple of days ago on the side of the road, he must have been clipped by a vehicle. He will soon be ready to go home.

 I have just seen the fawns all curled up in their shed and the red’s back in their inside pen for the night. It’s good to be back.

Tuesday June 23^rd

Late last night I was feeding the fawns in the kitchen and the alarm bell went again. It was nearly mid-night so out I went only to find the same lady back with another water vole. She’d only just got home when the cat walked across the drive with another one in its mouth so she turned around and came back out again! I put it with the other and hoped there would not be a third!

Clinton Rogers was here this morning to film some of the animals having picked up my press release on the cruelty that we have come across in the past few weeks. Hopefully a piece on tv may get the message across.

Graeme and Vicky were busy yesterday with releases. The first was a swan that was beaten up by another swan in Bridgwater Bay. Simon and Graeme went out in our boat to catch it. The swan was trapped by some railings. Luckily it only had superficial wounds and hurt pride! It had been in with us for a few days and was ready for release.

We would normally take the swan to a different location if there had been a confrontation but Graeme had seen a single swan nearby when the family of swans were attacking so went to have a look before collecting the swan from our Centre. Sure enough a single swan was there with no sign of the aggressive male and his family.

So the swan was taken that afternoon back to Bridgwater Bay. Continue reading Pauline’s Blog!