Circle P Wildlife Rescue: Faith

Who we are... and who we aren't

Who we are:

We are John and Teresa. We live in rural Rains County, Texas. We both grew up involved in farming and ranching. We learned how to care for animals from our parents.

John's dad worked for the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Inmates working on the grounds of the prison frequently found injured/orphaned small animals. These inmates knew who to bring the animals to: John's dad. Dad brought the animals home where John's mother and older sister bottle-fed them and nursed them back to health. When they were old enough to survive in the wild, they were released. Seems like there was always a baby ground squirrel, rabbits and other small animals living in a shoebox under the bathroom vanity.

Teresa started caring for orphaned babies on her own as a child. Growing up on a working ranch, Teresa frequently found injured and orphaned animals. Teresa raised baby Cottontail Rabbits on a regular basis - something few people are able do successfully.

When we first got married, we rescued and/or rehabilitated several dogs, a pigeon with one wing (result of a hawk attack) and a baby dove. We lived in town at that point and didn't really have a place to keep wild animals, but we did what we could.

In 2008 we decided, for a number of reasons to move away from the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex. We found a few acres with a small house and a barn on it just outside Emory, Texas. The owner of the property was an elderly man named John Hagen.

Mr. Hagen was an amateur conservationist and had home-made bird boxes of every size all over the property. One housed a colony of bees; Some housed flying squirrels; Others had owls, ducks, Bluebirds, etc. As John showed us around, we knew we'd found home. We bought the place from John and made friends with him. John was in poor health when we met him, and within a year of our meeting him, John died. We miss John very much and hope he would be pleased with our efforts.

What we believe:

We are conservative Christians and our work with wild animals is an attempt to give our testimony and to serve and honor God.

God created the animals:

Genesis 1:25 - God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.

God cares about the animals:
Luke 12:6 Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God.

God gives each person gifts or abilities to use in His service.

1 Corinthians 12:1 Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant.
1 Corinthians 12:7 - But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man
1 Corinthians12:8 - For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit;
1 Corinthians 12:9 - To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit;

We use our meager abilities to help these animals survive. We house, care and feed them until they are mature enough to survive on their own in the wild, and then we return them to where they are supposed to be - in the wild.

Who we aren't.
We're NOT animal rights activists. We believe these people are misguided and few of them ever lift a finger to actually help an animal. Most are quite content to make spectacles of themselves protesting outside a fried chicken restaurant or throwing red paint on people wearing fur coats. Not our cup of tea.

We're NOT against hunting or fishing. We believe hunting and fishing are very valid methods to keep animal populations within healthy boundaries, ensuring enough natural resources for all the wild animals to thrive. We support hunting as a source of healthy meat and have no qualms with hunters using wild game to feed their families.

We don't make pets of the wild animals, as much as we love them, it'd be a terrible disservice to them. They were born in the wild and that's where they're supposed to live.

Legalities: We are working to get our license from Texas Parks and Wildlife. In the meantime, we volunteer and are listed as sub-permitees of a larger wildlife rescue/rehabilitation operation in Terrell, Texas.

We are legally authorized to treat, house and transport wild animals.

Saturday, September 18, 2010

Faith

In August of 2010, our neighbor Buddy told us he knew of an injured/orphaned fawn some folks had rescued and were trying to take care of. The people who had the baby deer needed help and wanted to find someone who could take care of her. Buddy told them he knew some people who could handle the job.

When we went to pick up the fawn, she was in reasonably good health and had been taken care of - she was well fed and appropriately hydrated. The story goes that some dogs had scared the fawn and had chased it from the woods onto a neighbor's porch. Once the dogs had the fawn cornered, they began to jump at her and bite her, looking for a good hold so they could drag her down and kill her. Just about this time the owner of the house heard a commotion on his front porch and went to investigate. The homeowner chased the dogs away and took the frightened, injured fawn inside. The homeowner treated the wounds as best he could and the fawn moved into the house for a day or two. The homeowner quickly realized having a small deer running around the house wasn't the greatest thing in the world (deer urine stinks SO bad!). The homeowner turned the fawn over to his neighbor and that neighbor is who told Buddy they needed help.

We took the fawn home and Teresa named her "Faith". We treated the dog bites with over-the-counter antibiotic cream and they healed quickly. We introduced Faith to vegetables and she ate like a little pig. Faith gained weight over the next couple of weeks and was soon ready to transition to a pre-release facility where she would be put with other orphaned fawns in an outdoor setting, which would allow her to mature while learning to interact with other deer and to have as little contact with humans as possible. We were concerned that Faith had been around three different families by this point and might have imprinted on humans to the point that it wouldn't be possible for her to survive in the wild. Within minutes of being put with the other fawns, Faith didn't want much to do with us. Within two weeks, she is back to being wild - she wants nothing to do with people and runs away from human contact. It is apparent that Faith will do just fine in the wild. We see Faith every few days and she is growing and thriving. By early fall, she'll be ready for release into the wild.

Random Faith photos:

Initial triage - contusions all over face and nose

Head contusions.

Contusions near the eye.

Our daughter takes a nap with Faith on Day-1

Faith assists with school preparations.

Mattie. Faith's new mama.


All healed up, feeling fat and sassy. Faith meets her new buddies at the per-release pen.

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Six baby skunks - July 2009

We learned of six baby skunks at a business in Arlington, Texas. SKUNKS! Nobody likes skunks, right? But they're part of God's creation and they were babies. Nothing deserves to starve to death and we weren't willing to sit back and let that happen. Mom was nowhere to be found, and given their proximity to a major roadway, it was pretty likely she had been hit by a car. When we initially got the call, we were told ONE baby skunk was wandering around during the daytime, begging food from employees. When we arrived and did some investigating, we discovered the skunk's den - there were SIX of them. All were hungry and dehydrated. We captured them, fed them and got them hydrated then turned them over to a skunk specialist. Although we'd both worked with animals since we were kids, these six babies made us keenly aware of two things - we needed more training and we needed to get much more deeply involved in rescue/rehab.

Three infant Eastern Grey Squrrels - Georgia, Debbie and Larry

2/12/2010 - These little bugs were abandoned by their mother after the tree that housed their nest fell in an ice storm. They are less than a week old in this photo. We gave mom every opportunity to come back, but after a few hours it was clear that she'd gone and wasn't coming back. Time was not on our side; one baby had fallen into the snow and appeared to be dead. Cold to the touch, no detectable heartbeat or respiration. I picked him up, held him in my cupped hands and blew my warm breath on him. After a minute, I was certain I felt him move. I passed him over to Teresa, so she could continue to warm him up while I got the other two from their destroyed nest. The electricity was out because of the ice storm, so we wrapped all three in a towell and sat them near the wood stove in our living room. Within minutes, all three were moving and hungry! We named them Debbie, Georgia and Larry.