Sharon Schmalz, Executive Director

Winter is normally a time for rehabilitators to regroup and prepare for the upcoming cycle of Spring. While the absolute number of animals was down compared to spring months we remained quite busy. In order to give our readers a perspective, please note the shortlist of activities…

•Volunteers wishing to actively participate in the Wildlife Center’s mission of mercy grew. Numerous orientation and training sessions were held to prepare them for the 2008 season.

•An additional fledgling enclosure was constructed (inside the center) to expand the home for those feathered teens who think they are ready to find freedom. Although they are not ready for prolonged flight, the cage allows the caretakers a controlled environment to catch them after a successful escape.

•Efforts in equipping the surgery suite are ongoing. Items such as a surgery light, anesthesia unit, surgery table, autoclave, x-ray light box, microscope among others have been graciously donated to enhance our triage and surgery area.

•Three additional flight cages were added to our existing trio in order to meet the growing demand for outdoor space. Each provides one hundred square feet of floor space; built to meet and exceed federal standards. What a noteworthy addition to the facility!

•A new phased addition is underway to accommodate waterfowl. Comprised of both enclosure and pool, it will provide a ‘splash’ park for visiting waterfowl. The framework of Phase I is complete and WR&E is looking forward to raising funds to fulfill the remaining two phases in the near future. Phase II includes siding and Phase III incorporates a pool filtration system. Completion of this project is anticipated in time for our next Pelican and Northern Gannet residents.

•Education remained an integral part of WR&E’s efforts with the continued sessions with both boy and girl scout troops and school classes. Through these endeavors boys and girls of all ages as well as adults experienced benefits of sharing space with wildlife through the use of our Peaceful Coexistence teaching house visuals in conjunction with several of our wildlife ambassadors.

•Developed and instituted ‘hands-on’ training on our wildlife retrieval kit. The kit consists of nets, gloves, catch and dart poles. Through gifts of caring contributors, we attained the first of several. Plans are to acquire two additional kits for our center.

•Two Oiled Wildlife Response workshops were conducted. The first in Lake Charles, Louisiana sponsored by CITGO and the second in Brownsville, Texas sponsored by Texas General Land Office.

The people who bring us orphaned and injured native Texas wildlife and their stories begin to blend together after a time, but what I’ve often noticed is that saving this one animal or this one litter or clutch takes on a life of its own. One that is much bigger that the simple act of kindness in bringing an animal for care and surrendering it to a wildlife rehabilitator for treatment.

Deep emotions are frequently revealed when at last someone says “Yes, I can help”. This single act could be a turning point, never to be forgotten; the discovery of an avocation; a cathartic release that even though a loved one had not been spared, the person COULD save this animal. A weight could be lifted that was much greater than most persons would ascribe to the life or death of an animal.

Animals whether they are domestic or wild bring to us ways of dealing with emotions that we either didn’t know what to do with or realized that we even had.

I’ve heard stories – the man who’s wife of many years died of cancer brought a  fluffy yellow duckling to us to save. In some small way he was filling that empty uselessness he felt as she slipped away from him.

The man who needed to be needed and in a quirk of fate, even though he wasn’t a big animal lover, began building cages great and small.

The 12 year old son that watches all of this and can trot out every speech I’ve ever made, then quietly help me decide that this one can’t be saved and can’t be left to suffer. But there are so many more successes, the occasional broken heart is worth it.

It does make a difference

The Wildlife Center had been closed for an hour. It was the end of a very long day.  I was just getting ready to leave the Wildlife Center when the phone rang.  Normally after hours I would not pick up the phone but something nagged at me to take the call.  On the other end was the rescuer of patient number 09-100957.  A young boy had found an injured female Cardinal and his aunt was trying to find help for it.  She said her nephew was nine and was very concerned about the bird and wanted to make sure it got help.  I gave her directions and did another round of feeding while waiting on the boy and his dad to get to the Wildlife Center.  The bird had a slight head tilt and appeared to have a head injury.  I was able to stabilize the Cardinal and put her in a warm incubator.  I was so impressed that a nine year old boy would insist on getting help for his special little bird and that a dad would drop everything to take the bird to the Wildlife Center.  My new little friend Parker even made a donation to help care for our newest patient.  Thank you to a boy, his dad, and an aunt for caring for one of our native wildlife creatures and getting it the help it needed. FYI, Parker’s Cardinal was recently released in good health.

Hundreds of orphaned and live trapped opossums and raccoons are brought to the center by the general public and animal welfare organizations each year. With neighborhood expansions, many of these youngest opossums are found on or around dead mothers in our roadways or brought to owner’s doorsteps by family pets. Raccoons often invade attics and garages to find safe nesting sites. Mistakenly, homeowners often live trap and relocate Mom only to find a litter of helpless infants days later. Our rescue program is a growing endeavor. ‘Rewarding’ is a term used to define our ongoing work in this area, but it costs resources, money, gas, and land use. Several opportunities are available for our communities to assist. Items such as gas cards or money for supplies, transport and release would be welcomed due to the numbers and distances necessary to travel to remote sites. Ultimately, having release opportunities on private or corporate land would enable the relocated wildlife to have a fresh start in natural surroundings. ‘Letter of permission’ from the landowner will be required for land use. If you can help in Operation Rescue in any way it would be greatly appreciated. In the event you are able to assist in this endeavor, please feel free to contact the wildlife center at 713-861-9453 or email us sharonschmalz@wrande.org. We look forward to hearing from you.

