Let Me Start Out by Saying....

that no, the wee one didn't make it. That teeny thing was less than a day old when we got it in and we just haven't learned how to do as good a job as "mom" can in these early stages. Let's go check out some newer residents of good ol' Wolf Hollow!

Now, I went off-island last Saturday but did come back that afternoon and dropped by to see what I had missed. The first thing Serena asked me when I walked in the door was if I had brought my camera, to which I replied that I hadn't. To that she said, "Too bad, because the baby Townsend's chipmunks are being fed." The baby WHATS?!!

Uh...yeah. Can it be ANY cuter? Can it?! And we have FOUR of them! And how does one feed such a tiny thing? Veeeery carefully....

These are THE SMALLEST mammals we have had in since I have been there. Okay, there was one exception, and that was this tiny thing.

It's a baby vole that we had in the first month I was there at Wolf Hollow. Unfortunately it didn't make it, but the chipmunks seem to be doing well, so I am keeping my fingers crossed!

We have in not one but two fox kits, one of which was hit by a car and one that was the victim of a dog attack. We have Red Foxes here on the island, but they have different color phases, namely red and black. So lets start with the black kit.

If you think he looks miserable, that's because he is. He was found on the side of a road here on SJI after a dog had attacked him. His mom and litter mates were nearby. It appears that the dog had picked him up by the shoulders and shook him, breaking his right front leg at the humeral head. At the time this picture was taken, he had no deep pain response in the lower part of his leg, but they are hoping that he will regain that after the surgery he had this past Tuesday. Guess I will find out on Saturday.

The other little fox kit is one of the red/pseudo red phase. Now, I have seen a fox near South Beach that wasn't red or black, but a very interesting shade of brown. I have only seen it twice but this little girl could be related.

As you can see, she is leaning heavily against Serena's legs. This is because she is having major issues standing upright. The fact that she is even alive to try to stand upright is somewhat of a miracle. Our wonderful Educational Coordinator Shona, and her wonderful husband Ross, were out driving and saw her lying by the side of the road. They assumed she was dead but decided to stop and make sure. She was cold, but sure enough she moved a tiny bit when they touched her. So in she came to WH. Shona told me that she honestly thought they were just making her comfortable before she died. So BOY was she surprised the next morning when she came in and was told that she was awake and sitting up! That's a really good lesson folks. Unless the animal is OBVIOUSLY dead, and I don't think I need to go into any type of graphic detail when I use that term, you should try and check the animal, as it may just be in shock or unconscious, like this beauty was.

She had obviously been hit by a car and while she has no fractures, she does have neurological damage and as such is being given a steroid to help reduce whatever neurological inflammation she may have. To this end, she has to be supported and her water and food need to be placed right under her nose before she tries it.

Now, they seemed to also think that she might not be seeing too well out of either eye, so she is still in a precarious situation and I honestly don't know if she will still be there on Saturday. I hope she is!

We got in a Merganser baby. I just LOVE these guys, as they look like cartoon baby ducks. This one was found at our local sewer plant all by its lonesome. It gets to swim a bit every day in the sink and we try and put in one of the mallard ducklings with it, as one should always swim with a buddy!

The fawn with the weird bony jaw protuberance is back inside. It developed diarrhea and while that is getting somewhat better, it has now developed a hole at the end of the bony projection.

Yeah, it's not the best picture, as he was all over the place. But you get the idea. They are taking a culture of it to see if there might be some fungal or bacterial thing going on there, and therefore figure out the best way to treat it. And as you can see, by the way he is gnawing on Serena's gloved finger, he definitely has a good appetite. In fact, for the second time EVER, here is a video clip of this bottomless pit draining his bottle in under 15 seconds.

We also got this fawn in and it's just a mess. I call it the "snotty" fawn, and here's why.

See? I told you it was a mess. It was found wandering along a road. It has multiple wounds/tears around the face, its left eye is swollen shut with pus, its nose is swollen, and to top it all off, it has an upper respiratory infection. Needless to say it's on antibiotics and an anti-bacterial eye ointment. It's so bad that anyone touching the poor miserable thing must don a gown and gloves. Yeegs!

Let's wrap up this posting on a good note. The five fawns we have outside, including the piebald one, are all doing great. Going out and feeding them is funny, as they are all just frantic to get at the bottles, sometimes the same one!

See, there's our little girl shoving her way in there. She's no pushover! After they are done they meander off into the trees, or towards the photographer, if one happens to be present.

Til next time...