Mixed emotions

The past couple of days at the shelter have been extremely stressful and emotional. Last week one of the horses here, Cass, gave birth to her foal, Rocky. However it became apparent soon after he was born that something wasn't right. His front legs were bent strangely and he couldn't stand at all. He was rushed to the vets where his legs were bandaged and he was given medication and shots to combat the problem. As he couldn't stand to drink we had to milk Cass and bottle feed Rocky. However it was extremely difficult and he wasn't getting enough milk to sustain himself. He passed away today (Monday June 16th).

To make things even worse, one of the bears, Fisher, has become gravely ill. We brought him back down to the hospital to monitor him and took him to the vets to have tests done. We are still waiting for the results, but he is eating so there is still hope, even if he very weak right now, he hasn't given up yet.

In my last post I told you about the moose we got from Prince George that had a large hernia. We decided to give surgery a go, seeing as her chances of survival without it were zero, she would have died and we wanted to do everything we could to prevent that. Miraculously she woke up from the surgery and recovered from the sedation very well. However not long after she started refusing milk and it all went downhill. Sadly she also passed away at around 10am this morning. During the last few hours we spent with her, we decided to name her Trooper after her fighting spirit.

Honestly, I have spent most of the past day crying. I was bottle feeding Trooper every three hours. Even during the night, waking up and midnight, 3am and again at 6am to ensure she never went hungry. Sometimes it was a struggle and sometimes she happily drank. I spent a lot of time just sitting with her, playing with her and trying to help with that feeling of loneliness that many orphaned animals have to deal with. For the five days I cared for Trooper I became very attached and it has been extremely hard to let her go.

There is a quote, from a show called Code Geass, which articulates that if happiness were to resemble a physical object it would be that of glass as it is often all around you, yet invisible, you merely have to change your perspective a little to see it. I often find myself thinking about this quote and the truth behind it. I also find myself thinking similarly in terms of other emotions and given my current situation I propose that if happiness resembles glass then sadness must resemble the bricks surrounding that glass in a window. Without those bricks the glass could not stay supported - It is the sadness in life that brings meaning to the happy times and never have I seen this more in losing an animal that I was caring for.With the terrible sadness I felt upon learning that Trooper didn't survive I am able to value the fact that the other animals did. We have already released nine bears, two foxes, two owls and a hawk back into the wild. We have more bears, a deer, a hare, a goose and a whole bunch of ducks that have a great chance of being released within the next year and continue their lives where they should be - In the wild.

I apologise for getting sentimental and for writing such a depressing post, but it's not really in my capacity to write about much else at the moment. I hope that normal service will resume next time, but for now all that's left to say is rest in peace, Trooper and Rocky.

Animals everywhere

When they said that spring time at a wildlife shelter can get pretty busy, they really weren't kidding.

Our bear cub count is now up to six. Norman, Jo and Fisher have been joined by Artio, a black and brown cub from just down the road, who was found wandering around on a neighbour's driveway all alone. Maya, an extremely small and very quiet cub from Vanderhoof and a still unnamed male cub from Prince George. Feeding time is more than a bit chaotic right now as they are all on milk and will often try to steal milk from another bears bowl leading to a few scuffles each night.

Artio

Maya

We also got the first moose of the season in a few days ago from Prince George. She is very small, and at most only two or three days old. Conservation officers found her drowning in a ditch and we picked her up. She is drinking milk well and seems quite alert. However we discovered a large lump on her right side during our initial check up. Upon further inspection by a vet, we learnt that she has a very large abdominal hernia. It doesn't seem to be causing her any discomfort and the hole is quite large so the vet doesn't think she is at risk of any pinching of the guts. Surgery is an option, however there are risks. Moose are already extremely sensitive to sedation and with this moose being so young surgery isn't a guarantee of survival. The vet suggested that we could try to push the lump back in and wrap a tight bandage around her middle to hold it and hope that it heals by itself. In the meantime i'm having a great time bottle feeding, she needs to be fed every three hours, so we share the job between the three volunteers to ensure we at least get some sleep.

Just yesterday we picked up our first deer as well. A concerned neighbour had been watching it all afternoon and when no mum came back to it we were called to investigate. The deer is around 2 days old, very weak and has an infection in the right eye. He has been put on the same feeding schedule as the moose and we administered eye drops to try and clear the infection.

We also packed up five more bears to be released and as I write this the shelter owners are continuing their drive right to the BC/America border to release one of them. All the bears we rehab are released into the same region from where they came. There hasn't been much study into the genetics of black bears and we don't want to mix gene pools to be on the safe side. This does mean however that we have to drive thousands of miles each spring to take them back. In just a few weeks time I will be going to the Queen Charlotte islands to release our last bear from last year, Zippy. That is a five hour drive, followed by a seven hour ferry and another hour drive to reach.

What a truck, loaded with 5 bears, looks like

A busy week.

It has been a whirlwind week here at the shelter. Just last night at around 3am we picked up another cub. It's mother was hit by a car and killed and 3 days later some loggers found the corpse at the side of the logging road, with the cub sitting on it, still trying to nurse of the dead body. The sight was so heart-wrenching that the loggers were in tears when they made the call to us, to ask if we could help. The little bear came in weighing only 7.6lbs, around 10lbs underweight of a healthy bear at this age.

Speaking of healthy bears yesterday we moved the three little cubs up to the outside enclosure. Norman met Jo and Fisher and I he is so happy to have some friends. In the outside enclosure they have much more room to run around and climb. They have trees to explore and are exposed to the elements and to other wildlife. This will help them learn more about the environment they will be released into next year and will give them a much better chance at survival.

Norman (top), Fisher (left) and Jo (right) exploring their new enclosure

Earlier on in the week we received a small gosling, named Ninja, after he tried to walk right into someone's fire pit all by himself. After it was determined there were no other geese around he was sent to us. He is pretty darn cute. We don't have any other goslings here and he was getting pretty lonely so in the meantime I put a small wind up Easter chick toy into his cage and he started following it around when I wound it up! Adorable. We then received 8 ducklings after their mum got hit by a lawnmower and we put Ninja in with them and he seems to have adopted all of them, which is great. Not to mention super cute when we walked in the next morning and saw all the ducklings cuddled up against Ninja. 

Ninja and part of his new flock

Finally we received a call just under a week ago about a grizzly bear in Fernie, right in the south of BC on the Alberta border. This shelter is the only place in the entire world licensed to rehab Grizzly bears, and since the pilot project started they have successfully raised and released 11 Grizzly bears. 

The cub is around 16 months old and severely malnourished. It is theorised that he has been alone since last Autumn, that he hibernated alone after his mother was killed last year. The shelter owners drove for 2 and a half days to pick him up and found that he was all skin and bone. From a distance he looks better but his fur is still very fluffy so it is deceiving. When he arrived at the shelter we put him on the scale and found he weighed a measly 48lbs. Around 100lbs underweight of a healthy Grizzly for this time of year.

'Little Foot' the Grizzly bear

This is huge for the shelter and global news instantly contacted saying they wanted to run a story so we have been filming and taking pictures constantly and sending them copies. Footage that I filmed of his arrival even appeared on National news!

He appears to be doing well and is eating lots. He will hopefully continue to put on weight here and be released later in August.