Thursday 18th June
Managed to get to bed last night at 11 p.m. which was early for me and woke just after midnight to hear the alarm going which meant there was someone outside with a casualty. It was a couple who had found a small badger cub on the side of the road. It face was very swollen and blood was coming from his mouth and nose. I cleaned him up as best I could and gave him some pain relief until the morning. I assumed he had caught a glancing blow from a vehicle full face.
As Derek was away on a cricket tour, I dragged the large incubator upstairs and put it in the bedroom so that I caught keep an eye on him during the night. He soon settled in the warm and went to sleep. And very soon, so was I! I checked him at 3 and again at 5, syringing him with lectades.
It was going to be a busy day filming with True North and Michaela Strachan. They are a good crew and build their day around us. They filmed Debbie feeding some baby hedgehogs and then spent time with Lisa as she inspected the poor badger cub. The bottom jaw was fractured and so was his front paw. Lisa checked with Liz, our vet, who thought that it may be possible to wire the jaw so an appointment was made for the afternoon for x-rays.
We filmed cleaning the wound on the red calf, now called Chaela and then moved little Freckles down to keep her company. The pen has now got more light as I have removed one of the boards over the window and they seem happy together although it does look like this relationship is perhaps going to take time to blossom!
The injured badger cub went into the vets put the injuries turned out to be more severe than first thought so sadly he was put to sleep. Everybody was very upset.
Lisa was hoping to move Polly and Little Miss Muffet out into a pen but with so many animals and call outs, we did not get that far. Three badger cubs came down from another wildlife centre as well as a roe fawn so I was back to three in the kitchen. I snatched a few minutes through the day at the computer to check drafts of the newsletter as it must go to print tomorrow
We finished filming just before 7 p.m. so I was able to go on to the trustees meeting which finished just after 8 p.m. so I was mentally thinking what I needed to do before I fell in to bed. Simon was on emergency call and had been busy most of the evening. He was just going out to an injured swan. I fed the red calves and then came back to find somewhere to put the swan that Simon was bringing back. I’m afraid he ended up in Taka’s summer home in the courtyard quite happy on two duvets and fresh food.
Simon then had a dilemma of one injured badger in Yeovil and another one in Taunton. Luckily the Somerset Badger Group often help us and their area representative collected the Yeovil one and I met him half way to bring it back to the Centre. Simon went for the one in Taunton. His badger sadly died before he got there but I got home with mine and had to find a pen to put him in. Luckily we had moved some cubs out to a grassed enclosure that same day so the pen was almost cleaned, so I just had to finish it off and install the badger with his supper.
Got indoors after 11. Had to clean and feed Tikka, my cockatoo – he’d been waiting all day! Then sorted Polly and Little Miss Muffet with their evening meal in the office so that all that was left was the three fawns in the kitchen. The new fawn took his bottle and drank 250 malls which was great as sometimes moving them does upset them. Sat down just after 1 a.m. and ate ham sandwich and yoghurt, I was starving as had missed all meals except a roll and crisps at lunchtime and other chocolate items ( including a peanut Kit Kat – they’re nearly gone !!) Not the best diet in the world. At last everything cleaned and fed. They may not be in the right pens, but everyone is fed, safe and warm and should sleep well. I did !!
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