Abigale is going to the Ranch
Tomorrow, I am getting up early to head to WCCR. I am taking Abigale with me. I will also be making a stop in Dallas to pick up one other from another rehabber.
The night I picked up Abigale, I suspected she may be blind. I tried to relocate her, and normally when we do this, they run as fast as their short little legs can take them into the nearest brushy patch. Abigale just sat there. I nudged her to encorage her to go, but she stayed. So, I picked her up, put her back in the kennel, and brought her home.
She is still really skinny, but the whole time she has been in my care, she has had a voracious appetite. Today, she didn’t touch any of her food. Normally, I feed her first thing when I get home (usually around midnight which just so happens to be the time when opossums are active). her diet has fairly consistantly included soaked dog food, fresh fruits and veggies, leafy greens, and a raw egg. Today, not only did I not feed her at the usual time, but I gave her mainly leafy greens, a few grapes, and a handful of dry dog food, and no egg (far lower in protien and calories than what I normally provide). Maybe I am spoiling her….or maybe there is something wrong.
I have to wonder if she has vision problems, because if I do not disturb her sensitive wiskers, I can nearly touch her eye. This eye in particular seems to have issues. If you look at the photo carefully, the eye looks alittle dull and cloudy. She also usually tries to keep this eye to the wall.
Opossums are pretty non-agressive, so it doesn’t suprise me that she allows me to handle her (don’t try this at home, kids! Opossums may be docile, but they still have teeth, and they like to eat dead things. That means LOTS of bacteria in their mouths!).
She also still seems to have a few fleas. I de-fleaed her again tonight, just to play it safe. I tried to give her fluids, but I am having a hard time with it tonight for some reason. I am going to try again in a bit. When I get her to the ranch tomorrow, maybe I can get someone else to look her over and confirm wether or not she is blind, or vision compromised.
Either way, she will probably end up being soft released on the ranch grounds, so she will have food available in a regular location. She still needs some time to build up her strength, but she should do fine out there when the time comes.
I just hope her not eatting anything tonight isn’t a sign that there is something more seriously wrong with her.
Treating Abigale
I finally really got my hands on Abigale. I have started her on sub-q fluids. I have given her a couple of days to destress and aclimate to her surroundings before really doing anything with her. I looked her over thoroughly today. She doesn’t have any major injuries, but she is VERY thin. I can feel the points of her hips, and her spine. She has been eatting very well the past couple of days, so I am a bit suprised that she is that thin, but the way she is acting, I am not completely suprised by it. Her belly is also rather firm, indicating a heavy internal parasite load. I will be going to the ranch again this weekend, and I will see about worming her then.
I brought her inside to administer fluids. You can see the bulge on her side where I gave them to her. Sorry I could not take a picture of the process, but I didn’t have enough hands!
Tonight, dinner is soaked dog food, to ensure she is getting plenty of protien, a raw egg, blueberries, banana pieces, and a few mealworms.
There is also some liquid vitamins in the mix. Looks delicious, no? She isn’t too happy with me for the fluids, but she will thank me later. They will help her feel better. Once she is back up to a good body weight, and acting normal, I will make her wild again.
Maybe not as glamerous as rehabilitating a bobcat, but for Abigale, I made a difference; even if she won’t appreciate it 🙂
Coat Pattern
I was doing some research on my own, just to see what kind of information I could find out there on bobcats…the problem is, there really isn’t any consistant information. One site I came across (a .edu site, no less) even stated that baby bobcats have a well defined rosette pattern to their coat, but as they grow, their spots become less defined. this is NOT TRUE! Quincy is a great example of that. Here is a close up of his side, just to show you what I mean. He does not have well defined rosettes on his coat, nor will he develop them as he ages. Instead, for the most part, he has this freckled, mottled coat pattern.
Whatever coat pattern bobcats are born with, they keep through adulthood. Quincy will always have a freckled coat, and always has. You can see a few little rosettes towards his belly.
On the same token, we have several adult bobcats who DO have well defined rosette pattern to their coats.
You can see the difference in the clouded pattern of Hoover’s coat verses the freckled look of Quincy’s. Hoover’s brother Kirby, on the other hand, did not have rosettes. He had almost no spots at all.
A few of the goals at WCCR is to replace mis-information like this with good, solid, accurate information, and to augment the minimal knowledge that is available out there on this species.
