Photo Catch-Up

Koko took a nap in my lap. She loves getting pet!

Jennifer was complaining. She wanted more sweet feed.

Spencer saying hello after I've been in other cages.

Spencer got to fish for mice and crawfish!

Setting up for Christmas with the Critters :)

Jagger scratching an itch.

The box turtles got a meal worm treat! It was so cute watching them fish.

Roc is enjoying his walnut treat.

A lovely meal I made for the lenurs and an enrichment stick covered in honey and dried pineapple.

Zema is enjoying his lunch prepared by Jason and I. Complete with meat-cicle!

Nigel ate the apple flesh but left the skin! Spoiled boy.

Nigel eating a walnut from my hand. :)

Cait prepares feasts for the lemurs.

A beautiful crow in the back row.

Injured blue heron in the back row.

Saying hello after chowing down on dried pineapples.

I hope everyone is having a great holiday season. I'm sorry again for not being able to post these pictures before. We should return to our regular programming after the holidays.

Happy New Year!!!

The Wild Dimes has Fainted!!!

Reason for Hiatus

I'm sorry that I haven't been making my regular weekly posts about my adventures. I have still been going to BTN, it's just that I have lost my microSD adapter and therefore I cannot move pictures from my phone to my computer. I have just ordered a new one that should get here next week, so expect a real update soon!

I don't remember everything that happened between now and my last post, so I won't put up full stories. What I'll try to do is a big photo gallery with short descriptions of what was happening in the photos.

I am sad to tell you that Winnie, BTN's beautiful Bald Eagle died the morning of November 26th, 2011. I'm sorry to say I didn't get to take many pictures of her before then. Rest in peace Winnie.





See you all again soon.

Play Day

Today was a fun day! And it's going to keep being fun because you know what else happens today? Some of us from the Knights for Marine and Wildlife Conservation club at UCF are heading to our president Melyssa's parents' place to have a fun night before our beach clean-up tomorrow at Clearwater Beach! We're also going to see Winter again at the Clearwater Marine Aquarium. I'll take lots of pictures and even post them tomorrow when I get home! :)

There were a lot of people working today. I had to park outside of the back gate! But it's always nice having lots of help. It lets us focus more on the animals rather than rushing to get everything done before the end of the day. I had the lucky task of tending to Spencer (Arctic Fox) and Harriet (Opossum) today. They had the same diet: 1/4 dry cat/dog food, 2 veggies, 1 fruit, 1 chicken neck and a golf-ball sized piece of red meat. Only Spencer also gets wet dog food and I threw 2 of his favorite chicks in there. He gets upset if we don't bring him his chicks. He's so spoiled.

Spencer's bowl

Izzy was here today, since Debbie always brings her around when she's working. Izzy has gotten SO BIG. So. Big. When I met her at the beginning of the summer she fit into the palm of my hand! And now she's so big and chubby. She's everyone's baby, but Michy spoils her the most. She gives Izzy lots of fruit and baby food. Now poor Izzy is a chunky monkey! We'll just have to take her out for lots of walks to burn off that excess baby fat. 

John's first time with Izzy

Since I was assigned 2 resident animals, I had 2 enrichment activities to do. Thankfully it was very easy to prepare and were very similar. For Spencer I took some feathers out of the fridge (we collect fallen feathers from our resident raptors - except Winnie - to use for this) and tied long pieces of twine to a few of them and left some free. I hid the free feathers around Spencer's cage and tied the twine ones to the top of his cage so he'd have something fun to play with. They smell like the raptors, so Spencer should be entertained. But he seemed much more interested in the oregano I had for Harriet. I had tied the oregano into bundles and used it the same way in Harriet's cage. I was supposed to stuff them into empty toilet paper/paper towel rolls, but we didn't have any on hand so I made do.

2 feathers hanging

What a wonderful day with Spencer! He has sooo much more energy now that he's not baking in the heat. Florida summers are not good on an Arctic fox. He's built for weather that can hit as low as -15 Celsius! Now that it's getting nippy, he's a lot more playful. And he had never played with me before, but he was in a really good mood. We played Hide-and-Chase. I chased him around his cage and he'd hide behind his kennel or his playpen until I came around and chased him again and he ran and ran and ran! Poor guy was so pooped after this. And so was I!

