Sarvey Wildlife Rescue 911 - Keeping us busy...
Does everyone wonder where the time has gone? Or is it just us? How is it nearly August!? We have been extremely busy the past few weeks and finally had a chance to catch up on our Patient of the Week blog posts. We have had several difficult rescues this month and as always patients are coming in, the phones don’t stop ringing, and we are regularly releasing wildlife. There are new videos on our You Tube page showing some of our releases and rescues too.
The beginning of the month of July is always busy due to animals displaced from fireworks activity. It felt like we had even more animals impacted this year due to the lack of any public celebrations because of the pandemic. We believe that this young Merlin was a victim of the explosive celebrations, but he had a happy reunion recently when we were able to locate his family and reunite him with his parents and siblings. The Seattle Merlin Project helped us make this possible.
The young Merlin when she arrived.
The Merlin is now banding and back with her family.
RACCOON RESCUE IN FENCE
Rescues were a big part of our work this month and we will share a couple of those stories with you. On July 10th, we had a call from someone who said there were two baby raccoons trapped in her fence. Our Director and Clinic Manager rushed to the scene. We know these types of entrapments can be time sensitive as often the raccoon can damage their foot or leg so severely that we have to euthanize them. We really wanted to save these two from that fate. Mom and another sibling had been seen in the yard. The poor mama raccoon was going back and forth trying to help her babies to no avail.
"Well this is a fine mess you've got us in!"
When we arrived the first thing the homeowner said was, “they sent two women?” We have heard that before, which is always surprising. If you attend any national conferences on wildlife rehabilitation, you would see that this tends to be a profession heavily populated with women. Maybe people think we only send out the male employees or volunteer to do rescues? We brushed that off and grabbed our crate, towels, gloves, and net and went to work.
One of the raccoons must have been climbing down the fence when he got his right rear leg stuck. Really stuck. Stuck up to his hip stuck. Then his sibling came down right behind him and got wedged into the same section of fence and landed on top of his brother. He was trapped by the same leg and neither of them was going anywhere. We had to work quickly to get them out and covered the bottom raccoon with a towel while grabbing the one on top and holding onto him while we pried the fence boards apart so we could lift him out of the gap. All the while they both were growling, squirming, and trying to bite at us.
We worked quickly and got the first one out and crated and then went to work on the second one. He was stuck even worse, so we had to be sure we did not hurt his leg getting him out of the fence boards. Finally, we got him free and crated up too. We advised the homeowner about the issue with the fence alignment and they were going to fix the gap so that did not happen again.
It is always hard to take young animals away from their families, but we needed to get these two back to the center so we could assess their mobility and check their legs closely for any trauma. Luckily, during their exam we discovered there was nothing significantly wrong. They were put outside to see how they were moving. Both were climbing well and running around the enclosure. We were able to return them to the neighborhood and reunite them with their mom and sibling! We love a happy ending...
EAGLE RESCUE IN LAKE
The following day we got a call about a Bald eagle in Marysville that tried to grab a fish from Twin Lakes and got more than she bargained for when that fish was attached to a line. The fisherman on the shore called us and said that the eagle was one of a bonded pair there in the area. He was desperately trying to help the eagle but was not able to reach her. The eagle was hiding in the reeds in the lake and had line wrapped around her body.
Once again, our Clinic Manager rushed to the rescue. (Note: both of these rescues happened on her “day off” – there are not really any days off sometimes in this line of work.) She was joined by one of our interns and a couple of volunteers and after wading into the lake, the eagle was contained. You can see video of the eagle rescue and eventually release on our YouTube channel. We brought her back for a thorough exam, but there was nothing wrong. She was able to be released back to the area the following day.
BOBCAT RESCUE IN GARAGE
If that were not enough, this same week we got a message on our FaceBook page about a bobcat kitten stuck in a garage. Even though our Director was headed home for the day, and we were closed, she headed back to the center to grab appropriate supplies and equipment to head to the rescue. We knew the kitten needed help and one of our interns was eager to join the rescue effort too.
We arrived to discover that the kitten had been seen for a couple of days alone and previously in the week a mother with 3 or 4 kittens was in the area. It seemed clear that she had been separated from the rest of the family. We discovered the kitten was hiding behind a desk that had a mattress on it and moving things around the space was difficult. We also knew she was tiny, and we did not want her to get hurt by any heavy furniture. Luckily, she tried to escape under some shelving, and we managed to move things enough to get her in a net. Well… sort of, she actually decided to bite the frame of the netting and while her sharp teeth were occupied, our intern grabbed her by the scruff (way to go Callie!), and we wrapped her in a towel and got her in the crate. It was a bit like trying to hold a bag of feral cats. It is amazing that something less than 3 pounds can hold so much fury.
She was thin and dehydrated, so clearly was orphaned. We reached out to the other area wildlife centers and learned that PAWS Wildlife in Lynnwood had just received a bobcat kitten too. We ended up transferring her to them so the two could be raised together.
Some days are hard. We feel you...
As always, we could not do this without your support and we thank you all for being there. We have had over 2000 patients arrive at our facility already this year, and more will continue to pass through our doors daily. We hope you are well and staying safe during this unusual year.