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3:25:00 AM EST
Feeling Happy
Animal rescue :-)
repost from last summer: Sick Bat (and other animal rescues) because of the weird AOL archives, you must scroll WAY DOWN
"And, Lord, if it ain't asking too much, put a few varmints in heaven..."
The Yearling
The poor injured bat looks pretty bad. I am now at the juncture I hate to reach--should I aggressively treat the animal, and take a chance on prolonging it's agony, or just let it slip away, while it is warm and quiet and safe? I often have to make the sad decision to let Nature take its course, especially with badly injured animals. There is also the quality of life issue--what kind of life for a bat is it to spend unable to soar the night air? Would it want to live a life in a cage? What about how much pain it is in from the broken bones?
The sad fact of doing this kind of work is that more than half of the animals die. Baby animals are meant to be raised by their mothers, and injured animals often die--particularly because there are no local vets who take care of injuries. I did manage to get a vet to set a possum's broken leg and hip once, but in general I am on my own.
It is hard on the children when an animal dies that has been with us a while, and hard on me. I always wonder if I did the right thing. Losing the baby kitten a few months ago still hurts. I haven't seen Mandy cry like that for a year or two.
I thought I'd include a few of our past experiences just since January--no one read our journal until May, so there is a lot that is new to y'all...some are funny, some are sad...
Click here: Pigeon in the Toilet in which DooDoo is found in our toilet and almost dies from hypothermia
Click here: Picking up the Billy Goat in which we rescue a small billy goat with sharp pointy horns while on vacation in the Smokies and how we came to an Understanding
Click here: Preventing dog bites in which my children rescue a puppy and then face the intoxicated owner before Momma steps in :-)
Click here: The Great Cicada Rescue in which my children bring in injured cicadas to live in my ficus tree inside the house
Click here: Newborn kittens and featherless baby birds in which we were over run with tiny newborns this springClick here: the newborn kitten died this is when the premature baby kitten died a few days after my last miscarriage. It was very hard on the whole family.
Click here: still grieving we are grieving the kitten, the baby, a swallow...
Click here: Garter Snake in which we guard a garter snake on the Cinco De Mayo Picnic
Click here: Squirting Breast milk in a bird's Eye self explanatory
Click here: Gerbils! in which we adopt the first of the new gerbil colony...not exactly a rescue, but considering the quality of most homes pet store rodents go to, it might well have been a rescue
Click here: The Gerbil Ranchers visit Pam in which our intrepid ranchers add a few more to their colonyClick here: Another pigeon in which we rescue another pigeon who came to live with us for a little while
Click here: Ladybird dies yet another pigeon comes to live with us for awhile ...brought to me by my friend Sharlotte Neely, an anthropology professor at NKUClick here: Prayer for Animals a lovely prayer for animals
Click here: Animals in Heaven this still delights me every time I read it
This photo is of baby Zach, right before he was released.
Click here: Zach the Bat
Click here: Baby Bug: My young Entomologist in which Shelby kisses earthworms and "yuvs" them
Click here: Baby coon pictures!
Click here: Miss Lilypad the Skunk
Click here: An injured snake arrives at the Hestia Homeschool and Animal Refuge
Click here: What I have in my dining room is an Eastern Garter snake
Aires the garter snake is fine in the "wild"
an injured baby mourning dove arrives
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Isnt it neat to look back and see all you havedone. It kind of justifies why your tired and cant get other things done.
4/1/05 11:22 AM