Struggle: 15-hour workday fun

We were welcoming a basically work-free nighttime schedule, as the only "baby" left was this one little squirrel who took 10 minutes to feed at 8pm.

The baby flying squirrel

But then the flood came. I answered the first phone call at 6pm.

"I found a baby squirrel, what should I do?"

I call my boss and he says to have it brought in. Of course, these people aren't willing to bring it. They have to work the next day and they are from, God bless it, Rhinelander, which is a whole whopping 30 minutes away. So they make me call about 10 volunteers, asking them if they will pick up this squirrel on a Saturday night. Finally someone agrees.

10 minutes later I get another call. It's another baby squirrel. I say bring it in. Of course, they just can't tonight and can't I come get it? As if we're some sort of ambulance service. So here I go again (of course not remembering which volunteer drivers I had already called that night) trying to find a driver. Someone takes the job.

I hang up the phone and before I even lift my hand from the receiver it rings again. It's the police. A woman, they tell me, is going to be bringing in a woodpecker.

"Okay."

So this woman and her two little girls come in with this plastic bag. The woodpecker is inside it. I quickly bring it to the exam room and shut the door. As I try to get it out of the bag it lets out a death cry. Those poor children probably thought I was torturing it. It wouldn't stop screaming and I just put it in a cage since I was alone in the center and couldn't examine a bird on my own quite yet. I call the other intern and tell her to come back to the center asap because I'm waiting for squirrels and don't know what to do with this woodpecker. We try to examine the bird, but she is very feisty. We drop her about 6 times and finally determine that there is absolutely nothing wrong with this animal. Sure enough, she could fly and we released her the next morning.

I get another call around 8:30pm. A woman has found a chipmunk in the road who is acting funny. She agrees to bring it to the center. A half hour later she calls back and says she can't get him into the blanket because he is too squirmy.

"Fine. I'll come get him."

She tells me she's on Highway D and I trust I can find that. She assures me she was only 15 minutes from Minocqua, but it takes at least a half hour to get to her. I take the chipmunk and drive him back. We give him some steroids. He acts strangely, stumbling, losing his balance, falling over, dozing in and out. We suspect he was hit by a car. He is still not doing so hot today. And, he has a huge bug living inside his belly. We pull it out. It is the size of his foot:

The last squirrel comes around 9:45pm. He is just a baby so we feed him some water and electrolytes, put them on a heating pad, and then head up to bed around 10:30pm.

They all survived the night!

We got an adult squirrel today who was not as fun to behold as the baby squirrels the night before. His face was bloody, there was blood in his mouth, he kept tipping over. We don't know what happened to him, but he has survived the day and is looking better and better as the day goes by.

getting ready for food

We spent at least one hour today listening to children's songs about moose and bears and looking up youtube videos of of hammer dulcimers, at my boss' request.

"My paw's bigger than your paw!"

In between the dancing, youtubing, moose impressions, and receiving and catching new animals, we still fed the usual patients. I fed the Great-horned owls: