Not Goodbye...See You Later

And so all good things must come to an end. This is officially my last post on this particular blog, however, there may be another one in my future someday.

The last few weeks have been pretty uneventful. The staff is even surprised at how un-busy the center's been; apparently it's pretty abnormal for this time of year. Word on the street is that in the next few weeks the pace is going to pick up again as the baby squirrels start arriving. I'm sad that I'll be missing this phase - I just missed it when I arrived back in June and I'll be missing the second wave as well, which is sad because they are quite adorable....

I have gotten to work with some other really cool animals recently though...We've had an egret, a green heron, (another) bat, a lesser night hawk (similar to a Poorwill), and one unexpected guest, a rattlesnake that took up residence in our intake area. One of the interns heard it rattling at her one morning and apparently the ensuing extraction process was quite a sight. Poor Jo, the hospital manager, had to deal with the snake on her birthday of all days, but something like that probably keeps you feeling young. (Update: so we got the snake out but then it came back and so now we've removed all the furniture from the intake area and cleared the space where the snake is supposedly hiding. As far as I know it's still there...)

Possum face

The baby skunk that I was bottle-feeding finally moved out to the outdoor enclosure with the big skunks! She remains to this day extremely friendly so I worry about her chances for release (I imagine she'll have to stay at the center for a while, gradually learning how to be a wild skunk again. It should help that she's now surrounded by real skunks rather than people all the time. When she was in RVU with one other skunk, she would stick her nose through the bars of her cage and sniff whenever we entered the room, occasionally sticking her paw out too to try and push the door open. (so cute). When I went down to clean the big outdoor enclosure the other day, I was sad that I wouldn't be able to recognize her among the others. But as I was squatting on the ground picking up some poop, I suddenly felt a nose push against my leg and I looked down to see a face peering up at me. She curiously sniffed at the bag I was holding and then attempted to climb into my lap. So much for not recognizing her :) Sadly I don't have pictures of this encounter, but it was quite special and i thought of it as a great goodbye from her.

I got to do a hawk release, which was quite a special experience. Unlike other birds where you can just open the box and let them fly away, you have to give hawks a lift, either letting them take off from your hand or gently throwing them up in the air, forcing them to take off. Hopefully I'll be getting some pictures/maybe even a video of this soon to post! It was definitely a special moment when the hawk took to the air and soared away, free once again.

I had a strange moment a few weeks ago when I was instructed to show one of the new interns how cleaning of RVU worked (aka, cleaning out the little skunks). There were only two skunks in a single cage, so it wasn't too much of a lesson, however, I realized how cyclical the whole event was: almost three months ago exactly I was in the role of the "new" intern, being instructed by the older intern on how to clean out the skunks in RVU. As the famous line goes in Starwars, "at last the circle is now complete when we last met I was but the learner now I am the master..." ha ha nerd moment :P

Today was my last day at the center :( It started out pretty normal - I did diets for most of the morning as there wasn't much to do in ICU and we had no volunteers to help out. Around midday however, Jo asked if I would take some of the Western Scrub Jays out to Simi Valley. I thought it was a fitting end to my time at CWC since these jays were some of the birds I helped to feed and raise when they were in babycare, so setting them free would be a poignant last event.

Like a cautious parent, I made sure the jays wore their seat belts

such a beautiful new home! 

Not sure if they enjoyed the ride....

Unlike mammal releases, releasing birds is a lot less stressful. The birds can immediately adjust their locations if they don't like it, and you don't have to worry about them getting hit by cars. (Although my roommate told me a story that involved her releasing some doves and just as she let them out of the box, a huge (wild) hawk swooped down and attempted to catch them. Luckily it missed). I found a nice park ahead of time, in the middle of a quiet neighborhood in Simi Valley that was nice and deserted when I arrived. One of the birds shot out of the box immediately, while the other one needed some gentle nudging. This release was a bit more poignant than the others, since I knew the animals "personally" and as it was my last time doing one. But I know I will hold on to that incredible feeling of releasing those animals back where they belong, and watching them go free again.

Tomorrow I fly home, to start my life as an unemployed, graduate, and my time at the CWC officially ends. I cannot express how incredible this summer has been - I have learned so much and experienced so many new things, as well as met some pretty amazing people along the way. I don't know when I'll be back, but I know CWC and CA are not out of my life forever. Until next time..

Peace, Love and Wild


Below are some pictures that were taken with my "nice" camera :)

Camels take CA

New branch of Emerson College in LA! It's a college built in a box! 

