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Wildlife rehab update

Gadzukz

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Today we witnessed the release of a Great horned owl! It was breathtaking......at first, lol, then she banked left and mistook the pond for a solid surface (she had not seen a pond before), and she had to be "rescued" again from the water, lol. No harm was done, she dried off and did finally get to go free, having learned a valuable lesson! Here are some pics of it all

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Also, I have four new rehab baby squirrels, Augustus Gloop, Charlie Bucket, Veruca Salt, and Mike Teavee

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Finally, some of you might remember Mama Turtle, she was hit by a car, and has been with us for the last three months waiting for her shell to knit back together. Well she was released today!!! I do miss her, but she was VERY excited to be going back to a private pond!

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Nofuratu

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How rewarding to be able to fix them all up and return them to the wild!!

We took in an injured Raven last week and had him for two days, but he didnt make it. Unfortunately there are no bird rehabbers in our area so we were on our own with this Raven and were so sad he wasnt fixable.

Your squirrel pictures cheered me right up though!

Adventures of A Naked Cat
 

Gadzukz

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Will the squirrels be too domesticated to return to the wild?

Nope, all of our squirrels are raised for release, we keep them in litters so they have other squirrels to interact with, once their eyes open, they have minimum contact with humans, only at feeding times, and never any contact with cats or dogs. After about 10 weeks, they start to become "squirrley" and don't want anything to do with us anyway. Squirrels have a very large "wild" streak, it takes a lot of socializing to make one semi tame, and we avoid that as much as possible.

Once they are around 18 weeks, they look like adult squirrels, and have to meet some milestones, cracking their own nuts for example, then they are ready! PAWS does "soft" releases, meaning they are placed in the release area with the cage they are used to and we continue to put food and water out for a little while if they feel like they want to stay with the cage, but squirrels in general adapt readily to life in the wild.

We know from day one that we are not raising pets, and work hard towards the ultimate goal of release, however some are not releasable. Such as Lucy, whose teeth grew wrong, and she can't open a nut on her own, those go on to become educational animals in a licensed program for the public's benefit!

You can follow PAWS on FB and see lots more rehab critters and their stories!

BTW~ We added Violet Beuregard to our litter last night, so now I am up to 5 babies, and I think I am full for the moment! lol
 
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I love hearing about all of your rescue and rehab stories! I just recently started following PAWS so I can keep up!

That is one thing that I do miss about living in Northern MN is the wildlife and getting to help creatures in need or being around others that were doing so.

One of the best things I remember is helping take care of a baby sandhill crane until the DNR could come out and take him to the rehab center. He was big and he snapped with his long beak! He was not a happy baby! I also got to help take care of a fawn that was orphaned as his mom was hit by a car. The people taking care of him had to go out of town for the weekend so I got to housesit and bottle feed him. He was so cute! He grew in to a nice big boy and was released.

My dad was a falconer and worked with the Dept. of Fish and game raising abandoned or injured hawks and falcons. That certainly was something amazing to grow up with!

Gadz, your kids will have fond memories of all of the things they are getting to see you do with the animals! I wish my kids would have that experience but living in the 'burbs now, they will have to settle for caring for naked cats, naked rats and the crested gecko.
 

Gadzukz

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I love hearing about all of your rescue and rehab stories! I just recently started following PAWS so I can keep up!

That is one thing that I do miss about living in Northern MN is the wildlife and getting to help creatures in need or being around others that were doing so.

One of the best things I remember is helping take care of a baby sandhill crane until the DNR could come out and take him to the rehab center. He was big and he snapped with his long beak! He was not a happy baby! I also got to help take care of a fawn that was orphaned as his mom was hit by a car. The people taking care of him had to go out of town for the weekend so I got to housesit and bottle feed him. He was so cute! He grew in to a nice big boy and was released.

My dad was a falconer and worked with the Dept. of Fish and game raising abandoned or injured hawks and falcons. That certainly was something amazing to grow up with!

Gadz, your kids will have fond memories of all of the things they are getting to see you do with the animals! I wish my kids would have that experience but living in the 'burbs now, they will have to settle for caring for naked cats, naked rats and the crested gecko.

Those sound like awesome memories! I am glad you joined PAWS fan base, they are fun to keep track of!
 

ckutkuhn7

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Awesome take off photo of the owl!!!! I hope she has a great life in the wild!

Those squirrels are the cutest lil babies ever!!
 

Candys

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Great photo of the owl flying off to the wild. And the squirrels are precious. They are such rascals. Thank you for sharing. Such a kind heart. That is nice to see.:BigSmile:
 
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