Goodbye and thanks for EVERYTHING Serena!

Yes, I am sad to report that Serena, head rehabber and queen of the seals at Wolf Hollow, has left after giving over 7 years of her life to helping ALL the animals of Wolf Hollow.

I wanted to take this time to say, publicly, how thankful I am that I got to volunteer with her every week. She was always encouraging me to try new things and never once throttled me, even though, seeing as how I was an OVERLY enthusiastic volunteer initially, I am sure she wanted to. She made volunteering at Wolf Hollow a fun and educational experience and I can't thank her enough for that.

All the best in your future endeavors, Serena. We'll miss you!

Meet the Newest Love in My Life!

Yes, I know this is mainly a Wolf Hollow blog, but I just am WAY too excited about this new being that will be creating utter and wonderful havoc in my home in about 5 weeks.

Meet Riley! He is not even one day old in this picture!

Here he is at 1 week old.

I lost my wonderful cat, Edward Albert, almost exactly a year ago and I have wanted to get another male kitten, more specifically an orange or orange/white male kitten. All of the orange or orange/white cats we have had in my family have been the most amazing of pets and I have been on the prowl for a kitten for a couple of months now. As it turns out, my coworker has a friend who bred her cat and she promised me a kitten if she had an orange/white male one. After the first three kittens were born my coworker got a call saying there were no orange ones and she thought there was only going to be one more kitten born. I went home resigned to the fact that it just wasn't meant to be. But later that night I bumped into the woman whose cat it was. She hugged me and said the VERY LAST of the five kittens born was orange and white and was mine if I wanted him. And want him I did!

Here Riley is at 2 weeks, with eyes partly open and ears still closed.

You can't really tell from these pictures, but he is a BIT bigger than his siblings. In fact, I hear that he is the best eater of the bunch, so much so that he will push the other kittens out of the way to get to Mom. Now, our family has come up with some VERY creative names for our beloved orange and orange/white male cats. The first cat I ever counted as my own had a LOT of extra toes, and was therefore named Jon Thom Le Feet. The kitten that we got the first Christmas I lived here in Washington ended up with the auspicious name of Ashley Darlington "Killer" Farnsworth the Third. So, keeping in mind this extended nomenclature tradition, my sister Shannon has dubbed that Riley's middle name, due to his penchant for eating, shall be Templeton, after the rat in Charlotte's Web. In fact, I think she called him Riley Templeton, the little piggy rat kitten.

Here is Riley, this week, at 3 weeks of age, eyes and ears finally open!

I will have to drag out some pictures, but, IF memory serves me correctly, he has VERY similar markings to my first cat, Jon Thom Le Feet...almost eerily so.

And last, but certainly not least, here is one of my favorite pics of Riley and me, with him just hanging out on my knee during my most recent visit.

So, there's my exciting news! I will be back to posting Wolf Hollow posts tomorrow, as we had some interesting creatures in last week. Til next time...

Let's Talk About Seals!

Sorry about the posting delay folks! So, let's get right down to business and talk about the seals. And I need to forewarn you that there will be a couple of graphic photos in here, so be prepared!

We had 25 seals in as of last Saturday. It was kind of funny, as I wandered over to the biggest seal pool and only saw 5 seals hauled out on the center platform. Then all of a sudden the water erupted in seals!

We have had a few come in with some man-made injuries as well. This one is Reef. I took this picture while I was giving her a bath, hence the angle looking a bit odd.

She came in with a pretty nasty boat prop injury to her back flipper.

She seemed to be doing well in spite of her injury, but I came in last week to find out she hadn't made it. The necropsy showed that the boat impact did a number on her insides as well.

We also had a seal that came in with a fish hook caught in her mouth. She was fine outside of that and was the queen of one of the pools by the time I left on Saturday. But if that isn't a reason to try hard to retrieve lost hooks when fishing, I don't know what is. I mean, who knows how this may have affected her in the long run if she hadn't been brought in!

This is Anchovy. He is one of two VERY emaciated seals that came in a couple of weeks ago.