So Much to Do, So Little Time...

 I'll try to incorporate more pictures into this post, since a) it explains things a lot better than my descriptions do and b) i know that's what people are really interested in :) 

I think I say this in every post, but how is it that there are only two weeks left in August?! I leave for Boston in only 2 weeks and at that point will have been here for almost 3 months total, and yet it simultaneously feels like just yesterday I was arriving and also like 3 years ago. Just when I think life at the center will start to get boring, nature throws new curve balls at us. I now feel that I more or less am entirely competent in the hospital, and only have to ask minimal questions throughout the day (as opposed to 15 every two minutes :P). One major concern that the other interns and I all share is the lack of consistency between the staff. Each has their own methods of performing different tasks and how they organize the ICU during their day on call/in charge, however, they don't seem to be that familiar with each other's methodologies. So if one staff member sees me drawing up fluids in a "strange/unusual" way, I worry that they question my competency rather than recognize that i was just taught to do that task a different way. That means that no matter how confident I feel, there is always the possibility that I will make a mistake or do something the wrong way. I guess the positive way to see this is that it means I never stop learning new things and in the end, learning a bunch of different methods to perform the same task means that I only will be enhancing my skills.

Adding to my sense of confidence, two new externs and a new intern arrived the other day. It was exciting, but also sad since the two externs and other intern from my session left, so there're only a handful of us left. It was more poignant for me since it reminds me that it will soon be time for me to leave, and while I am eager to get home and see everyone I love, it will be a major culture shock to leave the center. But the new blood is a nice change and a stark reminder to how I was my first day. You can see from their faces just how overwhelming the place can be to an outsider, and it feels weird to be placed in a position of authority/knowledge.

Okay, now for the stories:

The baby skunk that we were bottlefeeding in the ICU has now grown to the point where she's eating solid food and could be moved in with another young skunk. She still enjoys seeing people though and will walk to the front of her cage to greet us when we go to clean RVU (bad sign since it probably means she's a bit imprinted, but cute all the same). There is another group of young skunks living in RVU as well (we also had to bottlefeed them for a while too), and they are the exact opposite of cute. They are so anxious about anything that comes near them, that they spray first, ask questions later. I have been sprayed numerous times thus far, multiple times in the face, and i'm torn between being proud that they are learning to defend themselves and hopeful that they will mellow out a bit. The larger skunks that we have in an outdoor enclosure are definitely on the friendlier side: they walk up to you when you go to deliver their food at night, sniffing at your legs and feet and not the least bit scared of you. I hope they don't do that once they're released - that'll be a nice shock for the people in the neighborhood :)

I've found that this job definitely makes me more jaded towards human beings. It's so heartbreaking the number of cases we have come in that are due to human negligence and stupidity. Sometimes we deal with people who may have had the best intentions at heart, and attempt to raise or heal an injured animal on their own, but end up seriously underestimating their own abilities and what was best for the animal. More often than not, these hand-raised animals come to us malnourished/underfed, imprinted and physically messed up. Sadly these animals are usually put down, and if they had just been brought to the center in the first place, they may have had a chance of surviving. We also run into situations where people "kidnap" animals (as we call it), where they find a baby bird or mammal that appears to be without parents. Rather than wait to see if the parents return or call and expert to figure out if maybe the animal is supposed to be on its own (sometimes fledgling birds will fall out of their nests and can't get back up, but their parents will hang around to feed and care for it where it falls), they just try to be a hero and bring the babies to us. We try to explain that as skilled as we are at raising baby animals, we can't compare to the baby's actual parents, and that it stands a much better chance of surviving back in nature where it belongs. (oftentimes people don't listen and insist that we take the bird and that they are sure that something's wrong with it. 9/10 times they're wrong :P)

Then we have cases of direct human-caused damage. We get countless birds and small mammals that have been hit by cars or fly into windows, but there are also a few specific cases. A beautiful adult female red-tailed hawk was brought into the center with a bad wing injury that was bleeding profusely. It turned out to be a broken ulna/radius for those who know specifics. Slowly the information started to come in: apparently the hawk swooped down and killed a gull in front of these two men and a third-party witness saw one of the men take a huge slab of concrete and throw it at the bird. At this point the man's exact reasoning is unclear, nor will it ever make sense in my opinion. But we eventually had to put the hawk down because its wing bone was completely shattered, which was really terrible. However, I learned that the California Fish and Wildlife Dept is pressing charges against the man and building a case against him - they came and collected the hawk's body and x-rays from us to add to their evidence. Hopefully they can prosecute successfully!

