Precious Tiny Boy -Deer

I mentioned a few posts back that I got to feed a tiny baby deer for the first time. Well here he is. His little legs and hooved were so delicate. I have never seen a deer this small before, but I hear this is small as baby deer go.



I know, I could have filmed so much more. And who doesn't want to see more baby deer getting fed with a bottle? Remember my videos are quick because I have work to do. It's a privilege to take a quick shot for my own memories of all these extraordinary experiences I've been so blessed to have, but the animal's care and comfort is paramount. So a little rather than nothing adds to my descriptions, however rushed they have been in the last many months.  I gave this little guy a bottle, but he wasn't eating so well.  He didn't feel good this day.  I was taught that it's good to stand them up rather than feed them on your lap or held between your legs while you sit on the floor.  And that the bottle has to be raised just so, so that his neck will be outstretched as he drinks, and that I should lightly cover his eyes with my free hand (I needed at least three arms to do all this), as all of that would imitate his normal nursing behavior... poking his nose under the leg or at the belly of his mother, who in the wild, would be standing and even moving around. 

I was about to write that this was the first time I've been this close to or fed a deer, but I have to remind myself of things I did which seem like a lifetime ago. I have been close to and fed a deer in an entirely different way. I was visiting Japan -- may have been in Kyoto, near all the temples.  I can't even remember when but I'd guess it was about 18- 20 years ago.  I was in a park and was told that the deer were tame, that you could offer them something to eat and they would bow to you (it being Japan).  Well, all I had was a cookie, something I would not offer an animal now, but as I mentioned, this was like another life.... Sure enough an adult deer came shyly up to me, and indeed bowed both before and after I gave it the treat. 

I was blown away then, and was again in awe to be assisting this sweet little fawn.   Sometimes I can't believe what I get to do when I go to help these creatures we share our lives with.  I may be cleaning poop and scrubbing cages and doing dishes in addition to giving away hours that could be spent in many other ways, some of them income earning.  But it never fails that I always feel I get more than I could ever give. I know you know what I mean.  And in that sense it's a common equation, but for me it still holds as one of the great mysteries of life...

A Vulture Is Born

As promised, and especially for my friend the Grizzled Scribe of Riverdaze, here is the story of the little vulture I've had the chance to care for at the Center.

Three weeks ago a man's doggie brought him something in his mouth, which he was holding very gently. The man was quite surprised to see an unusually large egg -- cream colored with a few spots -- and something was trying to poke it's way out! He rushed it to his vet, a vet who happened to know one of the women who runs the Rehab Center I volunteer for. The kindly vet dropped the egg off at the rehab woman's home. At this point, all she could see was a little beak through the cracks in the shell.

Well, the baby bird spent an exhausting night trying to get out, which was accomplished by 5 AM. What a night that must have been! While the Rehabber discerned by the color of the egg and it's markings that it was a ground nesting bird, she was delighted and surprised to discover the wet little chick that appeared was a baby black vulture. Cute as could be! She brought it in and we've been feeding it rat pups in spades, which he gobbles up with great glee!

Thanks to a long line of caring humans, not to mention one remarkable dog, this little life was protected and now he's thriving.

Here is a top view... he's dozing as it's early in the morning. But once he's up, he's literally bright eyed, eager and just plain adorable.

And yes, his "nest" is a little soiled... 'Twas first thing in the morning and I was opening the top precisely so I could clean it out for him when I snapped this picture. It was squeaky clean moments after, as I am a good housekeeper, if not for myself, for these little animals we care for. When he's awake, he sits up and is very attentive, following our every movements with his eyes. And he's quite responsive -- when I open the tank, all he wants is FOOD FOOD FOOD! I took this on Sunday and when I was back in on Tuesday it seemed he'd grown a third more.

What I think is funny is the little guy in the tank next to him, who appears as a ghostly (if not a little startled) apparition in the window!

I always think of a vulture as big, black menacing, not so pretty bird. They look more like a pet of the Adams Family that this little one. Who knew they started out in life to be so fuzzy, sweet and cute?

EVERYONE SHOULD HAVE ONE!

