It's been two weeks now and the little squirrels are doing great. One morning I was taking the birds outside to the flight, when the neighbor called me through the fence, shaking the bushes! I wondered what was up, and he said that he had just found a nest of baby squirrels on the ground all torn up! There were two babies that he picked up, one had just opened her eyes, the other still had her eyes closed.
He passed them through a hole in the fence, I showed the babies to my mother who was here visiting and she was very excited. She loves to tell the story of when I was younger in school, living here in Costa Rica, we had a pair of squirrels that lived with us. One day I went to school with my favorite squirrel hiding under my long hair, the teachers did not see the humor and asked my mother to come pick up the squirrel....So there we were years later looking at baby squirrels, remembering the fun times we had had. I called the vet and she alerted me that being so young they would be very difficult to get started on milk and raise, that they would probably die...well, now that's a challenge! So, we set out to give these little ones a chance at life, every 3 hours around the clock, fresh goats milk and pedialyte and as you can see they are doing great! We have so many squirrels here in the yard, hopefully when they are older they will find some friends to teach them about living outdoors!
Corazon (heart in spanish) Is recovering well from his amputated wing. Soon he will be able to be outside in a handicapped flight cage. I'm sure he will feel better once outside with all the night sounds and activity. Currently he is in physical therapy learning how to hop and get around off balance. He is our 3rd owl with amputation, so now we have the routine down! Last week another owl came in needing amputation as well, a Mottled owl, with bones exposed, but unfortunately he died the next day of internal injuries before the operation. That's how it is sadly. We can save some, others pass on.
The Amazons are recovered, gaining weight and are no longer the quiet stressed out birds that came in. Now they are super loud, and having a blast in the new enclosure that we built for them...well actually we built it for Jou-Jou the Kinkajou, but we had a design problem with the roof, for the Kinkajou it was dangerous, so we did a switch and put the Amazon parrots here and they are loving it. Our porch is almost clear of cages!! Lorita, the two new Amazons (we need names!) and Bella are here, as well as handicapped Charly, Scarlet macaw. Charly is still inside her smaller cage, as we are building a handicapped jungle gym for her. Once that is complete, she will be able to be in the larger area. They are all getting along well...whew! It's just very loud!
So, now we have started Jou Jou the Kinkajou's enclosure and it's actually almost finished! We love the design and style of these cages, they are elegant, simple and very spacious. Cement floors with drains make it easy to just hose down. Each one of these cages cost $900.00, so please keep that in mind if you are able to do any fund raising projects for us!!
We had our first guest request to help with taking a little stray kitten back to the States! Carol Beck and her lovely family found this little kitten on the side of the road one night in Guanacaste. They were staying their last two nights in Costa Rica with us and asked if we could help with the paperwork and vet care to be able to take little Corazon back to the states. He was absolutely adorable and loving his new pampered life! They call him the black panther from Costa Rica. I loved the name so much, we named the Black and White owl in his honor. Janet the vet spent two days running around getting all the papers, shots, carriers etc. and now little Corazon is in San Diego, with his loving new family.
For the rainy season we have actually had very sunny mornings, so the sloth's have been outside on their perch getting some much needed exercise.
And for all of you that have met Ralph the whistling duck on our tours, he says hi!
Next up is Issy, Isadora Spider Monkey's enclosure/palace and then finally Prince the hawk!!! We need to do some major fund raising for the hawk, as it needs to be a tall flight cage with plenty of room for his huge wingspan!....and then eventually our sleepy sloths!
Hope you all had a wonderful summer, we are bracing for our heavy rains this time of year :) Thanks to everyone who has toured or stayed with us, and who have sent in donations...as you can see, these do go directly to our rescued animals and are put to very good use.
