Sabrina's House~~The Rescue

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Pearl is a lovely girl! That's so neat that she's now helping educate people. I had no idea that the doves that were released were not actually able to get home, but I'm not surprised. I'm very familiar with what Sharp Shinned and Cooper's hawks can do to smaller birds.

What species is that little baby, by the way? It's awesome that you were able to raise and release him. It must be really hard with all those lost cases. Wild animals get so stressed when they are handled that I guess it's not surprising. It is sad though.
 
The little guy is a starling. Those birds are not native and do not fall under the federal protection. They are very interesting birds and can be taught to mimic sounds...including human speech. Several of the starlings that have been thru here sound like cockatiels....lol. I have heard they make great pets should someone decide to keep one. They are very noisy, not very tidy and demand a large area to fly once they fledge.

And stress is a huge concern with wildlife. We keep them covered and sounds/voices at low levels. We also raise and dim the lights a little at a time to simulate sunrise and sunset. It also helps to play a CD with sounds that these animals will here when they are released. I have found there is so much more to rehabbing wildlife than just to force feed formula. It's amazing and I learn something new with every rescue.

Randy
 
Oh yes I know all about starlings. I can't believe some jerk imported them- twice! Because he wanted all the birds mentioned in Shakespeare to be in North America. It was an example of problems with small starting populations in population ecology, since the first batch died off but the second took over the continent.:?

I didn't know they could mimic human speech though. I learn something new every day!
 
This is one cool bird. It's a tiny little Eastern Screech Owl in red morph....a rare bird indeed. He is about 6 inchestall. We don't really know what happened to this one but he was found running from a cat. He had some puncture wounds but nothing too serious....considering a cat was involved. He is currently relaxing, after a brief stay at Piedmont Wildlife Center (http://www.piedmontwildlifecenter.org), at the Carolina Raptor Center (http://www.carolinaraptorcenter.org) where he is being treated andflight trained. He should be releasable and will be returned here. He came from the woodsjust down the street from my house. I never knew there were owls in there.

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Randy
 
This is an amazing blog, I love it! You take amazing pictures too Randy. It's a wonderful thing you do for animalkind;).

I couldn't believe the Eagle pic, that must have been a bit scary, those things are huge, but beautiful.

Thanks for all you do Randy, it's really heartwarming. I look forward to lots more!
 
Wow...you really do some amazing work!! Do you care for the rabbits and birds in your home or do you have a separate building? It seems like you must need a lot of space. The picture of the bird that is the size of a quarter is amazing. Did the peacock survive? Again, great work.
 
Hi Guys,

Here is another one of our owls. This is a "teenage" Eastern Screech Owl in gray morph. These are the most common screechers. This one found his way into a large carpet warehouse but couldn't quite make it back out. He was there for weeks. People there gave him water....and since they were near a river and woods, he repaid them by taking care of the many rodents in the building. But he worked too well and ran out of food. So I was called in to trap this bird. Guess what??? There are no protocols for catching a raptor inside a building. Caught him roosting, blocked one of his exit paths and hit him with a bright light. He only had one way to go and we had a net waiting. Successful capture. He was only slightly underweight and a little deydrated. I triaged him and transported him to the regional wildlife center for further evaluation. He "relaxed" for a couple of weeks and became quite popular at the center. He was successfully released.

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Randy
 
This is a young Red Shouldered Hawk that got himself hit by a car. One of his wings was broken but other than that, he wasn't in bad shape. Admitted as per request from a local vet. I secured the wing and he went to the regional wildlife center and was then taken to the raptor center for further treatment and flight training. He should be releasable but it will be many months before recover is completed.

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Randy
 
Wow it just shows you that even big predator birds are so fragile. It is such a shame they didn't make it.

I absolutely love the owl pics they are amazing. Owls are beautiful creatures. :D
 
This little girl was dumped in our neighborhood and took up residence in our yard. We thought she was pregnant (she was) and sick (UTI). I am not a dog person but this girl took to me quickly. She was also very protective....nobody came into the yard and I liked that. But we didn't have the space. time or experience to keep her. We were treating a very sick rabbit for one of our vets so in return, they agreed to treat this dog. She was treated for the UTI and checked for heartworms and was negative. I did a presentation for the Animal Services Department at NC State University and her picture showed up during my speech. She was quickly adopted by the now president of the student run Companion Animals Club and is living a charmed life. She weaned her puppies and they have all been adopted and Chloe is now spayed. She is living the good life...inside the house...with a couple of college girls that really love her. She is a "Happy Tails" story.

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Randy
 
This is one of hundreds of cottontail releases. This particular group was only a couple of days old coming in. They were released as a group of four....just as they came. It is really a treat to see cottontails playing outside for the first time. This release was near a very large park with a river running thru. It has lots of prime bunny territory....water, lots of trees and brush for cover and several large fields of grass. It also has a fence running nearly the entire length of the park that works to prevent any of the animals from reaching a nearby highway. They have everything they need all around them....no need to move.

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Randy
 
What a beautiful dog! She looks like a Chow Chow mix. I really love dogs and I can't wait until I get my own place, so that I may adopt one.
 