Just take a look at this video and you will know the wisdom and truth of my title.


I took this a little while ago, before I went out of town, and I haven't seen this lucky little goat since. I certainly do miss him (to see his story, click HERE). But I Tuesday there was another white, leaping baby like this that we took care of indoors, but it was pure white and a little LAMB! Didn't get a picture though... too busy feeding a zillion baby birds. But no one can replace the little guy above, the first goat I've ever held and fed. Awwwww!

I WAaaaaant one! Don't you?

Two Redheads and a Brunette

Three Little Pigs... Could there be such a literal embodiment of a title as this?

And yes, that's Teddy the goat who's won the hearts of this blog readers in the pen to the right. I'll have another little clip of him coming up in a week or so.
(Need I mention that once again, animals have had a crazy effect on my real grown up voice and I hear myself speaking in these movies like a complete goof-ball. Really, if you met me you'd know... this is NOT what I sound like day to day!)

Don't know where this trio of cuties came from... I suspect a confiscation by the SPCA -- so watch Animal Planet Animal Cops Houston and maybe you can tell me someday. I don't know where they went to. But they were adorable and amusing and I know with certainty that they are healthy and happy in their new home right now!

Bye Bye Birdie

Since Spring hit, more and more when I go into the center, this is what I see: A big healthy pink mouth opening wide, as if I were mama. About 200 of them, on any given day....

I can't believe that before 2 years ago, I'd never even seen a baby bird before, even a bird nesting in a tree, or babies in that nest, and now I'm FEEDING baby birds of all size and species --all the time. Some eat about every 20 minutes!

We feed them Science Diet cat food, which come in perfect sized pellets, soaked in water to make them the right consistency. It's packed with nutrients. The tiniest babies can swallow them whole, though I do break them apart and make sure to swish them between my fingers so it's more like what their mother might bring. Depending on the species, we may also feed them bits of berries and/or crickets (some with legs, some without), and meal worms. All of these are extended via a kind of tweezer that replicates a mother's beak, which we sterilized between uses per bird.

Here's a peek at tiny new born chick and two different sized mourning doves that someone brought in. I was transferring them from Triage to a nice, warm "nest" in tanks holding others of their own kind. Once settled, I'd start their feedings.

This was the first time I'd ever seen this sight, so I took a split second movie of it for my own memories. My camera could not focus when I zoomed in on the pinkie.... BTW, that is a healthy newborn -- a believe it's a Starling. At first glance I thought, oh no, this one does not look too good. He is a little more purple due a bruise from falling out of it's nest. But when I went to feed him his head leapt up, little yellow mouth popped open wide and he eagerly gulped down the morsel I offered. And the second and the third! Within a week he had beginning feathers and was strong as an ox. In another week, he was standing on the edge of the fabric stuffed tupperware cup that had been his nest fighting to get food before the others. A week later, he was testing his wings within the tank.



There are many mourning doves in a long row of tanks and those need to be tube fed with a liquid mixture that resembles more how their own mothers feed them. I'd describe it better, but you might be checking this over lunch or with your first cup of coffee and, well, it's better left in these terms.

When the birds are ready, they get transferred to the mews we have just outside, where we have propped branches and put in a bird bath. There they have lots of company and can get used to short flight and fresh air and community. After that, they go to a rehabbers home, where there is the acreage to build a flight cage. They can catch insects and hunt on the ground for food, learning from the other birds. It's the last step before the birds are released and fly free to enjoy the lives that were saved by these Centers, and go on to have babies of their own.

Just Ducky!

Look at this face!

Who couldn't love a face like this? I see this picture, or this one...

(even if it's a little blurry, the comedy still comes through)

...and I just have to SMILE

This fawn and white Indian Runner duck belongs to the zoo, and is the first animal I took out on grounds for the visitors to enjoy after I completed my animal handling training -- the last part of the close to 9 month training process it takes to become a proper docent.

This breed is aptly named, because they don't waddle, they run, and when they get where they're going, they often stamp their feet as if they are very excited, or had a lot of Starbucks. There is only one Runner in The Park, and I took a shine to him right away because of these charming antics. CLICK HERE to see him.