He's starting to get his winter coat

 And a special and rare treat for me: Spencer let me pet him! I'd only gotten grazed before, and a few times my hand brushed against him. But today we became good buddies. We rested on the sand together and he stretched out while I petted, rubbed and brushed him. At one point he fell asleep for a minute. It was an amazing experience. Who gets to say they've loved on an Arctic Fox?

Look at those happy eyes!

I took a break after this. I was tired after all that playing. And guess what I found in the baby room? KITTENS. TWO of them! They're Stacey's babies and sooooo adorable. I'm a sucker for kittens. I will happily be a crazy cat lady with 50 cats and the house all made out with cubby holes and kitty walkways. I will be that woman and I will walk with my head held high. 

Who could resist that face?

Harriet and I hadn't seen each other in a long time. Months. And it was only once. This was the second time I had ever done her enclosure. She's practically blind, so I help up my hand so she could sniff me. She didn't let me pet her much since my smell is still so new to her. That's alright. Baby steps. We'll be friends soon enough. Harriet really enjoyed her food: she dug right in! Especially the watermelon. Girl has good taste. I scrubbed down her walkways and checked her bedding and gave her fresh water. Then I hung up her oregano. She didn't know what to make of that, but seemed really interested. And that's the point: stimulation.

Our old girl!

 When I came back to the baby room it was obvious all 15(?) of the raccoon babies had been fed. They were all napping! Hehehehe!!!

They're only this calm when they sleep

Tarot got her feet cleaned again today. She's had a fungal infection on the bottom of her feet for years, poor dear. So every other day we take of her bandages, soak her feet, reapply medicine and re-bandage her. I'm sure it's become routine after 3 years. She stays pretty calm once she's in her hood and held.

Get well soon!

Since I was done for the day and I couldn't put many dry dishes away (there was a volunteer in there cleaning everything out) I helped everyone else in their chores. Michy asked me (more like swindled me) into feeding some baby doves. But it's alright because they were only 2 and one of them was easy to feed. They're normally a pain to feed since they don't open their mouths to eat. A baby dove/pigeon actually sits its head into their parent's crop and eats regurgitated food. Yummy, right? So instead of prying their mouths open traumatically, I like to gently clasp their beaks between 2 fingers to simulate being inside the parent's throat, and they open their mouths all on their own. YAY!

I also took a gopher tortoise out for a soak. This is II. Remember him? He's the guy in a previous post that was trying to dig his way out of his enclosure. And I think I may have admitted him. Or maybe it was JJ. Either way, he's been here for a few months. It takes a while for gopher tortoises to heal because of their slow metabolisms.

He didn't want a bath

And then it was time to go home! Now I've showered and had lunch. All I have left to do before heading out for Clearwater is to finish my laundry and pack my things. I'm very excited. KMWC might even be chosen as a feature group for the Ocean Conservancy! What an amazing honor! Today has been a great day! :)

The Wild Dimes has Fainted!

Knights for Marine and Wildlife Conservation

Rain, Rain, Go Away

Hello my friends! I'm sorry I haven't been updating lately. This past Saturday I took off of BTN so that I could spend time with my LDR boyfriend and the week before was a very rainy day without much to write about. But here I am again! And I'm bringing you more pictures and stories.

So thank goodness I looked at the forecast before going in to work. I caught that it was supposed to be a very rainy day. So I grabbed my rain boots that my BFFL Maggie generously painted for me. They were so drab when I bought them from the Wal-Mart, but Maggie did some lovely color-blocking and now they look bright and friendly and fun! Though they're still very uncomfortable. I had to lay an extra pair of sock on the bottom so that my feet wouldn't scream at me. They're cheap-o boots and a half-a-size too small, so they pinch at the toes and have very hard unsupported souls. But they lasted me the time I spent at BTN. I also grabbed my blue poncho and headed out the door.

It was raining by the time I pulled into the back gate. Cats and dogs. I was scared driving down 50 to get there; I could barely see 10ft in front of my car. By the time I got to BTN, the rain was lighter because it hadn't caught up to us. But pretty soon it was POURING. Since the weather was so bad, we had to do rudimentary tasks only: Fresh food, fresh water and scoop the poop if we could. I had the task of taking care of the reptiles, i.e. the tortoise yard, the turtle enclosure and Spike's cage. We had to put a gopher tortoise with paralyzed back legs and Hercules into Spike's cage because it floods less.