Besides this hawk, we recently had a canada goose with 4 fish hooks stuck in him (one long fishing line that had 4 hooks spaced out along it), a cormorant also with several hooks in him, a young hummingbird that someone attempted to keep, and feed raw hamburger meat, a young possum that someone found and attempted to keep but ultimately had to bring in when his back legs stopped working (we think they didn't feed him the right food and cause him to develop metabolic bone disease). We also got one of our most unusual cases: a lizard that had been completely painted over by a carpenter. We had to slowly peel the paint off of his eyes and face so he could eat and see. AHH (the) humanity!

But sometimes the animals injure themselves. In BCU there were four young scrub jays living in a single cage together and one day we noticed that the smallest, scruffiest looking one had a red wound on the back of his neck. We took him next door to the hospital, they disinfected and bandaged the wound and sent him back. Oddly enough, a few days later he had yet another wound on a different part of his neck, this one more severe. The vet thought that the other jays might be picking on him, so we moved the largest, most aggressive of the four to another flock, and the young jay got actual sutures (that i got to assist with!) and a handsome new bandage.

Doesn't he look smart? The bow tie also served the purpose of letting us know if the bandage twisted or moved

All the lady Jays will be smitten

There was also a little possum that was getting chewed on by his cage-mate ("cage-mate"trauma is the official diagnosis). I got to help with that guys surgery as well :)

The happy patient :) (pre surgery)

I'll end the post with some happy pictures of animals at the center:

Feeding a baby bat his favorite dish: worm guts. mmmmmm.... 

doves (aka "duurrrvs" as we call them) 

Baby House Finches

Baby mocking birds

Mourning Dove 

 cool frog I found outside when cleaning an enclosure 

Western Screech Owl

Me peeling the paint off the lizard 

"Buddha-gull." He was very calm and poised throughout his stay at the center. Possibly could have something to do with the fact that he mysteriously couldn't use his legs..... 

Release!

On Monday night I got to go on my first release! (sorry, no photos this time) Another intern, Christina, and I, drove out to Hollywood Hills with two skunks to release them back from where they were found. Luckily I didn’t have to help with the “capture” part of the release. Christina and Jo went down to the enclosure where basically all our bigger skunks are (commonly referred to as “Skunk Works”), and they had to proceed to corner and grab the four largest skunks they saw. I’ve heard that when the skunks realize what is happening, and that the humans in their midst are not there to deliver food, they immediately run and hide. Sometimes they get so stressed that some will jump on the giant hamster wheels in their enclosure and start running, trying to get away. Jo and Christina had to throw blankets over the selected skunks and then grab them up and put them in boxes, all while avoiding getting bitten or sprayed. Apparently the process went relatively smoothly, and we ended up with four skunks, boxed and ready to go. (Christina and I only took two of the four, the other two went with a volunteer). Jo located a potential address in the Hollywood Hills area for a good release point, and Christina and I set off after work (skunks are most active at dusk and evening, so having a release at this time of day would be the least stressful for them). We try our best to release the animals back in the areas we find them, since A) they'll be comfortable and familiar with the area and B) we avoid accidentally releasing one animal into another’s territory.

It took Christina and I over an hour to eventually release the skunks, since the first locations we tried seemed very unfriendly to skunks. The houses were too close together and didn’t contain enough yard/woody spaces for the skunks to seek cover. We had to choose a location that was close to a residential area, since skunks have become reliant on people and survive mostly on garbage (sad, but a guess a negative result of our encroachment on natural spaces). However, we wanted to be sure there was enough natural cover for the skunks to hide in, just in case their human neighbors didn’t approve of them and tried to trap them, or to prevent them from having to cross too many streets and risk getting hit by cars. I felt bad for the skunks, since we were driving all over the Hills, back and forth and up and down, and I worry that we may have made them a bit carsick. At the beginning of the car trip we could hear them moving around their boxes, sniffing curiously and trying to determine their location and what was happening. Suddenly we didn’t hear any noises anymore and for a few minutes we worried they had died of shock or something, since there was absolutely no reaction from them. But later when we checked on them, we found them alive and well, albeit a bit weirded out and pissed off :P

We eventually found what we believed to be an ideal skunk habitat – what appeared to be an abandoned water treatment facility that had an old reservoir behind it, that had become over grown with marshy vegetation (we hoped the skunks would be able to revert back to being natural, wild skunks and find a lot of great food sources from the marsh) – that had a high fence around it, and was next door to a bunch of houses. We found a gap in the fence that was at the top of an old water chute that was now filled with leaves. When we opened the boxes and the skunks ran out of the boxes, they actually comically slid down the chute for a while, before they finally caught themselves.