However, little has been written about how to get the local wildlife out of your house once they have moved in or what to do with a separated youngster.

The original call came in about 8 a.m. The condensed version was: “Two raccoons, a very small one and a slightly larger one had fallen though the suspended ceiling of the “basement” and that there was at least one more still “up there”, what am I supposed to do?”  They had already called Animal Control and were now afraid that the animals would be destroyed.

Luckily for them AND the raccoons, Friendswood Animal Control works closely with WR&E. I told them not to worry and to accept the live trap that was on the way. Trapping and relocating an adult raccoon is a death sentence, only 10% will survive the next 6 months. If the raccoon is a female with babies, it is often a death sentence for them as well. Needless to say, relocation was not in the cards for this coon family.

The next call went like this; “We caught the smaller of the two and put it in a cat carrier, now what?” Hoping that the live trap would catch the mother, who was still thought to be in the office, I sent them off to buy the supplies necessary to close up the spot where the raccoon had gained entrance. Nothing short of welded wire and nice long screws will foil a determined raccoon.

The next call was slightly panicked, something was still in the ceiling, but the trap was empty and the larger of the two coons was missing. They couldn’t imagine how she could have gotten back into the ceiling. Where could she possibly be? They might not have been able to imagine it, but I could.  These guys spend large portions of each day in the trees, they may look clumsy, but are in fact excellent climbers.

They were also very concerned that the captured baby was suffering from hunger, dehydration or injured – could they bring it to me? Because it is very hard for people unfamiliar with the development of raccoons to gauge the age or weight, and because once the eyes are open and the baby is walking in a coordinated manner it is hard for me to figure it out from descriptions, I told them to bring it right over.

Mother and son arrived with a soft-sided cat carrier stuffed with towels, the “little baby” hiding within. Since raccoons can inflict serious damage after about 5 or 6 weeks of age, I donned my leather gloves and began to pick through the nest of towels looking for a gray bundle of fur. As I teased out the last of the towels, I was greeted by a burst of gray fur and vocalizations that would make a B-grade movie monster proud. Needless to say, mother and son were shocked by the apparent violence.

Unfazed, I removed the leather gloves and donned gauntlets before delving into the cat carrier again.  A healthy scrapping nine to ten-week old male emerged – twisting and turning, hissing, spitting, clawing, growling and screaming. In short, he made the first encounter look like a love-fest.

By now the mother and her son’s eyes are as big as saucers and they were wondering whether I was killing the baby or whether the baby was going to kill me.  Smiling, I began the process of evaluating the baby’s physical condition. Pronouncing the baby healthy, I sent them home with the baby in an airline carrier.

Raccoons are awesome mothers. Baby coons (up to five or six months of age) stay close to her on excursions. They will remain in close proximity and under her protection for almost a year. When Mommy isn’t nearby, babies stick close to each other. The plan was to place the carrier in the shade to attract Mommy Coon. I figured that Mommy Coon would retrieve the other baby from the ceiling and hang close until this baby was released from the carrier.

The next phone call informed me that they thought that the weather was too hot for the baby and they had placed it in the office / storeroom. They promised to place it outside again at dusk.

The next call came at dusk, they had gone downstairs (the living area of the home is elevated above a poured concrete “basement”) to find the second baby sitting on top of the carrier. They were proud to report a successful “round-up”. Both babies were now on the deck near the birdfeeder from which they had in the past observed Mommy Coon foraging.

The next call came an hour or so later, Mommy Coon showed up and talked to her babies.  They were very concerned that Mommy Coon had not returned after they went outside to open the kennel. I told them “not to worry”, I could guarantee that Mommy could see them, even if they could not see her.

The final call came the next day. The reunion was a “Hallmark moment” The cautious Mommy took an agonizingly long time talking to her babies and slowly creeping up on the carrier. Then the babies took their own sweet time exiting the carrier. However, once out, they tumbled with each other and Mommy. Mommy “hugged” each baby before turning her intellect towards how to get both babies off of the second floor deck, preferably in one trip. A comedy of errors ensued before she successfully carried the smaller of the two down the nearby tree while the larger followed close behind.

Lessons learned:

Make sure your local animal control knows about WR&E. Inform them about the ten-percent survival rate of relocated adult raccoons. WR&E is eager to talk to homeowners BEFORE they live-trap.

It may take some patience, but Mommy Coons can be encouraged to relocate themselves AND their babies.