So I prepared their diets, cleaned their water bowls, gave them fresh water and refilled Spike's pool. I had to place everything under trees or tarps that we had set up to create dry areas. It was really pouring. I should probably get a rain jacket instead, because a poncho is really awkward to work in. And the hood kept falling back off of my head. Thankfully, I managed to keep myself dry enough so that I didn't get a cold.

I finished quickly. It was pretty chilly out, and I noticed the reptiles were pretty lethargic. Especially Spike. He and the tortoises in his cage hadn't touched their food from the day before. But don't worry, this is normal in reptiles. The cold weather and their exothermy (cold-blooded) means they're less active and eat less. But I still wrote it down in the Critter Log like a good volunteer should.

We all finished quickly and then hunkered down in the baby room until our shifts were over. We helped out feeding babies and tidying up, but there wasn't much to do since Leslie and Kelly did a good job in there. An  intern, Scott, was showing us his injury that he got a few days before. He was cutting something at home and ended up slicing his arm with a box cutter. Looking at it, we all agreed that he should have gotten stitches but it had started to heal, so that's good. Still, it looked red and a little swollen so the womenfolk gave him lots of tips on how to clean it and promote healthy healing.

Speaking of womenfolk taking care of men, John the intern was running around without any kind of  protection from the rain. He came sopping wet into the baby room. We all told him to get some dry clothes from the laundry storage room like the rest of us did, but he refused. I told him to at least dry his hair so he wouldn't get a cold. Men, they never listen. Well, I'm not bringing anyone homemade chicken noodle soup that doesn't at least try to make sure they don't get sick. Suffice it to say, he went home still soaked.

Michy and I fed a few baby squirrels. They were squirmy and aspirated a lot, so we had to go really slow and stop often to let them get a breather. Afterwards, Stacey was cleaning a few cages that her babies were in and she handed me a couple to hold on to and.... one of them had diarrhea alllll over me (Ok, just on my shirt. Still) So then it was my turn to run into the laundry room and grab a shirt. The only thing left was a big frumpy sweatshirt, but it was clean and warm and dry so it was actually pretty nice to change into. Still, thanks kid.

Lovely....

That's the one and only photo I took that day. I'm sorry that it was such a gross one. I didn't freak out, I just handed the babies to someone else and went to go change my shirt. Bonnie says that we're not real interns/volunteers until we get ourselves a "Species Feces" shirt. Meaning getting covered in all kinds of critter poo. I've had my share of poop experiences, so I was a prepared veteran when this happened. Keep on working folks, nothing to see here. Top it off with the fact that Scott tried to scare me with a spider. A little spider was walking on the counter I was leaning on, and I told him to stay quiet because Cait and Stacey both haaaaate spiders, so he said "It's on your leg." Fooled him. I calmly looked around so I wouldn't step on it, and since Scott seemed disappointed I put two and two together: Haha, very funny if I was Cait or Stacey. I finally located the little guy and put him on a piece of paper and released him into a dry part of the yard. Be free, little spider! Eat all of the mosquito and roach larva.

We hung out and talked for a long time, bonding as it poured buckets outside. Then it was time for the volunteers like me to head out. I had stuff to do! My girls and I were going out that night.

So this Saturday I'll be back at BTN and I'll have more adventures to tell! It's starting to get chilly, so I'm glad to still have that sweatshirt to keep me warm. It can get muddy and poopy and I won't care. I'm just going to have to invest in better boots that don't kill my feet when I wear them.

See you Saturday!

The Wild Dimes has Fainted!

P.S. For those of you that missed it, I made a whole Facebook album with pictures of my summer internship. There isn't much commentary nor any stories, but it's fun to look at. :)

My BTN Summer Internship

Long Day

Hello world! I am back with another post. Atlanta was so much fun. I went to the Georgia Aquarium (OMG SO AMAZING) and 6 Flags (I rode crazy roller coasters). But now to the part I know you're waiting for, the adorable pictures of animals at BTN.