This is a very different story. This is one special little rabbit. She came to us from the Richmond, VA area. We don't know much about her previous life but judging by the way she acts, she was treated as royalty. She demands the best in everything. So what happened?

We don't have a complete story and never will. But it seems this little girl was riding in her family's car when they were involved in a horrific accident. Her carrier was crushed and the rescue people didn't know she was there. But she was.....with life threatening injuries and a broken back.....she was paralyzed. To make matters even worse, none of her human family survived the accident. It must have been a difficult situation for the emergency response team. Finally, she was found barely hanging onto life. She was quickly sent to a nearby vet that was experienced in rabbit issues. The battle to save this bunny began. She endured numerous surgeries but nothing could repair her spine. She had to drag herself around by her front legs. Finally, all the catheters were removed and the doctors said they had done all they could do.....they said only a miracle could pull this rabbit thru recovery and allow her to survive. They said her chances of hopping again were zero.

Like most animals in charity care at vets, the clinicsdon't have the time or people to attend to husbandry so they look for a rescue or foster to help. This bun was sent to a rescue in the Richmond area but they lacked the resources to help her. They asked us to take her and we agreed. We knew we had a challenge in front of not only us, but the rabbit had challengestoo. On the way home we wanted to give her a new name because we hoped it would be a new beginning for her....so we came up with a hopeful name for the situation.

We got her home and she was pitiful.....barely able to move and terrified. I parked her right in front of my sofa so I could work with her anytime I was home. As time went by, she started responding to stimuli to her rear legs....was this the start of the miracle everyone wanted? Later, she started making voluntary movements in her rear legs. We were hopeful but cautious. Then, to our amazement, she tried to right herself. That just added fuel to the fire inside of me to do more for this beautiful rabbit. So I started an intense physical therapy program. It had to be painful but she hung in there and seemed to know what was happening to her. Eventually, she tried to hop but failed....but something told be we were about to witness that miracle. In August of 2005, she came out of her very small house for a brief workout.....she had just enough room outside her door to give her a sense of freedom. It seemed to give her more incentive and she started making more movements.

In September of 2005, we had to make a gut wrenching decision. Should we let her test her spine since she had improved so much over the many months of therapy? We made the decision to allow her to live....and to roam free but we also knew we might have to make the ultimate decision should her back fail her. We decided to test the miracle we were seeing....and we were going to allow her to run free for the first time since before her injury months previous. My heart was pounding and the stress level was unbelievable as I opened the door on her small pen to allow her to come into the room. She waddled out and looked around.....obviously a little nervous. Almost on cue, she took off across the floor at a full run and did a huge binky....but missed the landing. She crumbled to the floor. My heart sunk as I ran to her side. Remember the miracle we had so hoped for? I thought it was over as she was stretched out of the floor....breathing hard and looking like she was hurt again. Just as I arrived at her side, she sprang up with a look on her face that I will never forget...and she took off again.

She still fights many issues due to her injuries including routine bouts of stasis. And she still stumbles sometimes but it still getting stronger. She is an inspiration to our rescue and I feel she is "our finest hour". But I don't think we did it alone....if any rabbit has a guardian angel....it's this one. The doctors said it would take a miracle....we knew it would take a miracle....we wished for a miracle....we got a miracle....and now you know our little miracle. Oh....remember I mentioned we named her a hopeful name on the trip home that very first day she came to us? She lived up to her name....say hello to Miracle.

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Randy
 
This is Opie. Anyone want to guess what he is? His species is only now being see in the US (domestically)and has a close relative that is native to the US.

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Randy
 
Opie is a Brazillian Short Tailed Opossum....Opie for short. He is one of two STO (as they are known) here in our rescue. The other is named Jombie and comes from an abuse situation. They related to the Virginia Opossum of the US. They are a true marsupial and the girls have a pouch. As small as they are, just like their American cousins, they have a full complement of 50 teeth. But, like the American version, they are harmless nomads that mean no harm to anyone. Many people think they are mean due to their "smile" when disturbed but they are about the most docile creatures on earth. Feeling is that they have not changed much at all over the eons of time. They also are quite nimble on their feet and can move surprisingly fast.

Baby opossums are extremely difficult to raise as pinkys. When nursing, the mother's nipple expands into the stomach and attaches the baby to the mom. In many road kills, the babies are still nursing on the mother and drinking spoiled milk. The only way to feed a baby opossum is by tubing.

These guys love worms....and a huge treat for them are slugs. They are omnivores....and if it looks like food, they will give it a try. They even eat carrots. Love sardines. And I have a "special needs" Virginia Opossum that loves fried chicken.

I have become very fond of opossums since I have learned more about them. It upsets me when people kill them because they are so uneducated (true with many species). But opossums are very good at cleaning up messes we make. They are also very resistant to disease....and even though any mammal can carry rabies, I have not been able to find a single confirmed case anywhere. They are also very resistant to infections....cat bites that will kill anything else can be controlled easily by minor dosing of antibiotics. The thinking is that this resistance is due to the low body temperature.

Opossums are really cool....give them a chance.

Randy
 
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