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This blog reflects my personal experiences and opinions and does not represent or reflect those of DierenAmbulance Nederrijn.
It’s a quarter of an hour before I need to leave home for my shift. Unlike my last 2 shifts, this time I’m bringing no injured animals with me. No mice, no birds, just some sandwiches for on the road in case we have another late finish.
Wounded Willow Tit or Blackcap
Goose (from the morning shift) brought to safety, we headed out to our fist rescue – a small, wounded bird that couldn’t fly any more because of a problem with his wing. The finders were out, but they’d placed the bird inside a box hanging in a paper bag on the door.
It rained and Sally was double-parked so I grabbed the hanging package myself and brought it into the side of the ambulance where I could take a look at our patient and move him into the rescue box. That’s not such a smooth operation in Ambulance 2 because the rescue boxes are accessible only from the rear entrance and I’d come in from the side. When I saw how tiny the bird was, it was back outside again to get hold of a small cloth nest. Then outside again to get a wooden stick that holds the lid shut (admittedly I should have thought ahead about this), then to the front of the ambulance to get the admin number from the tablet, back to the middle to write it down – which needed another trip to the back to get the pen.
The convenience of Ambulance 1 had spoilt me!
Birds often grab my fingers with their claws when I pick them up, and this one was no different, other than somehow it was! Just a feeling; I felt a weird connection, and I thought back to my daughters who as babies grabbed my fingers tightly with their tiny hands either in reflex or in fear. Thankfully this blackhat didn’t twist them off!
Collecting donated clothes
In some ways this was a luxury. In the past weeks we’ve been too busy to mess about with picking up clothes and instead prioritised living animals in need. Since we had only a few rescues on our list and these clothes were close, we swung by.
The clothes were closer than we’d thought; the property owner wheeled the container to us as we parked up!
There’s no designated storage space in the ambulance so the plastic bags of clothes were put on the floor, exactly in the place we need to be if, for example, we need to move a small bird into a rescue box! 😉
I handed the chap a magazine, and we set off.
Young Wounded Pigeon
The wildlife rescue centre was conveniently on the way to our next rescue, so we took the opportunity to bring the small bird there. I was saddened the goose still hadn’t been collected 🙁
The young pigeon we picked up was found on the front doorstep of a house. I thought afterwards this was like a messenger pigeon delivering a message and collapsing in a heap when his job was done. Not this one though; there were a couple of trees nearby, and the thought was he may have fallen out of a nest in one of them.
Apparently he couldn’t walk with his left leg and tried to fly but with no luck. Indeed, he had a lot of life in him when I picked him up and placed him into the rescue box. The admin mentioned he had small bald areas, but I saw none.
Finder’s usually find a box like a shoe box that I reach inside from the top. This has a bit of a surprise element because I can’t see where the bird is before the lid is taken off so I need to be quick. But it does have the advantage that reaching from the top means I can grasp and hold the bird’s wings against its body easily.
The box this finder used opened from the side (this confused me at first; the finder came to help!) which meant I could worry less about the pigeon escaping, but it made it much harder to grab him. I caught hold of his small body whilst his wings were open then I gently pushed him against the inner sides of the box to encourage the bird to fold his wings. Then I could hold them.
Pigeon chased by a dog
Thankfully this rescue doesn’t get headed as “Dog attack” – although may be it should be…
Last night, a young pigeon flew into some bushes in panic when she was chased by a dog. The finder (and owner of the dog) told us the dog didn’t touch the pigeon, but they noticed the pigeon sat still and suspected something was wrong. They moved her under a laundry basket and asked us for help, knowing that the pigeon was highly stressed.
When we arrived on scene the following day, a couple of children lead us to the laundry basket whilst the parent held back their beautiful large dog. The basket was positioned in a corner and next to some outside furniture which made it difficult for Sally and I to reach it – but we managed together! 🙂
There was a lot of life in this pigeon and as neither of us could see any wounds we thought we’d see if she was ready to fly away. I set her on the garden floor but she stayed still – and that’s when I saw her right wing hung oddly. I picked her back up and placed her into the rescue box.
Incidentally, the finder warned me about banging my head against a lamp that hung low by the garden furniture. Warning heeded, I avoided it. Once. The other 2 times, not so well…
The children were happy to receive a magazine, as well as a colouring page – which I also handed to a couple of neighbour kids who were evidently friends – and curious about what was going on! (Naturally, the finder was happy to have his magazine too!)
We brought the pigeon straight to the wildlife rescue centre.
Stray Mother Cat with 5 Kittens
My first kitten rescue!!! But there’s a sad side to it.
A lady found and looked after a stray cat when she saw she was pregnant. The cat gave birth to 5 kittens, and the lady looked after the new family for a week. During this time she naturally felt a strong bond and connection with these beautiful creatures, but she also knew her personal circumstances meant that it might be difficult to keep them.