Vanishing Center
I talked to our director a couple of days ago about where our center is heading. I truely am worried that we won’t be able to do enough to save this place. The health issues that our benifactors are experiencing have prooven that they can no longer continue in their current capacity at WCCR. I have sent out a couple of sponsorship requests, and started a few others. There is just too much information I need to put in these requests that is not readily available to me. I need someone to get the information, and put it in a packet for me because I do not have access to it myself. Problem is, none of this has been done.
It frustrates me to no end that we have so much going for us, and yet, we are struggling so hard. I am dying to hear good things back from the sponsorship requests that I have sent, but I know, and I keep telling myself that, there is a very real possiblity that the one or two requests I sent out will not render the results I am looking for. I am frustrated that until we pull together all of the things we need, I really don’t have any other places I can request funding from.
It is unfortunate that this was sprung on us so suddenly. Honestly, I would feel so much better about this if we had more time.
We are down to just 11 bobcats on the property, still a HUGE number for any other rehabilitation facility…for us, that is a tiny number. For WCCR, 7,000 animals is an average year. What is going to happen to all of the wildlife that would have come here if we close our doors? I am especially worried about the bobcats. There are NO other facilites that can handle the numbers of bobcats that we do. There are barely any facilities that can handle one or two bobcats a year, and even fewer that have the experience to rehab them.
I look at established centers like the Heard Museum, and look at their sponsorship page…it is HUGE! I am struggling just to find sponsorship programs…and submitting them is an entirely different animal. I am not a grant writer. I am just a supporter of WCCR, and who like the other members of our keystone group despirately wants to see this center get off the ground.
In two years, our accomplishments have been phenominal. The numbers of animals that have come through our doors more than highlights the necessity of this rehabilitation center in this area; It demands WCCR exhist.
For the past two years, we have been right on schedual with our growth and development plan that had already been layed out. We are entering year three of our development plan. The beginning of construction of our planned state of the art facility and clinic, and housing for interns and students of the WREN project.
Everything we need is already in place. The diet we feed takes care if it’s self, for the most part the materials we need take care of themselves, and honestly, it is a fairly self sustaining facility. Our key issue is not stuff so much, we just really need funding to cover our opperating costs at the moment. Our plan is to eventually bring in enough sponsors and grants to expand further, but our immenent need is opperating costs.
I hope it’s just for today that I feel so uncertain. I hope that I hear good things back from my efforts…
I love three day weekends
I didn’t go out to the ranch Sunday or Monday, but I made a point to go out there today. We recieved a donation of venison a couple of days ago, and incoroprated it into their diets today. I cut it into small pieces, and gave each cat a couple along with their scheduled diet of chicken. Our bobcats are on a scheduled diet plan to not only ensure they are getting the vitamins and minerals they need, but to provide them with variety from day to day.
Some of the cats LOVED the venison and wouldn’t touch the chicken. Others tried the venison, but went back to the chicken that they are more familiar with. It was very interesting to see some of the bobcats’ reactions to the “new” diet.
I for one like the venison. The venison seems to more readily accept the suplements that we add to their diet. We currently have two bobcats that are under treatment, and the venison even seems to hold the medication better than the beef or chicken. I guess it is spongier or something.
Anyway, that is really all I did today…I know, very productive, right? I guess we can’t all be superman everyday. I felt like such a slacker…at least the bobcats forgive me.
Assisting the Bobcats
Through a persistant and lifelong interest in nature and in animals, I have happened uppon the opportunity to not only work in close proximity with one of Texas’ most amazing predators, but to actually touch, hold, and interact with some of these awesome cats through work with the Wildlife Center at Cross Timbers Ranch in Terrell Texas.
Don’t get me wrong. Our ultimate goal is to re-introduce these cats back into nature. We take them in, we protect and heal them, and then we release them in a location where it is ideal for them to thrive. Unfortunately, not all of our cats make it to the point where they are ready for release. Some of them will never know what it means to be truely wild. These are the ones that make me pause in awe, and draw my breath before I enter their enclosure. Many of these animals find homes at educational facilities but some of them stay with us.
At WCCR, we don’t believe in barrier policies for our cats. With no barriers, these cats who thrive on social interaction and personal bonds gleen what they need from their relationships with us in a frustration free environment. These animals are never forced to behave in a manor in which they choose not to. They completely guide their interactions with us.
