Critter Newsletter for June 2008

June 2008 was a pretty quiet month at the Rainbow Wildlife Rescue, but still partially heartbreaking as well. More about that after a few words.

For those who have not heard it yet, I did receive my wildlife rehabilitation permit. FINALLY! I now can take in all small mammals except endangered species, fawns, foxes, or coyotes. I decided against skunks for obvious reasons.

Future plans include local as well as online fundraisers in order to build more outside enclosures. At the moment I have only one enclosure which is 10 x 10 x 10. I need at least 2 more of the same size, so I can accept more animals.

I can't take in any raccoons for example, because I can hardly put them together with the squirrels and the birds. I need different enclosures for them. Opossums and rabbits need a place to grow up too.

However, funding is tight at the moment, so I am hoping to get some local stores to pitch in with materials that they might not need anymore, such as damaged merchandise, and hopefully some physical help as well.

Once the material is available, maybe a sports team or a school class or such would have a good time doing something good for the animals and have the opportunity to learn how to build something with their own hands. I would like to see winners in every corner.

We are also looking for people that want to help out with these fundraiser events. I personally do not have the time (nor the guts to be honest) to go to the stores and ask directly for free stuff.

So, somebody who has good people skills is urgently needed at the Rainbow Wildlife Rescue, which is also a registered non-profit organization with a Board of Directors. Since we are brand-new, this too is still in the early development phase and we consider adding new directors as they present themselves.

But enough about the technical stuff, here are the critters:

Ducklings (www.rainbowwildlife.com)

The arrival of the month had to be 16 little mallard ducklings from the Tarleton Campus. Animal Control was called to remove the newly hatched ducklings and upon his arrival, the mother took off never to be seen again.

Unfortunately due to stress and hours without heat, only 2 ducklings survived the entire ordeal. They are doing great and hopefully they will grow up so they can be released back to the wild.

Birds (www.rainbowwildlife.com)

2 Purple Martins, a Mourning Dove, a Pigeon, a Chimney Swift, and a couple of sparrows made their way through here as well. For most of them it was just a short holding period, since I do not have a bird permit.

Purple Martin

However, the Starling is not protected and legal for me to raise, so I did exactly that.

I named him (her?) Howdy Doody! He's quite a character and growing way to fast!

Squirrels (www.squirrel-rescue.com)

I released 4 squirrels this month and have one little boy left. I named him Jesse. He the meanest squirrel I ever had!!! He attacks the syringe before he "allows" it to feed him, hehe.

Jesse, the mean squirrel

Puppies (www.puppyeducation.com)

The shelter received a litter of 4 puppies that look like a mix between a Chihuahua and a Beagle. 2 of the pups died. I named the 2 survivors Dinky and Slinky:

I will put them up for adoption in another week or 2 on petfinder.com.

Check our PuppyBlog for daily updates including movies!

Kittens (www.kittenbaby.com)

3 orphaned kittens from 3 different litters have found their way to our little rescue. One just came in this morning, a little Siamese. But he is in very bad shape and I have serious doubts that he'll survive, but then again...kittens and their 9 lives have surprised me more than once!

Pets

last but not least, my own pets: the Great Danes Olliver and Olivia, the Yellow Labradors Honey and Butters, our Senior Chihuahua/Cocker Mix Sandy, and the 4 cats.

We had some fun at the lake with the dogs after the rabies quarantine was finally over. You can watch the movie HERE.

Also watch the Great Danes babysitting the Chihuahua Mix Pups, it's hillarious!

Other Notes

I want to say THANK YOU to all you good folks who lent a helping hand this month. Some of you donated some money, some of you sent me milkreplacer and other needed items from my Wishlist, and some of you donated time and ideas!

I apologize if this newsletter looks kindof funny. I'm using a new script which is not quite perfected yet!

I hope ya'll have a great summer and remember: KEEP YOUR PETS COOL TOO!

2 Great Danes babysitting 2 Chihuahua Beagle Mix Puppies

Olliver and Olivia found the Chihuahua Beagle Mix Pups highly interesting. They are about 3 weeks old and are curious about the world and their own kind.

Things change fast...

The brown pup didn't make it... he started to get severe diarrhea and became lethargic within hours. One of his litter mate had died the same way. However, the other 2 pups are doing great. No diarrhea and a healthy appetite. They tested negative for Parvo.

The black and white one is a female though...I should have looked closer and not taken the word of others for it lol:




The kittens are doing great too. All infections are gone.

I also released 2 squirrels and have one left and a few birds as well. The only problem is the heat lately! It's terrible..triple digits are tough on the animals too.

Binky, Dinky, Slinky, Cody, and Susy

Susy was brought by Animal Control today. I didn't even ask about her story, because she has an eye infection and was crying and I wanted to take care of her ASAP. She has a very interesting pattern. So now Cody isn't alone anymore, which is good.