While this one is trained to be held, I found he was more comfortable when I set him on the top of his carrier. Think about it. Ducks are low on the food chain, and anything bigger than it, trying to hold it is akin to being caught to be eaten. While this duck was doing fine in my arms, I wanted him to be as comfortable as possible, and he was very well behaved while standing. I was impressed!

I've grown to LOVE love LOVE ducks and geese after spending quite a bit of time with them at The Park next to my house, where they reside in abundance. I've gotten to know who hangs with whom and what their personalities are like, what each pecking order is, etc. In fact, between my time there, The Zoo and The Rehab Center, I have come to have a real respect, love and appreciation for all kinds of living being that I never thought I'd feel that way about.. all because I have spent some time learning about them and observing them.

They say you can't hate someone who's story you know, and I believe this is true for animals as well. It's one of the things that attracts me to educating folks about them. The more people know about any animal, the more they may be respectful to them, teach their children and grandchildren to do so, and hopefully that will extend to caring about preserving them and their natural habitat.

It takes a lot to get a duck to trust you. This one was delightful -- well behaved (though he tried to pluck off my buttons and name tag repeatedly til I hid them) and very responsive to what I was asking of him. It's been in the triple digits here for most of the last three weeks (CLICK HERE). Though we stayed close to where he lives and I parked us in the shade, after 20 minutes he looked so hot, I packed him up to take him back for a dip.

And I think it was just the right thing to do. Without delay, he walked up his little plank and posed at the edge of his personal pond.

I took a little movie for you to see how he cools off.... At 100 degrees, I was ready to join him.



That quacking has quickly made the short list of my favorite sounds.

I look forward to taking this one out again and introducing him to many more people. And now that I've introduced him to you, what do you think?

Zen Moment

And I mean just a moment...





I've been so busy since I got back to town and I leave again July 22. I've had to play some catch up with hours at the Wildlife Rehab and the Zoo and have done some wonderful new things:

**Bottle fed a baby deer just Tuesday

** Today took my first animal ambassador out on zoo grounds on my own to teach the public about waterfowl, a Runner duck who was very well behaved and who I LOVED being that close to.

** fed a newly hatched vulture. Great story behind that one.

** saw and fed for the first time ever 5 coal black, noisy little chirping chimney swifts, a trio of night hawks, terns, barn swallows, a bluebird, many bluejays, grackles, starlings, screech owls, kill deer, herons --all babies or fledgelings.

** Met an all white baby lamb who followed us around and did little leaps much like the baby goat....

The list goes on and on. I've so many little stories to tell, and some pictures/videos to go along with them but I just haven't had the time to write anything up. Even if I could, I for the last few months I've had trouble downloading new pics. My hard drive is full and it's been a complicated thing to get it clear enough... Suffice to say, you see why the tranquility brought on by this 30 seconds of a clear natural spring rushing over the rocks (from a fall trip to Virginia, hence the leaves) is such a nice little moment of zen...

Enjoy, and hopefully I'll be able to get some new things up this weekend.

Worship at the Church of the Orally Fixated

A ways back I may have mentioned that there is a young giraffe at the zoo who always sports a mohawk. It looks like someone put hair gel down his mane from the crown of his head allll the way down that really long neck. It sticks straight up, day after day.

Then I heard about the Auntie who apparently has deemed herself his hairdresser. Keeper stories abound about this comical turn of events. But then the other day I saw one who looks much shorter doing this to a taller one. Perhaps the tables have turned. Take a look.




You'll notice that the one being groomed is ALSO licking the tall fence post that surrounds the habitat. When you think about it, it's pretty normal behavior for them. In the wild they'd be using that long dark tongue to tear off leaves from the tree tops and pull them to their back teeth to chew. They probably had to graze all day long, because you never know when the next tree will come along... But at the zoo, they get their food from their keepers, regularly so... no one goes hungry. And yet basic instincts like these don't just disappear. Now, it seems to serve to pass the time, and much to my amusement! Here's all that a little closer up.




So funny. I will be sure to ask the keeper about this again to see if I have my facts straight when I go to the zoo this week to volunteer.