Rain, Cold, Blah!

This week has been one of constant rain and muck, filth, and cold. As much as I welcome the cooler weather, I do not care for rain and cold together! I wished all week that the rain would just transform into snow!

Anyhow, I was on a good variety of things this week! Raccoons is so different now that we only have three raccoons. Before there was close to eighty and it was super stressful! Now I can actually focus a lot more on their enrichment, which is my favourite part of looking after them anyway!

I stuffed some straw in a paper bag for my raccoons with peanuts inside and they loved it!

I was also on turtles this week. The weather is getting too cold now to release turtles, so the ones we have right now will be with us all winter. I had always observed the turtle bandages being changed, but had never actually done one on my own till now! (I felt pretty proud!)I just realized this week how much I've learned since I started here! Half the things I do now feel so second nature.

This turtle I bandaged had been got by a hawk.

I was also on birds this week. I like birds, but tubing the swans always freaks me out. I remember how the last intern who blogged had accidentally killed a swam tubing it the wrong way, so now I am always nervous that I will be cursed with the same fate!

I think the raptors might be my favourite section of the birds. They are usually so high up in the wild I never see them up close like I do here! 

 

We got another owl!

Anyways, we had a storm the other day and our neighbours tree came tumbling down. They were very generous and let us use the branches. I just love the fall colours on the maples! They look nice in the bird cages!

 It's Sunday and Sue is finally back! I actually really missed her! Unlike the other interns, this is the longest I've been away from home and its been nice having Sue as a mother figure.

Fall

Goodbye to that horribly humid, stenchy, and hot summer! Hello to the frosty morning air, and the colourful leaves flying all about! 

Can you tell that I love fall?!

It's getting so chilly one of the chickens even needs a winter coat!!!

 This week has been a strange one. Sue is gone for two weeks, so that means us interns get to mind the house, and the farm! My responsibility is the barn, which I am quite happy about! I like the feeling of having a barn to myself for a few weeks!

We have also been managing a little kitten rescue of our own! We have about six kittens right now that need some medical care. Hopefully within a few weeks they will be all better, and find forever homes!

We have also been very successful with our rat pups! All their eyes are open now, and we no longer need to syringe feed them! 

Photo Creds: Meghan

The girls got creative and created them a little fun!

To celebrate our success Lucinda bought us each a chocolate rat!

 Meanwhile our permanent resident for the winter is doing very well! She really enjoys the fresh branches we bring her!

And we still have our beautiful owl! He is doing very well and was moved outside!

Still loving the horses!

Feel the Calm!

 Finally our hours are getting shorter, the clinic less busy, and there has been time to reflect, and have a little fun with each other after hours! For the first time since I've been here I was standing in squirrel room thinking,

"What should I do now?"

I mean of course there is a tonne of cleaning left to do! But normally there is so much that absolutely has to be done, that there is no time to think "What should I do, or what can I do?!" 

(I am kind of liking this change!)

Anyhow, finishing at about nine in the evening has allowed us interns to break out the crap food, and watch some movies! They have introduced me to the Harry Potter series and I got a little weirded out when not long after we received this mysterious creature at our doorstep.

I half expected him to say, "Your a wizard Jacinta!" 

Because we have less patients coming in, I have begun to notice personality in a lot of the patients that we have. My favourite being the porcupine! 

She was found on the side of the road by a police officer, and was brought in. When I first saw her she was barely moving and was pretty scratched up. However, now she is climbing on everything  and wobbling around quite happily! 

 We still have our flying squirrel from the summer. Flying squirrels stay with their parents for about a year, so she will be spending the winter with us! Although she is easily frightened, I sometimes catch her peering out at me curiously from her hat! 

We may have less hours, but we still have night feeds. Someone brought in a litter of nine rats! They are so adorable, and they are actually doing really well! My family is kind of alarmed that we would bother saving rats, but once you have one of these little critters sucking on a syringe from your hands you instantly fall in love!

Days off are much nicer now, because it isn't as stifling hot! I can do more with the horses, now that I don't have to worry about them over heating! 

The horses and I chilling together!(photo cred: Alex)

 

  However, it is still warm enough to bike to town! I used to bike to town on my own before Alex came, but now (if we have the day off together) she comes with me, which is great! There is a lovely little coffee shop in Napanee that we like to stop at. The man there knows us well enough now that when we order something he knows I like whip cream on it, and Alex doesn't! I never imagined I would be a coffee shop regular!

 Us interns have been bonding more as a group. I am gluten free, so the other interns sometimes buy me gluten free sweets, which I find really touching! The other day Rose suprised me with a batch of gluten free cookies she had bought me! I was so happy and gave her a hug, forgetting all about the heat packs I had warming up in the microwave.....

They almost exploded!

But the cookies were great!

Anyways, I am home for the thanksgiving weekend! I was actually really upset to leave Sandy Pines, even for the weekend. It has kind of become home for me! The other interns and I are kind of like sisters now. We may have our differences at times, but we have decided to "agree to disagree." If only everyone in the world would do that. 

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

           

Bye, bye Raccoons

I was very lucky this week, and got to go on a raccoon release!!! I wasn't sure that I would be able to, because there was only two pens of raccoons left, and my day off was already pretty full of activities. I had a lot of work that needed to be done with the horses, and the vet was coming, so I had to be ready for that as well. Thankfully though, by the time Leah was ready to release the last pen of raccoons I was free, and when she asked me if I wanted to go...

I almost jumped out of my skin with excitement!!!

I love going on releases! Its so rewarding after working so hard to keep them alive to finally see them run off to freedom! My favourite release was when I released some killdeer with Sue! I opened the box and they all came flying out! I kind of felt like a Disney princess! 

Anyhow, Leah takes great care in finding the perfect spot to release raccoons. The drive took us almost half way to my actual home! It was the perfect spot though, and it was quit the adventure getting there! We kept going down random roads and at one point Leah asked, "Are we close to the lake anymore?"

"No, but I think we are pretty close to trespassing," I exclaimed as the road ended up leading into someones driveway.

We released the raccoons near a little stream and swamp. They were so happy to jump around in the water, and climb the trees. It made me realize why we provided them with moss and logs to play with while we had them in cages. Now they have endless amounts of enrichment! It was kind of sad to see them go, even though their enclosures were a pain to clean. Still, especially for those who work here full time, there will always be more raccoons to love next year!