The 3 puppies are doing great. They like to cool down in the baby tub outside during this hot weather and are eating like world champions! Their names are Binky, Dinky, and Slinky:

Here we go again: 3 orphaned Beagle Mix Puppies and a Kitten

We have 3 orphaned Beagle Mix puppies here, all males. I think I see a little Pug or maybe even Chihuahua in them too. One of the litter had already died, cause unknown. They all had diarrhea, but once they got a bottle of warm Esbilac and a snuggly corner to sleep it off, the runs are gone and the puppies are playing.

The kitten came an hour later, barely 2 weeks old, very quiet, little bit dirty, but ok. Boy was he hungry. I named him Cody and am still looking for names for the 3 puppy boys.

Here are pictures:

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2 Great Danes and 2 Yellow Labs at the Lake

Olliver, Olivia, Butters, and Honey had a blast at the lake today. Olivia and Honey have been to the water for the first time. Honey had no problem and jumped right in and was swimming after the ball within 2 minutes.

Olivia was a bit shy at first, but she did swim a few yards, before she decided it's not for her. Jumping around in the water is one thing, swimming is another, hehehe.

There is so much life in Olivia these days...people stop on the street when they drive by my yard, just to awe at her. And Honey is as sweet as Olivia is pretty...I can't believe how lucky I am to get to keep 2 results of my work. Usually I have to set them free or adopt them out, but this time I get to keep a couple :)))).

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3 orphaned Squirrels at the Squirrel-rescue.com

I have 3 squirrels at the moment. One is Jesse, came in last night, did a dive from the nest, but seems to be alright. Has a bald spot on his paw and could be fatter, is not dehydrated...but was getting there. He's about 6 weeks old and has a good appetite:





Sissy is the biggest squirrel I have ever seen! She will not stop fussing until she has eaten 30 ml of formula per feeding!

She's already 3 months old but doesn't seem to be too interested in cracking nuts. I wanted to release her this Saturday with the girl scouts as we did last week with another squirrel. I had taken Sissy along, because she WAS cracking nuts and being all ready, but when I put her on the tree, she came back, jumped all over the girls (to their delight) and was nibbling on their fingers.

I let them play with her for a couple of minutes as long as Sissy didn't appear to be in distress. I figured hands-on experience can't hurt the girls..and look at their faces: http://www.squirrel-rescue.com/girlscouts/

Now Sissy re-gressed and is being all baby again, maybe because the squirrel we released was a bit older and the one she's with now is a bit younger. Easily influenced? lol

Maybe I misjudged her age too because she's so big. We'll see when she's ready.

Here's Shalu (that's Indian for 'beloved one" I was told):


And here's Sissy..she doesn't look that big in the picture, but she weighs twice as much as Shalu, at least, haven't weighed her in a while, she won't sit still anymore lol:

Stephenville: Pitbull kills Black Lab, Owner ticketed

For weeks we had this black Lab running around here, roaming the streets. He was only out at certain times, so we assumed he belongs to somebody and they just let him out instead of walking him.

We tried to catch him, no go. We tried to follow him to find out where he lives, he kept evading us. Animal Control came out a few times, didn't work.

Last week he was killed by a pitbull. Animal Control wrote the owner of the pit a ticket.

Now ask me if I am going to walk my dogs any time soon. I know the pit is usually loose, he has followed us a few times with that red zone stare.

Maybe I should get one of those sticks the police has, because I'm not going to walk around with a baseball bat, and pepper spray has shown to be useless against red zone dogs in general.

Some of my elderly neighbors walk with a cane here, none of them needs it for walking..isn't that sad?

Every idiot in this neighborhood with a low self esteem has a pitbull to make up for it...all the wrong reasons. How do you live with that? Or a better question: what do you DO about it?

I personally love pitbulls, they are beautiful dogs, but as with every breed, there are some bad apples and because they are very strong dogs, they can do more damage. Now putting this power into the wrong hands and you have a ticking time bomb.

Eliminating the breed is not the answer, because another breed will take it's place in no time. When I grew up, the "bad guys" were the German Shepherds.

However, tougher laws on owners of exceptionally powerful dogs (above a certain weight and/or size maybe, which would include me too) might help. But laws need to be enforced and that's where the solution usually fails. Not enough manpower.

If everybody who has a dog above a certain size would need to obtain a permit and show proof of vaccination and proof of being spayed or neutered, that would be a start. Breeding such dogs would require a harder to obtain permit.

Germany has a very nice system where every dog owner has to have a permit, and that law is being enforced. Animal shelters there have waiting lines for adoptions, sometimes people wait for months before a dog becomes available! So I know it works.

Maybe it is time to propose a new law?