The other seal had died and as of 2 Saturdays ago, they weren't sure he was going to make it either. When animals get that emaciated their ability to digest food becomes almost non-existent. You can see just how skinny he is and I was advised to fill his tub up with just enough warm water for him to splash around in. I went in last Saturday not expecting to see him, but see him I did! He has gained weight and is doing GREAT!!!

Meet Limpet. He came in with a rather gruesome eye injury!

After being told that he would most likely never see out of that eye again, I asked how that would affect his ability to hunt for fish, since, if only having one eye has the same affect on a seal as it does a human being, he wouldn't have depth perception. I was reassured that seals usually hunt in water to dark to see in anyway and therefore use their whiskers much more so than their eyes.

This is Medusa and boy is she feisty!

What, you may inquire, is she doing in this picture and why is her face all scrunched up? Why, she is biting the towel and GROWLING! That's right....I said GROWLING! I was told that this is what they do when they catch fish and it happens quite often, but I haven't seen this spectacle AT ALL the whole time I have been volunteering there. I've gotta tell you, I haven't laughed that hard in a LONG time!

Wondering about our little Sea Star? Well, she STILL has her long preemie fur!?!

Yes, I know it's a really bad photo of her. Saturday is "seal weighing day" and the ONLY way I could get a picture of her is when they hauled her out of the pool to weight her, as I hear she never hauls out on the platform anymore. But at least you can see her long fur...right? They are seriously wondering if she might be the first seal they ever release that still has her preemie fur, as the preemie seals usually shed it within 2 weeks of being brought in.

And last, but certainly not least, is Coral!

My good friend Allison, who, when it comes to animals, is one of the most caring people I have ever met, actually found her behind a huge piece of driftwood on South Beach! She called me, I called Wolf Hollow, they called the Stranding Network, and they brought her to Wolf Hollow. She was underweight, weighing in at a meager 17 pounds, and very dehydrated. She now is a healthy 25 pounds and doing great out in the big seal pools! Thanks Ali!

Okay, I hope you have had you fill of seals for the time being. I will post a separate... well...post about the other animals we have in at WH in the next few days. It is slowing down a LOT at WH, but I will try and do my best to be a bit more regular when it comes to posting...well...posts. Til next time...

TWO...TWO....TWO POSTS IN ONE!

That's what I will be attempting tonight! First off, let us revisit the raccoon youngsters. Remember this little guy and his sibling?

Well, just look at them NOW!

They have gone from that "Where's my bottle?" stage to the "Hand over the grub, sista!" stage. They have graduated to what we call the Weaning Cage. This is step 3 in a 4 step process. After this they will be moved to a larger cage out in the woods that has more room and less human interaction.

The barn owlet has also been moved to a roomier enclosure.

Yep....same reaction as last time even though I am standing at least 8 feet away from him. Isn't he beautiful though?

We are still getting in baby rabbits. This is a group of cottontails that came in from off island.

Goodness knows how a mother ever tells them apart!

We got in a young eagle who is ALL attitude. First he was in one of our smaller mews and trying to get old food out of there was an interesting experience, as he was usually very close to it and behaving...well....like THIS!

He has now been moved to our Eagle Flight Cage. They always seem to get a bit cockier when they get moved into there, as they KNOW they rule in there. And they make sure you know that as well.

Okay, let's get down to some SERIOUS otter business! Have you ever tried cleaning out an otter pool with some four-legged "help"? No?! It's really QUITE interesting! First, as you start draining the pool, over come your "helpers" to check out the draining action.

Then, as you get down to the nasty business of scooping all the old fish out of the pond, the net MUST be inspected for any possible delicacies.

Having determined there are none in the net, the fish bucket must then be thoroughly examined and tasted.

Then, last week, I went out with a few girls from WH on Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning to collect shore crabs. "Why?" you may ask. Why, for my very first Otter v.s. Crab smackdown!

And, once they figured out that there were more of these little mobile guys in the basin, it was "Bobbin' for Crabs" time!

Needless to say, the outcome was a given.