Jasper (Nubian goat) was crying, as usual. He wanted his bottle. He's too old for formula, but the poor baby still has a very bad UTI (urinary tract infection) and he gets a bottle of water with cranberry tablets dissolved in it. It seems to make him feel better, the poor dear. At least he got a nice bath today.

Jasper clearly needs a bath

Today I was assigned Spencer (Arctic Fox) and the backrow squirrels. We have a new Animal Enrichment program and every day we follow a log detailing what kind of enrichment we need to prepare to keep the lives of our animals fun and spontaneous. The backrow kids don't get any planned enrichment, but today was Spencer's "Forage Day". That means hiding his food in creative places so he has to go look for it. I even gave him a treat of his favorite food: whole chicks. I cut one up and stuffed the pieces into small sweet peppers. The peppers will mask the scent, and he'll have an interesting time getting the chick pieces out to eat. And I prepared water bags for tomorrow's "Arctic Day" and stuck them in the freezer. Whoever is in charge of Spencer tomorrow will use these bags of ice to make his pool cold, so it's like he's really up in the Arctic. He'll love it. :)

10 bags of soon-to-be ice

Precious was here today, since Stacey was working. She really is precious! And she's getting so big. I remember when she was just an itty bitty baby. Kids grow up so fast, right? Speaking of coonie babies, someone brought in an itty bitty raccoon pup this morning. Just a week old. The poor thing was found being eaten alive by ants. She was absolutely covered in ant bites that were starting to fester. But she was hungry, so that was a good sign. And she got some medicine from us. I hope she makes it through to adulthood! I got really attached to her. I think I'll call her "Anita".

Precious being adorable!

More adorable babies. A little bit past the Popcorn (infant) stage. They're more like toddlers now. They're on the skinny side, but we'll soon change that. :)

So cute!

I did the backrow squirrels. In case you didn't read my earlier posts, "Backrow" is the area in which we keep our rehabilitated animals that are getting ready to be released. They are unavailable to the public, since we have to get them used to not being around people. They need to be wild and learn to forage for themselves. We try to give them food that they'd find in the wild like acorns, but we still prepare diets for them. Today the squirrels also got some bread soaked in squirrel formula since a lot of them are kind of young still.

The back cage kids said it was delicious

The second cage I did had a bunch of rowdy young'ns. They were running around and having fun at the fact that I was there. They would jump around and chew on my shoe and nibble on the food I brought. Some even tried to bury a few pieces of food. Good grown-up technique that they have to learn. They're clearly not ready to be released, but they're on their way to getting there.

"Did you bring me a peanut?"

Last time I did Russell's cage he stayed in his igloo the whole time. Here he was today taking in the good weather. It was quite nice out today. I would not mind if every day was like this. Enjoy yourself, Russell.

Lovely October weather

 This guy..... This guy in the 3rd cage kept trying to give me a new ear piercing. Either that, or he was trying to make my boyfriend jealous. He kept jumping onto me and climbing up to the back of my neck where he would play with my ponytail, bite my ear and bite my neck. Sometimes he would get a little too rough. Boy do squirrel bites hurt. And they were only love bites! It was only after I finished in the enclosure that I learned that everyone in that cage had mange. Well... How lovely. They were all over me. Fortunately, it's very difficult for humans to contract mange from an animal. But they were still covered in scabs from scratching themselves. Yay.

My new boyfriend chowing down

When I left and came back to rake, I guess he was upset. So he peed on me. Great.

I also released some kids from the Baby Room into one of the enclosures. Instead of me taking them out of their cages, I preferred to watch them figure it out for themselves. It was so entertaining to watch the gears turning in their little heads. Most of them figured it out, but I had to give a few of them a helping hand. Yes, you can leave your cage! There is a lot of room and lots of friends out here! 

"Is this a trap?"

It was way after my usual time to leave at this point, so Cait (an intern) said she would take over my Spencer (Arctic Fox) duties so that I could help Stacey (curator) finish the backrow. I'm not allowed in with the raccoons and opossums because of the risk of contracting rabies or distemper or something like that. Our guys are pretty healthy and I'm not afraid of catching anything, but for legal reasons all I did was assist Stacey outside of the cages.

