the good, the bad, and the kitty

Today I took a wildlife rehabilitation workshop through the Wapsi River Wildlife Project, located near Anamosa, IA. It was my first real foray into rehabbing – I got some very valuable information and got to meet Ruby, a 2 1/2 week old raccoon that rehabber Gayla is working with. The woman who found Ruby had been feeding her goat’s milk by mistake, so Gayla took to bottle-feeding her a formula that she hoped would flush out the goat’s milk and get Ruby on the road to a healthy adolescence. Two of Ruby’s siblings had already passed away from the goat’s milk, so hopefully Ruby will recover and get healthy enough to be released back into the wild someday. Now, however, at just 2 1/2 weeks, her little eyes aren’t even open yet. Of course I snapped some photos!

The coolest part about today is that the hosts of the workshop, Cynthia and Tane, set me up with the paperwork I need to get my wildlife rehabilitator license through the Iowa DNR. I will do a two-year apprenticeship with a licensed rehabber before I can be fully on my own, but hey…I’m finally on my way.

Next weekend, I will start my rehabber training at the raptor center — so that will be yet another wild adventure. Stay tuned!