We are STILL getting in swallows of all types and sizes. We have some tiny ones....

to whole gangs of them!

And this isn't even taking into account the 10+ swallows we have flitting about the Indoor Mew!

That's about it for me. I know....I know....some of you are probably thinking "Hey...wait...what about the seals!?!"

Well, we had 24 of them in as of last Saturday, with all but 4 permanently in the "big seal" pools. I will elaborate more tomorrow after my shift. I promise! Til next time...

Sorry Folks! No Post Yet!

I really wanted to get the old posting done by tonight, but once again I am having issues getting pictures into the post. I am getting some bizarro "The Document Contains No Data" error every time I try to upload a piture into the post. I hate to say it, but I may switch blog companies, as this is really frustrating. I will be sure to let everyone know if that happens.

In the meantime, you will have TWO new posts next week.....hopefully!

SEVENTEEN!!

That's how many seals we had in by the end of Saturday. Thank goodness there are 4 now permanently out in the "big seal" pools, as the seal tubs are reaching maximum capacity. Humuhumu and Seaweed are part of this group!

We also had a new group of seals out for their first swim in the big pools.

Yep, that's Kelp....I think....trying to coax our little Sea Star in for her first real swim. She did great and was VERY upset when she was finally removed from the pool and put back in her tub!

This guy came in after being attacked by another seal.

As you can see, he has quite a few head wounds, including one on the area above his left eye. These types of situations are always handled differently, with the examination coats we wear for the initial exam then ONLY used for that particular injured seal, in case of infection.

Here are a couple of crows that we have had in for a bit. One of them, obviously, has only one eye.

I heard that a few weeks ago the one with the two good eyes was actually feeding the other one! That was not the case when I went last Saturday, as the second I put the food down the one-eyed crow began picking out and scarfing down all the meal worms.

We have a new Barn owlet in. Like I have mentioned before, these are one of my favorites to work with at Wolf Hollow. This one, frightened by the onslaught of the feeding tweezers, did the typical wing spread and then bowed his head and shook it from side to side.

I ALWAYS end up muttering "Nope..nope..nope" in time to the head shakes, as it looks like they are in complete denial that something scary is coming towards them. I mean, how do they keep an eye on anything in this position? Luckily, the tweezers weren't there to hurt him, but instead were there to bring nourishment to our wee one. Having determined this to be so, he quickly gave up the defensive head shake to inhale scrumptious mice pieces.

Keeping with the bird theme, we got in a young Cedar Waxwing. I just think these birds are so cute! And they have QUITE the mouths on them!

We also have in what I believe to be Towhees. They move around quite a bit, and quite jerkily at that, and tend to hide behind things, so getting a decent pic was a bit of a challenge.

And lastly, we have a LOT of Robins still in residence. There are ten out in one of the aviaries, so I thought I would go out and check out how they were all doing.

They seem to be doing just fine and are very close to being ready to be released.

That's all for now. I won't be going in this Saturday, as I am off to the Powwow at the Daybreak Star Cultural Center located in Discovery Park in Seattle. I did hear, however, that we got in a Screech owlet and young Bald Eagle during the week. So I am going to try and sneak in on Sunday, when I am back on island, to get some shots. I just LOVE Screech owls! Til next time....

Allow me to introduce you to.....

Sea Star!

While I didn't go in to Wolf Hollow last Saturday due to being sick, I did hear about Sea Star. She is officially the smallest seal they have ever gotten in, weighing in at a measly 11lbs. She is VERY premature(hence the long hair), WAS emaciated, and was barely moving when she was admitted. I was told they were surprised she was even still alive. Needless to say, she has quite the fighting spirit, as not only is she still alive but she is eating like a champ! She has gone from being emaciated to.....well.....extreme plumpnicity.

I mean, LOOK at her! At one point I think I got too close for her comfort level, as she snorted and TRIED to waive her flipper at me. And all I could think about, while trying VERY hard not to laugh, was that scene in the 1971 version of Willie Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, where Violet has blown up into a blueberry and is trying to waive her hands at the Oompa Loompas to keep them at bay. But, hey, better plump than emaciated! Til next time.......