Angry little opossum

I know it doesn't seem like much, but I did end up finishing 3.5 hours later than normal. Remember that I also have sidework duties that I don't take pictures of. You don't want to see the pile of disgusting laundry I had to sort through today. It was so beyond washing, I had to throw 90% of it away. Our washing machine is broken, so anything incredibly dirty unfortunately had to be discarded. After that, I took out the trash and relined the trash bins. I also helped do dishes for a while since after the backrow is cleared there are a lot of dishes piled up.

I decided to stay and chat with the other workers after we had finished our chores. We had a great time, and talked for 2 whole hours!

I love these people. :)

The Wild Dimes has Fainted!

6th Poker Run = Lazy Day

Today was the 6th Annual Poker Run at Back to Nature. It ended right as I got there, so I didn't really get to see it. But I did see a few people walking around and laughing at poker stations around the property. I don't know how they did it, but it involved cards. And it was nice to hear guests enjoying themselves. We're always laughing, but we're all silly geeks.

Look what I saw when I came in. A WHIP-POOR-WILL! It's a member of the Nightjar family. Nightjars are known for having very large mouths. This guy didn't open his mouth for you to see, but aren't his feathers beautiful?

Grumpy but beautiful.

Because of the Poker Run, it was a slow day. Most everyone was out at the second location after the breakfast at BTN. But we still had a lot of people and everything was divided up so that there wasn't much to do. So... I goofed around a lot. HEY, there were tons of free leftovers! You'd be insane not to grab a few Cinnabons! What my point is that there won't be as many pictures or stuff to write about as normal. Sorry guys!

I started off with - GUESS WHAT? - baby squirrel feeding. Yep. But hey, I'm happy to help Debbie. She was running around getting ready to go to the second location (Harley Davidson shop) and she needed someone to feed her baby squirrels. I'm glad she trusts me to do that for her. And the babies are the perfect age, in my opinion. They're not too wriggly but they're less likely to aspirate and they're adorable when they latch onto the syringe with their hands!

What a cutie!

Of course feeding 6 babies took a while. Next was a whole lot of goofing around. A group of us went to go eat the breakfast leftovers and we had fun talking and joking around and reminiscing about the old days when childrens' shows were good and teen celebs weren't insane. But then again, I guess we all prefer what we grow up with. Today's children will be saying the same thing to kids 10 years from now. Anyway, I had a glass of fresh-squeezed orange juice with a guava pastry (YAY!) and a Cinnabon. Then a Dr Pepper to refresh me after. I had meant to grab a Coke, but the cans looked so similar that by the time I started drinking it and noticed, it was too late. Still tasty, but no soda is as good as a Coke.

Now, it was time to be productive and make a WHOLE lotta food for the animals I was assigned! It took a while because we were chatting, but it was fun. :)

Mmmm.... Squirrel buffet!

Today was my first day in the Backrow, meaning the animals not open to the public. They're kept apart because they have to get ready to be released. So they have to fear and avoid humans. Thankfully Christi was there to help me. We have a lot of fun together, us crazy gals. I of course didn't go in with any large-threat rabies animals. I just had 3 squirrel cages to do and the 3 flight cages. It was difficult to get into the squirrel cages because they kept running up to the door looking for hand-outs. These guys were clearly not ready to be released yet. They're much too used to humans. But the few in the cage in the very back were quite fearful of me. It's sad but encouraging at the same time. The less I can cuddle with them, the better chance of surviving they have in the wild.

He kept trying to eat the end of my rake!

Anyway, next was Tarot (Red-Tailed Hawk), Russel (Great Horned Owl) and a songbird flight cage, though there was only a Brown Thrasher and a White Dove in there. Took a while and I left late, but it looked nice and clean! :)

Sullen Russel in his igloo

"Stop staring darling, it's rude."

And then I went home. It was a very fun day. Unfortunately, I will not be going to BTN next week. It's time for me to go visit someone special up in Atlanta. If I take any fun pictures at 6 Flags Over Georgia, I'll post a few just to entertain you. But before I go, here are some fun random pictures I took today at BTN:

Momma squirrel eating some nuts

Hyper youngsters climbing all over their cage

Part of the tree next to Zema's cage grows horizontally!

I'm wishing everyone a wonderful week(s)! I will see you and the amazing people at Back to Nature Wildlife Refuge again on the first of October. See ya!

The Wild Dimes has Fainted!

