Circle P Wildlife Rescue: December 2011

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.

Sunday, December 18, 2011

12/18/2011 Updates.

Raccoons:
We released the four Raccoons in September. We were told that the males would become independent quickly. That was right. We saw the two males (Ricky and Fred) once or twice following release and then they went their own way. Lucy and Ethyl stayed gone for a couple of weeks, then started showing up in the evenings once or twice a week. We'd feed both girls and they'd go away. Then the girls started showing up every night for a snack. Both are HUGE and very healthy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRYUT_dtxDo

The deer are doing great. All four have done very well and we expect all four to do great in the wild. We expect to release all four in January or February of 2012.

HOG WILD!!! -or- Phoebe McRib the wild pig.

12/6/2011

Bethany, a friend of Teresa's found an orphaned wild piglet. Always up for a new challenge, we took the baby off Bethany's hands. Our best estimate put the baby at about a week old. Katie, our daughter complained that she never gets to name anything. We gave Katie her shot at naming. Katie picked the name Phoebe. I (John) added a surname McRib just to irritate Katie.

We started Phoebe on Ultra 24 milk replacer and she took to it immediately. When the formula wasn't enough, we added rice cereal to the formula. A week later we started Phoebe on pig feed and gradually reduced the formula. Now Phoebe is weaned and thriving.

Having never been around pigs (we both grew up with cattle and horses) we're pretty amazed at how smart Phoebe is. She comes when called. She uses the litter box in her cage. Phoebe plays chase with the dogs (sometimes being chased and sometimes doing the chasing) and follows us around like a puppy. Phoebe is incredibly clean. For now Phoebe stays in a cage in the laundry room at night and runs around in the house during the evening.

1/5/12
Phoebe and her best buddy Steve enjoying an afternoon nap. Yes, now that you mention it, she IS lying on a throw-pillow:

Franklin the squirrel

On the first day of school, the principal at one of the schools in the district where we work called Teresa and said he had a baby squirrel and asked if we would be able to care for it. Of course the answer was YES!

The story goes that the principal was out hunting at night and heard a tiny animal crying. Looking around, the principal found a very young squirrel that had fallen from a nest. The nest was not visible and the baby had injuries that looked like something had already bitten or scratched it. Knowing it wouldn't last long on the ground, and with no possibility of returning the baby to the nest, he brought the baby home.

As soon as we got the baby home, we started him on a round of Amoxicillin and treated his wounds with Neosporin. The principal's middle name is Franklin. We named the squirrel Franklin.

Franklin has thrived!

August 2011 photos:

December 2011 photo:

Franklin is almost grown now. We will move Franklin to a larger outdoor cage where he will further develop his motor skills and get used to temperature/light cycles. Once Franklin has developed his motor skills, he will be released.

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.