(header image created with microsoft co-pilot)
Great Co-Driver
I don’t know how it happened – I signed up to be a co-driver for this shift and ended up as driver! The co-driver I was partnered with started at the same time as me back in May and had been building up experience with shifts at an incredible rate so I knew she had a great work mentality! This was destined to be a good shift! 🙂
(Incidentally, she’s the one I nearly killed with a cuddly toy snake. Yes. You read that right. A cuddly snake!)
When I expressed at the base I was a bit worried about spending a whole shift navigating and driving, snake girl was quick to offer to drive to relieve me (see what I mean about that work mentality! 😉 ) I must admit I was tempted, but I wondered that when I got home would I regret not trying? Yes. So I’d better grab the bull by the horns!
Unfeathered Friend
The first bull to grab was a tiny bird that had fallen out of its nest from somewhere up on the 3rd row of roofing tiles. It was tiny – barely 3 cm long – and because it was unfeathered, looked like a tiny chicken. The finders were a young family and they had placed it in a box with a bottle of warm water and a nest made of paper towels.
The little thing looked so vulnerable that I was afraid I’d injure him just by touching him. So I scooped up the paper nest with the bird in it and placed it into an rescue box with a hot water bottle. Snake girl realised it wasn’t hot enough so asked one of the finders to make it warmer. Meanwhile we took the bird out of the paper and placed him into a rolled up blanket.
The young child and parent followed us to the ambulance whilst we made the bird more secure. Snake girl had the idea to put him into a small nest so that he wouldn’t roll as the ambulance turned corners.
Cat…litter?
We needed to bring him to the rescue centre, but another call-out had just come in and it was en route; collecting a dead kitten. This little creature had been found near the road, and because there were lots of small children around, taken out of view by being placed into a supermarket plastic bag and left by a tree. Some “Bag for Life“. It made me wonder. Normally I’d moan about leaving litter – let alone plastic – but now the next time I see a plastic bag on the side of the road I’ll worry about its contents.
We couldn’t find a chip on the kitten, but I was reminded that this didn’t necessarily mean that the kitten had no owner. I remembered I’ve never yet used the chip reader and found a chip…is this thing faulty? This time snake girl used it. She works at a rescue centre so knows her onions. And how to use the chip reader.
I’ll probably say this as many times as I find no chip on a cat but…
Chip your feline friend!
As there was some blood on the body, we kept the kitten in the plastic bag and laid her in a black box. The ambulance we used was small so it’s very cluttered in the back, which meant putting the box in a slide-secure spot was tricky. We found a space and used a coat to hold it fast.
Alarm at the Rescue Centre
We brought the bird to the rescue centre, specifically to the coldly efficient cupboard system – a wall of cupboards with empty boxes which get exchanged for a box with a bird in it. When the cupboard is closed, we also push a knob which sounds an alarm inside to let the staff know a creature has just been delivered that needs attention. (A phone call beforehand also helps…)
In this case, our young, featherless friend was in need of heat, so we put him in a special cupboard that has a heater in it to keep him warm. This is really important for small, young birds. Because we don’t get to pick up a clean empty box I needed to grab one from another cupboard. Somehow I accidentally hit the alarm bolt whilst the door was open – so not only could the door not close, but the people inside would be alarmed and looking for an animal in the (open) cupboard.
In hindsight I should have called to let the staff know that there was one less cupboard available. Another learning point.
Kitten Preparations
We brought the dead kitten back to the office where we cleaned her and tried to make her suitable for presentation should her owner pick her up. I’d cleaned a cat the day before, so somehow that made me the ‘expert’, but as usual I was pleasantly surprised at how quickly snake girl dug in and got involved. We washed the kitten with warm water and a comb, and used a powerful hairdryer to dry her afterwards. If you’ve ever doubted how jet engines blowing a bit of air out the back of an aircraft is sufficient to lift 80,000 kg into the sky, try standing behind this air dryer.
A particularly gruesome part of making the kitten look presentable was using some glue on a wound to stop the bleeding. This was difficult for me; a confirmation that this was an inert body and no longer a living creature; I wouldn’t put glue on a live animal.
The kitten’s details were sent to the internal Lost and Found whatsapp group to be later shared on social media so she could be found by his owner, as well as on a website dedicated to reuniting missing pets with their owners.
Generally, the more information that can be given about a cat is better, and there are specified ways of describing particular features or attributes such as colour(s) or patterns as well as distinguishing markings that may be unique. This is why we had a long discussion whether this cat had “white socks” or “white boots”!
Number 2 Salescat
Our last call was also cat related – a cat had been visiting a car sales showroom, and the cheeky little thing, apart from avoiding capture, had taken to using one of the offices as his toilet. Our task was to lay down a cat trap. Again, this is something I did yesterday, so expert me again! 😉
I remembered the driver yesterday giving clear instructions on not just how to set up the trap, but also on when it should be opened / closed to ensure that the cat wouldn’t be trapped for more than an hour. And like a previous awesome co-driver, snake girl was amazing in conveying this to the people in the garage. (She put this down to her own work in a rescue centre, but I still think she deserves a lot of credit!)
(see “How to Survive and Thrive in the Netherlands” for an insight on how the Dutch deal with compliments! 😉 )
And this time I could find the right form quickly! 😉
I will also compliment myself a bit here too. I reversed the ambulance into what I thought was quite a tight spot. This van is pretty much one huge blind spot. In fact, it’s several blind spots welded together. (Although I will once again thank snake girl for assisting me a lot with the maneuver – and especially turning off the ridiculous Dutch roundabouts where orbiting cyclists effectively undertake and have right of way.). Final result shown in the photo – and it wasn’t me who left the mess on the right! 😉
End of an awesome shift
By the end of the shift I was shattered! But I was pleased I forced myself to drive, and I think I did OK with cleaning the kitten and laying down the trap. Similar to working on an earlier shift with another recent starter, I really liked working with snake girl who was also relatively new, because it meant we could simply do stuff and learn together! 🙂
The only downside? We’re not allowed to switch on the Animal Ambulance sirens and blue flashing lights!