I had been looking forward to finally experiencing a release, and I have to say that it was almost exactly I had been expecting. It was slightly emotional, a bit nostalgic and sad, but also exciting and happy. It was incredible to be able to know these skunks were back where they belonged and that we had in essence, saved their lives. But it was also sad since we had cared for these skunks for so long and it was likely we’d never encounter them again (but again, I suppose that’s the ideal goal). I haven’t been at the center long enough to be experience the release of an animal that I consciously remember helping to raise/care for, so I can only imagine that it feels even more nostalgic in that situation. But that was why I wanted to go into this field – to walk away knowing that I made a significant difference in an animals life (even if they don’t acknowledge it, ha ha) – and to get to experience that feeling of satisfaction that they’re back where they belong.

The release was also slightly stressful, which I hadn’t anticipated – finding the right environment that met all our criteria, without being too potentially dangerous. Obviously we wouldn’t be able to control where the skunks ended up wandering, but we felt it was our job to try and place them in an area that was as devoid of danger as possible (i.e major road ways, too much human traffic, etc). It made me laugh to imagine what the people living in the area would think, that we were putting skunks into their backyards, but hopefully they’re animal-loving people and won’t mind too much.

Yesterday I got to assist in a veterinary procedure! One of the young Western-Scrub Jays (google image below. Personally I think they’re one of the prettiest birds, and strongly reminds me of the MockingJay from Hunger Games….)

had received a mysterious neck wound. It was the second neck injury in two weeks and we still can’t determine exactly what is happening to him. I am under the impression that the other jays living with him are picking on him, since he is the smallest Jay in the group and already looks a little bedraggled. The first neck wound was most superficial, so we were able to just put antibiotic cream on it and let him go. This time he actually required sutures. Dr. Tom, the resident vet at CWC, asked me to assist him with the procedure, which was relatively simple, but still fascinating to observe. We put the bird to sleep and then inserted a tube that would help him breath – my job was to press on the bag every 6 seconds that would help breathe for him by filling his lungs).  It was a bit hard to focus on doing that job, since I was so intrigued by watching Dr. Tom suture up the wound. Originally I believed the whole operation was a complete success, since there were no complications and the bird appeared to be fine after waking up. However, I learned later that the sutures had come out and would have to be redone, and today I found out that the second surgery went well and he's hopefully on the road to recovery. Personally I think we need to find the bird some new friends….

That's all for now!
Peace, love and wildlife running free

Baby Skunks!

Sorry, I realized only today that it's been a while since I posted an update. The days really do fly by fast here. Let me correct that - the days themselves go kinda slow (especially at times), but the weeks are passing like quicksand. The day to day life has slowed at the center, as we're getting far less intakes then at the beginning of the summer. From what I've been hearing, the animals come in waves. At the start of the summer months there were tons of baby mammals, mostly squirrels. Now we're getting towards the end of the baby bird season and apparently we'll soon start getting more mammals again before the fall sets in.

Totally starting to feel more competent at the center! YAY! I feel that I no longer have to ask Jo or any of the staff a hundred times to repeat their request or walk me through everything step by step. My biggest fear is doing an intake exam by myself (which I've been doing some of, but mostly with supervision from one of the staff) since I'm scared I'm going to overlook something really important. Oftentimes the smallest, most innocent-looking cuts or scrapes can indicate whether an animal is actually in terrible shape and needs intense medical treatment, or even to be put to sleep. I'm picking up more of the medical lingo every day, although my knowledge of anatomy is still very basic. (For all of you who are impressed by how much animal stuff I know, you would be blown away by the people here).

Personal news: finally have a car! When my parents were out visiting a few weeks ago we picked up a rental car for me from Rent-A-Wreck. True to the name of the company, the car isn't exactly a beauty, (it's a 2003ish, dark green Toyota Echo), but it serves to get me from point A to point B in one piece and prevents me from potentially being run over by walking home in the dark. I feel a lot more independent having my own transportation, and it's nice to know that if i ever needed to just get away and go for a drive or something, I now have the means to do it.

