Highs and lows

It's been a week of highs and lows, so I shall start with the bad news, just to get it out of the way. At the shelter there was an adorable little owl named Henry. Henry came to the shelter before I arrived so I do not know his entire back story, all I know is that he suffered from some light brain damage and had vision trouble. Despite his problems he was very cute, and had quite a personality. Whenever I would clean his water bowl or give him his food, he would look around and make cute little faces at me. I always smiled when looking after Henry and visiting his enclosure would always brighten my day a little bit, it was hard not to fall in love with the little guy. Unfortunatley when I was conducting my morning feeding and cleaning routine I went to his cage only to find him on the floor, dead. I don't yet know exactly what happened to him , however it is thought that maybe with his vision he flew into the door and that was enough to kill him as he was so small. I knew Henry was never going to be releasable but I watched him improve so much during my time here. When I first arrived he would only hop around the bottom of his cage but recently he had been flying around from branch to branch and it was a joy to watch.

The untimely death of animals is something I knew I would have to face when coming here. Sometimes animals arrive in such a bad state that euthanasia is the only kind option. Sometimes luck is just not on their side and they won't make it. I have to accept that not every animal that I look after will get it's second chance, but I didn't expect the death of such a small animal to affect me so much. It may seem silly to some that I am getting emotional over an owl but I did genuinely enjoy looking after him and the fact that I won't get to see him flying around his cage anymore has saddened me.

Onto the good news, I won't allow this post to be completely depressing. There was a lot of worry earlier in the week about a black bear that the shelter had previously released. It was sent out with a radio collar so it could be tracked, however when the readings were coming through it showed that the bear had not moved in over 24 hours and had recently been walking along train tracks. It's only natural to fear the worst in a situation like that, and I confess, despite not working with this bear or knowing anything about it I also began to worry for it's safety. A biologist was sent out to search for the bear and the news that came back to us was certainly cause for celebration. Apparently the bear had found a luscious patch of berries, and the area was so big that it had no reason to move, hence the stationary collar readings. The biologist also reported that the bear looked extremely healthy, so good news all around.

Peter also took me and the other Volunteer, Sally, up to the viewpoint. We drove the quads up half way, Peter leading with Sally and I following behind. I have only been driving the quad for a few weeks and have no previous driving experience so to say I was a bit terrified taking the vehicle on a real off road trail would be putting it lightly! On the upside learning to drive on London roads when I get home will be a piece of cake after this. The view from the top of the hill was breathtaking though, and we got to hear stories about previous years when Peter has taken volunteers up to the viewpoint and ended up face to face with grizzlies! He also said that last year there was around eight to ten feet of snowfall up on the hill and the dangers surrounding that much snow, so definitely no hikes by myself during the snowy months.