If a purring Quincy chooses to climb on my shoulder, and rub his face in my hair and steal my ponytail holder, I let him. If he chooses to completely ignore me, I let him. If he doesn’t want to interact with me, I don’t force him. Though he may end up remaining in a captive environment, we strive to never take the wild out of the cat, and to never make him do anything against his nature.
Each day, diet is hauled from the freezer to thaw in the food prep area. Each enclosure is cleaned, old food removed and thrown away. Fresh diet is prepared and fortified for each cat.
Currently, we have 19 cats on the property. The releasable ones that are left from 2010 are overwintering at the ranch. when they are ready later this year, they too will be released like the many bobcats before them.
WCCR intakes and releases the greatest number of cats in Texas, and possibly in the nation.
What does it take to care for so many? Well, an awful lot of food, and of course, what we all need to keep running. Money. We go through pounds of food every day. Unfortuately, feeding bobcats isn’t cheap. they eat the expensive stuff. Meat. Much of our diet comes from donations. We always need donations. As a not for profit organization, we can not only accept donations, but offer receipts for tax deductions, but sometimes that isn’t helpful if people don’t know you are out there.
Hopefully in the near future, more and more people will know we are out there, and they will see the amazing things that happen in this place. There are many amazing projects in the works at WCCR, and I, and others like me are glad for the opportunity to be a part of it. Many of us have graduated from a pioneer program named the WREN project. The goal of this project is to make steps toward the standardization of wildlife rehabilitation.
The amount of knowleged that we don’t have is amazing when you are faced with the amount of information that isn’t out there. Especially when it comes to predators. People love to see little bunnies, squirrels, and deer. They love to hear their stories, and tales of how people have saved them. The nitch that predators fill instills fear in people. It causes us to avoid them, and we become oblivious to the role they play in our world, and make up wild, fear filled stories of what they may do to us if we come face to face with them. Through programs like the WREN project, not only do we learn how to help attempt to counteract the completely un-natural environment in which many animals find injury, but we finds in us the ability to pass on REAL knowlege. Knowledge that seems to become lost in our ever shrinking, ever more technology fueled world.
If anybody out there is reading this, and feels the desire to help, or would just like to know more about what we do, drop us an email at kari@crosstimberswildlife.org. That is my e-mail address through this phenominal organization.
The Wildlife Center at Cross Timbers Saved my life
Okay, so maybe none of the wildlife who’s lives are affected by this place ever say that, or even ever understands what they went through here in their [hopefully] temporary sanctuary. But if they could, they would tell you that while they were there, they were allowed time to calm their minds, and heal their hurts. It may not have been a quiet road, and I dare say not an easy one, but most creatures that go through the horrible things that cause them to end up in a place like Cross Timbers are never so lucky as the few that get so fortunate as to begin their journeys here.
In this place, there is a special space. One that is dedicated to one of the most misunderstood, most beautiful animals native to the Texas country side. An amazing predator with intellegent eyes, and a soul peircing stare. The American Bobcat. In our modern world, this animal is carving out a new nitch of exhistance amongst us. A new nitch that we do not fully understand yet. Unfortunately, at times, this ends in tragedy for this beautiful cat. The misguided misinformed “wise wise” human instinctually fears anything with fangs. Ironic, observing the homo sapien sapien‘s unbridled distruction of anything green and growing. out dated instinct is allowed to over-ride common sense, and distruction over-rides all. Perhaps it is they who would be wise to play the roll of agressor, and eradicator. Then again, perhaps they are far wiser than we give them credit for.
What I learned in this place is just the re-enforcement that in our society, anything concieved as predatory in nature is to be hated, feared, and killed. We know virtually nothing about these cats, and yet we insist that they must be shot and irradicated. Shoot first, ask questions later. No wonder thousands of species die at our hands, never having seen their own discovery by the wise wise humans that rule this world.
For those of use who have come to our senses, perhaps you would like to take this opportunity to learn some hard facts about natural predators, and see how much we still don’t know about these animals. There is nothing more right than watching an animal walk from the confines of a pen under the care of it’s temporary guardian into the wild world where it belongs.
I wish I had the means to donate monitarily to such a worthy cause. I wish I had the means to offer more help than just my time. One cannot understand the breath taking gravity of the experience at Cross Timbers until it is embraced first hand. WCCR saved my life. In no other place have I been able to refresh my connection to the natural world as I have here in this place.
The Wildlife Center at Crosstimbers Ranch
The Wildlife Center at Crosstimbers Ranch official blog 