Long awaited Sedna update!

Photo courtsey of Dyanna Lambourne

Sedna, who was transferred to Wolf Hollow on January 22nd after being found in Grays Harbor a quarter mile away from the beach and 30 feet from a road, was released on Wednesday, June 21st. On Tuesday, Sedna was sedated and had flipper tags inserted and a tiny satellite transmitter attached to her head. It then took SIX people to get her Royal Rotundness into the transport cage.

Since her release, she has been spending most of her time in the water making lots of foraging dives of up to 100 meters. When she is out of the water, she has been getting to know the locals, a group of ~1,500 Steller sea lions in residence nearby.

Upon her release I learned that Sedna was THE FIRST successful rehabilitation and release of a Steller sea lion in Washington State! A HUGE congrats goes out to the wonderful and dedicated staff and volunteers of Wolf Hollow who made it happen. I am proud to know all of you and proud to be part of such an amazing team.

Oh my god, BETTY!

Look at this GORGEOUS seal we got in last week. Her name is Eddy, meaning "a circular or contrary current." I'm not sure why they didn't hold off on giving this name to a boy seal, but, there you have it. She is definitely the darkest seal pup they have had in since I have been volunteering there. She was pretty emaciated when she came in but has been eating like a champ and is doing well so far.

We also go in another little girl seal in and they named her Hookuhooku.....um.....Hoopohoopo.....darn it! Humuhumunukunukuapua'a. MAN is that hard to say, let alone spell! For those not in the know, that is the name of Hawaii's state fish. Here she is hugging Seaweed right before she dragged him under the water (Humu is on the left)!

Let's see, what else is going on at good ol' WH. Oh, we got in a VERY adorable Kestrel baby!! She was one of my photographic challenges this week, as I even went back Sunday to take pics of her as none of the ones I took on Saturday were in focus. Oh, the joys of having a cheap digital camera with a very small view screen. Everything LOOKS in focus until you go home and download them. But look how cute this little one is. She is definitely worth the trip back to WH.

My other photographic challenge was a request by Shona, WH's Educational Director, to get a decent photo of ONE of the Brown Creepers. These birds are just fascinating and are constantly in motion. I also took more pics of them on Sunday for the exact same "pics not in focus" reason. It's hard to describe how they move. They kind of hop along but when they hop their heads go down and their tails go up, like windup toys! Again, they just fascinate me.

The otters are doing well. They are now putting a small amount of water in the pool for them to play in. The otters have now moved from the roomy confines of the doghouse to one of the hollowed out logs that is in the wet pen. They seem to feel safer in there and my guess is that it is probably cooler in there as well.

Remember the two fawns we helped initially put outside in the mobile pens? Well, two fawns have now turned into five, four of which are permanently out in the "big fawn" pen while the most recent one we got in has two broken legs and is in the "Quiet Room". I haven't been able to get any photos of them since then, as they don't come out of hiding unless you have food. Luckily, we got to feed them this past Saturday. Not having seen them for a month or so, I honestly thought they would be bigger than they were.

They still are getting bottle-fed along with browse in the form of Ocean Spray. Here they are all lined up and drinking from the bottle rack. The bottle rack is there so they won't get too habituated to humans or associate humans with food. And while I often wondered how well that works, since they come running over when they hear the bottles, they don't come running when they just hear a door opening, hence my lack of pics. It's a good thing, since they do allow hunting on San Juan Island.

I think I have mentioned previously that we have in ducklings and goslings, so I finally got down and took a pic of our Canada Geese goslings. They are all different ages, with some almost ready to be released and some still all downy.

Meet Mocha. Mocha LOOKS like a regular Mallard but is almost three times the size of one. They think he is a cross between a Mallard and one of those large white ducks. The staff has nicknamed him Gigantor and made pseudo-jokes about whether his normal Mallard-sized wings will be able to lift him off the ground.

That's it from my end. I still have a Sedna update coming along with those pics of South Beach. Til next time.....