I also went surfing in CA for the first time! I've only been once before, in Costa Rica, and I took a lesson managed to stand up by the end, which was satisfying. This time I didn't have someone teaching me - I went with my roommate and one of the new externs. None of us had much experience, so we were a bit out of our element, but we had fun nevertheless. Unfortunately the waves weren't the best. There were some big ones but there were tons of surfers at that specific beach that day, so there was never enough room for everyone. The best surfers would jump on the waves and edge everyone else out. I didn't observe it personally, but I've heard that sometimes they will physically push people out of a wave :P I did catch one good wave, although I didn't manage to quite stand up. I'm hoping to go at least one more time before I leave (I have to rent a surf board/wetsuit and I'm kinda cheap so sadly it can't become a full-time hobby).

Anywho, I'll just run through some of the big animal related news, since I know that's what people really care about ;)

- we got two adorable baby possums in the other day. I'd never seen a baby possum before and it's incredible how cute they are. Every time we would take them out to try and feed them they would attempt to scare us by hissing, which was just too adorable to be scary :P sorry little guys, maybe one day when you're bigger.

- On Friday when I walked down to the skunk enclosure to give the skunks their PM diets, I opened up the gate and saw skunks everywhere. Someone had forgotten to lock one of the inner doors to the enclosures themselves (luckily there's a second outer locked door so they couldn't actually escape into the outdoors), and they had all wandered out. Thankfully they were all very hungry so I placed their food inside the fences and they all walked back in. Phew. I thought the trouble was over, but later when I went down to feed other animals I happened to chance upon a lone young skunk wandering around outside the other enclosures. I had a radio with me so I called up to the center and told them that we had a "skunk problem." Immediate Dr. Tom, the in-residence vet, came running down the hill, armed with googles and heavy gloves. There was no way to know if this was actually one of our skunks or a wild one that had wandered in, so we needed to be careful when handling it. Dr. Tom explained that if it was a newcomer, the skunks in the enclosures would immediately know and would attack the intruder. It turned out that it was indeed an escaped skunk. Although we were watching the escapee return to his friends and we happened to notice another skunk walking along the outside of the fence line. Oh boy, here we go again. (Dr. Tom totally got sprayed during the recapture btw). 

- We also have two new deer - one is a tiny baby that we kept by himself for a few days and had to hand feed. Deer are extremely susceptible to imprinting so every time we entered the stall with him we would have to wear the "deer suit," which consists of a heavy piece of fabric that you wear a bit like a poncho that covers your whole body. Then on top of that we wear a hood that looks like a weird version of a fencing helmet. Basically a pillow case with a mesh front over your face. It's extremely hot and annoying to wear. One less desirable task that goes with bottle-feeding babies is that you often have to "stimulate" them after they eat, which means make them urinate/defecate, since they can't do it themselves. In the wild I believe the mothers will perform this task until the babies are old enough.  

Baby Poorwill (related to whippoorwills)

Great camouflage: they totally look like leaves! 

Collage of a few of the baby birds we have (clockwise: poorwill, quail, swift)

We also have baby skunks! There was a group of 5 babies that had been found alone (their mother had most likely been killed). We had to bottle feed for a few days until they learned to eat on their own. Below is a video of one of the babies reacting to a "scary" monster that just entered his territory: 

Recently those babies got big enough to get moved to RVU with the other young skunks, however, we have the newest resident baby - a youngster that is only a few weeks old! She was found by herself as well, although it is possible that she was left behind by her family as she is extremely tiny and was most likely the runt of the litter. However, we find her absolutely delightful and there's a tiny, guilty, part of me that hopes she imprints so that she'll have to stay with us forever. (I go a little photo crazy whenever she's around, so i have a sizable album of pictures of her. I call her Delilah, not sure why; she just looks like a DelilahPhone pics come out kinda crappy, so one day I plan on bringing my real camera to the center to get some pics. ). 

She loves to grasp the bottle in her paws! So cute! 

her adorable baby tail! 

Kara and I went to a party at one of the volunteers's houses and met his African Grey Parrot, "Arthur." 

Found this upstairs in the kitchen of the center. Thought it was fitting :) 

The center's going to become much quieter soon, the interns from session 2 are going to be leaving in the next couple of weeks (one this week, one next week and my roommate the week after that). It's going to be sad and very strange without them and I imagine that the work load is going to coincidentally increase significantly. There are only 4 interns total for session 3 (my official session), so it'll be a much smaller group. Once my roommate leaves, I'll be living alone at the guest house, so if anyone's visiting Los Angeles in August, call me up, I'll have an extra bed! 

Till next time, peace, love and skunks.