Circle P Wildlife Rescue: 5/16 - WHAT A DAY!!! ...and an abandoned mini donkey on 5/17/12

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.

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

5/16 - WHAT A DAY!!! ...and an abandoned mini donkey on 5/17/12

In one day, Katie and I made a dashing trip to pick up Bandet in Dallas. Meanwhile, at school, Teresa had four Barn Swallows turned in. While this was going on, one of our miniature donkeys (Alice) had her baby. So we had five wild animals to triage and one new donkey to keep a watchful eye on. Turns out Alice is a great mother and Wendy has no worries at all.

Alice and Wendy.

5/17/12

Domesticated animal story:

The thing that makes Alice stand out is that she's a great mother. The next one stands out because she's NOT a great mother.

After a busy day on 5/16, and with plenty of work to do with new arrivals, Teresa took the day off. When I got home from my morning bus route, we sat out by the stock tank to enjoy a cup of coffee. As we sat there, something on the far bank caught our attention. Is that another baby donkey? Yes it is. Why is it alone? Don't know, but we better get to checking. We found that Daisy, another of our donkeys who had been pregnant yesterday, was not pregnant now. Clearly Daisy had dropped her baby then promptly abandoned it. We put Daisy in a pen by herself then put the baby in with her. The baby tried to nurse, and Daisy promptly kicked it, knocking it down. Then for the coupe d'grasse Daisy tried to stomp the baby while it was down. I shoved Daisy sideways away from the baby while Teresa scooped the baby up and got it out of the pen. Now on top of the new arrivals, we had a baby donkey to bottle feed.

We milked as much as we could from Daisy - the initial milk from mama provides colostrum, which is essential for survival. We got some, but not enough. We put the baby on a colostrum supplement, but that didn't work either. We had to something fast or this baby would die. Our vet was able to do a transfusion and give the baby the colostrum it needed to survive. Now the baby (named Marvin by our daughter) is doing great. Marvin stays in a pen outside during the day and comes in at night. As he gets older, he'll be able to stay outside in his private pen overnight. We feed Marvin by bottle. Marvin's psycho mother is still here, but will be sold at auction soon. Marvin is thriving.

The circular shaved area on Marvin's neck is the transfusion site.

Marvelous Marvin
aka Starvin' Marvin
aka Dinkey Donkey

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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.