Back to Work

Hey guys! Another week, another dollar. Or no dollar, rather. It's volunteer work. More like another week, another blog post. I hope this Saturday finds everyone well!

I started slow: Baby squirrel feeding. Oh joy of joys! There were 4 brownies (infants who got their fur), one of which didn't want to eat. The poor baby seemed so weak. I had to force-feed him some pedialyte, which is what we do to hydrate our sick animals; the electrolytes help. I hope he gets better, the poor little thing. But he and the others were so adorable while they snuggled on my shirt. They're so cute! And the others were good eaters, which helps a lot in the feeding.

Snuggling with a baby grey squirrel

Michy helped me feed the pinkies (infants without fur), which was great! Since there were 4 of them and 2 brownies. The pinkies are SO TINY! It's insane how small and adorable they are, these pink naked things. They stick their tongues out when they latch onto the ninny (syringe with nipple attached) and my heart melted. Absolutely adorable!

Itty bitty pinky!

After this, 2 women dropped off a brownie they named "Larry". They had fed him almond milk, goat's milk, puppy milk and then finally pedialyte after they had called BTN. Please everyone, do not listen to what you read on the internet. Do NOT feed baby wildlife any food. Give them unflavored pedialyte  and keep them warm with a rice sock (rice in a sock and heated in the microwave) until you can get them to a wildlife refuge, and do so ASAP. Any other kind of milk, even puppy/kitten milk can make the infant bloated and dehydrated.

I caught Cookie (Turkey Vulture) drying himself off. Leslie must have accidentally sprayed him while she was cleaning his cage. He doesn't like being wet at all.

Cookie the Turkey Vulture

And while I was passing Kenny and Mogua's (Barred Owls) cage I spotted Kenny with his feathers all fluffed up. In addition, he was hunched over and looked very much a grouchy old man. What a beautiful couple, the poised old woman and her grumpy old husband. HAHAHAHA!!!!!

Kenny the Barred Owl

My assignments today were Koko, Lemurs and produce side-work. There was supposed to be a new volunteer today doing barn yards (Jennifer the goat, Mocha the deer and Koko the emu) but she didn't show up. Still, then the assignments were given out we didn't know that, so I got Koko because she's been very stand-offish lately and we didn't want some inexperienced to go in with her. No problemo. Koko's poops are easy to spot and clean up. But by the time I got around to her, poor girl was so hungry. She's used to being fed first thing in the morning. I got to her around 11:30am. She was starving. But she still had the nerve to be picky! I had prepared a beautiful bowl of cracked corn, spinach, pineapple, celery, boiled corn kernels, blueberries, strawberries and figs. She only ate half and still went begging at the fence next to the kitchen. I'm insulted.

Kokomu the Emu

Afterward I did produce, which involves sorting through donated food from the Publix and putting them into their appropriate designated refrigerator: Vegetables, Meat and Fruit. Then I had to clean the fridges with a scrub bucket (bleach, soap and water) and a rag. That's not fun. No pictures for you.

Lemur time! I took my phone in with me, so today you get pictures. I made a beautiful plate of monkey biscuits, rodent block (both pellets for rodents/good teeth), pineapple, green pepper stuffed with peanut butter, blueberries, boiled corn on the cob and whole figs. They're picky eaters, so it's a toss-up whether or not they'll enjoy their daily meal. Big babies. When I got in, it seemed they liked the corn and the monkey biscuits. But I was surprised that they didn't rejoice at the figs. I guess it wasn't the right kind. Plus, they don't like having to open their food. Spoiled kids prefer their nibbles already sliced for them. No, children! You need the intellectual stimulation of whole foods! Lemurs are smart, so they need that kind of thing which is why when I prepared the green pepper I cut a hole in it, stuffed it with peanut butter and then plugged the hole with the pepper piece I had cut. Figure it out, lemurs.

Thumbelina turning her nose up at my fig

Honeybear digs in

Then it was time to go home. I cleaned by buckets/tools and did a few dishes and called it a day. This girl has a lot of studying and work to do! Next weekend is the Poker Run, so I'll have to be at work early (7/8am) to help out with the animal care. Joy of joys. I hope there is leftover food!

See you next week.

The Wild Dimes has fainted!

P.S. Look at wild momma squirrel carrying off a corn cob!