This blog reflects my personal experiences and opinions and does not represent or reflect those of DierenAmbulance Nederrijn.
This morning saw pretty much the last of the snow melt away. My shift last week was quiet because the snow hid many sick and injured animals. I expected a busier shift today.
Like my last Animal Caring post, I’m going to do this bullet-point style so I can get to my Dutch lessons / animal ambulance magazine articles quicker.
- For the first hour there were only ‘secondary’ jobs to do; posting an envelope (presumably a magazine and a pen) to a donor, picking up some blankets / towels from a launderette so we can use them to wrap up dead animals, and collecting a cat trap. Other than the last, these kinds of things are usually done in transit to/from a rescue involving a live animal. They sat on the “To Do” list on my tablet for the first hour.
Dead “Cat”
- A call came in reporting a dead cat at the side of a busy road near a petrol station. As the cat was already dead there was no immediate rush. The driver was happy enough chatting to a lady who’d been a centralist but was now starting work so stopping with volunteering. She was here returning her uniform. Thankfully the current centralist suggested we leave now to pick up the cat because it’s clearly visible.
- Although we had a highway marker, we wouldn’t know the precise location until we joined the road. This meant it made more navigational sense to drop off the donor’s letter first.
- The address was in a block of flats. A sign indicated that the flat number required a trip via the “stair building” which I couldn’t find. Then luck struck! A row of letter boxes. Then disaster – the numbers didn’t go as high as the address! Another walk around the block until in despair I trundled back to the ambulance to ask the driver for help. She pointed out the letter boxes on the other side of the door included the number I needed! I felt like an idiot but at least the envelope was posted!
- And onto the cat. Finding the location was easy; a slip road running off – but adjacent to – the main road and into the petrol station.
- Even from a distance it was clear the casualty wasn’t a cat. And it was in a very bad way. Getting to it meant walking close to the busy road, so definitely a case to keep our hi-vis yellow jackets on. And thankfully there was a hedge we could walk behind until the last moment.
- The creature was a hare, and it was a real mess 🙁 When there was a clear spot on the road, I used a spade to lift it up and put it in the nearby hedge (i.e. “return it to nature“). The main body was tough enough, but it’s innards rolled around on the tarmac and was less tricky than it was sickening.
Cat Trap
- Time to pick up the cat trap on the way back to the base. There was quite a back story which was scribbled (in Dutch) on the rental form and which I didn’t understand. I checked beforehand – no deposit needed to be returned; something I fluffed up last time I paid out because I shelled out too much…!
- Coincidentally the driver had laid the trap last December so it sort of seemed fitting she was the one to pick it up – although whether it should be picked up or not in the first place was unclear. The owner had received a number of phone calls from different centralists either arranging for it to be picked up, or to let it stay longer because no cat had been caught. Annoying and unclear for the property owner. The driver called the current centralist and it was decided to pick up the cat trap now. We retrieved it from the side of the house and placed it into the ambulance. Case closed – unlike the cat trap itself. It was postulated that it hadn’t caught any cats because the mechanism had frozen in the recent snowy weather.
Dead “Dog” (chihuahua)
Note: The pictures here are hidden here by default because they’re disturbing. I’ve included them for myself not because I like them, but because seeing animals in a bad way makes me more compassionate towards them and motivates me hard to love and care for them.
Enter “gruesomepics” if you’d like to see them.
- Last job on our list was picking up the towels and sheets from the laundry. The centralist called us on our way there to draw our attention to a new job – picking up a dead dog (chihuahua) that was found (dumped?) by a paper recycling bin near some flats. We turned around immediately.
- The location was a large carpark outside a block of flats. Litter was strewn everywhere. We spotted the dog easily, despite the crap all over the place. A piece of the tail lay a few meters away.
- It was a real mess; quite unrecognisable. In any case, it didn’t look like a dog. I tried using google lens to identify it.
- A local resident, possibly the finder, joined us and pointed out the eyes were fake. I couldn’t tell. I had a spade and turned the body over. It seemed to be nothing but skin so I wondered whether an animal had been eating the body. When I moved it more it really seemed to flop over the spade. Either the finder or the driver then realised it was just the skin of an animal, and indeed, inside it was professionally ‘finished’. Underneath the head was some sort of plastic strip.
- This thing had of course been an animal at some point; it’s claws were testament to that. Sickening. And then some idiot had dumped it. Not in a bin, but in a public carpark. What a cretinous act. (Reminder: these are my thoughts and opinions and do not reflect those of DierenAmbulance Nederrijn).
- I placed the skin in a bin bag and then into the black box we use for transported deceased animals.
- On the way back to base we stopped in for a burger. It seemed odd saving animals and then eating one… It was busy and I felt too conspicuous in a bright yellow jacket so I took it off before I went inside. Of course my green ‘uniform’ was still visible and I was sent off with a “werkse!” (the “work well” version of bon appetite!) instead of “eet smakelijk!” (the Dutch version of bon appetite! 😉 )
Back at the Base
- Back at base the co-ordinator was keen to see the skin. She knew someone who might be interested in it, and wanted some photos to send him. This needed manhandling of the skin. I turned it over for her.
- Its final resting place was a fridge. The co-ordinator didn’t even want it labelled.
Poor thing 🙁