Painfully, she called the animal ambulance who arranged for us to bring the mother cat and her kittens to a shelter where they’d be checked by a vet, socialised, and efforts made to find a loving family for them in a suitable home.
When we came inside we saw the gorgeous mother cat sitting in a box with her 5 kittens. I didn’t realise how small kittens are! The mother was protective, but also curious. She climbed out of the box and approached me. I was already on the floor extending my hand so she could smell it and get acquainted with me.
Sally spoke with the finder as I spent some time with the mother. I think she was a “lapjes” cat – mostly white with grey patches. The kittens were mixtures of different colours, each of them no bigger than my guinea pigs. They were barely able to open their eyes, let alone walk! The mother licked them clean and kept them warm with her own body heat. I longed to pick one up and hold it, but I knew I couldn’t rush.
That said, before I knew it, Sally was on the floor too, stroking the mother and picking up a kitten!
We’d brought 2 pet caddies inside with us, but thought later it would be best to keep mother and children together in just one of them. One loaded from the top which I thought would be easier to move the cats into than the other which loaded from the side. But Sally explained that the clasps on the side that ensured the top and bottom sections were fastened weren’t reliable.
Easy decision; we’d use the other. I thought placing the mother into the caddy first would be best because placing the kittens in there first effecticly means taking them (temporarily) away from their mother. Thankfully Sally knew otherwise; placing the babies in there first meant the mother would follow
Pure balls of lovable sweetness! How I loved holding them!
(And yes, the mother followed them into the caddy!)
It was difficult for the finder to let the cats go. This is understandable for any human being with a beating heart. I tried to console her; I felt like a bad guy taking her loved – and loving – cats away from her. As Sally reminded me – she’d contacted us, and she knew she was doing what was best for the cats. I gave her the rescue number that’s tied with the cats and left her in tears 🙁
To double-check that the cat was indeed a stray, we needed to see if the mother was chipped. We decided to do this in the ambulance. The sort-of-new chip reader can detect a chip from a greater distance than the old one we used. I hoped this meant it could read from the outside of a pet caddy; in this case it didn’t, so it meant we needed to open up the caddy and get the reader closer to the cat.
Seeing as there was no space inside the ambulance because of the bags of donated clothes on the floor, there was only 1 place left – inside the cage where we put loose larger animals like dogs! I crawled inside with the pet caddy, and Sally shut the grilled gate behind me. The thought was that if the mother cat came out of the caddy she wouldn’t escape and be free in the ambulance, but now I think of it, she’d have easily been able to squeeze through the rails.
Anyway. She didn’t come out of the caddy, and the chip reader found no chip. This was good news in a way because if the cat had an owner, why hadn’t they realised their cat was pregnant? Also good news was Sally letting me out of the cage, although now I think about it again, I wonder if she only opened the cage to get to the pet caddy with the adorable cats! 😉
Sally called an external driver and arranged for him to meet us back at the base. He’d then take the cats (and the signed finder’s form) to the shelter.
Ah yes. I suppose this is the reason for the finder’s form where the finder declares that the animals they’ve found are not theirs. This prevents the case, for example, that these cats are checked, vaccinated and possibly sterilised(?) at the cost of the shelter, and then reclaimed by the finder as their pet, having received free medical care. It’s very untrusting, but presumably it’s previous unscrupulous ‘finders’ who’ve behaved in this way which means all finders are treated as possibly suspicious 🙁 It’s cretins like this who blow up aeroplanes and the rest of us can’t take water with us.
Back at the Base
We handed the cats to the external driver who waited for us. This saved a huge amount of aggravation; there’d have been endless discussions about the situation whilst we waited if he wasn’t there yet. Some of his family members were present and I gave a child a magazine and colouring sheet. He was really enthusiastic, and it’s sprogs like him – and the others by the non-dog-attacked pigeon – who give me more faith in the wonder of children!
We unloaded the clothes, incidentally in the same room as the fridge where we’d placed the deceased, cleaned cat earlier. I checked: he wasn’t there any more so he’d been collected by his owners. So that’s 2 sets of people with a deceased pet cat, and a finder who’s also ‘lost’ 6 cats. A tough day for cat owners 🙁
For the first time in weeks we’d finished ‘on time’. Sounds cheesy, but a 9-5 work mentality really doesn’t work here, but when you do finish on time, it’s a bonus (not expected)!
On reflection, I feel I didn’t pick birds up well today. I seemed to have difficulty getting the wings under control. I’m not sure whether this is me, the birds, or a bit of both, but in any case I managed and I’m thankful for that.
And I also feel I need to improve some Dutch consolation skills. Loving humans like the cat owners today deserve more from me.
