This blog reflects my personal experiences and opinions and does not represent or reflect those of DierenAmbulance Nederrijn.
This was a bonus shift when there was suddenly a need for a co-driver and I could step in. And the extra bonus was I’d be working with my astro friend! I told my wife there’d probably be an interesting rescue with a cat because so far that’s been the case with this guy!
There was already a rescue waiting for us which means I could start the shift with my feet running. Being busy with a rescue means that I’m not just rescuing an animal, but ‘killing time’ until the next rescue comes in. Given the pair who were on duty before us I wasn’t surprised there was something ‘left’ for us to do, though in fairness to them I didn’t check the time of the registration.
Pigeon with a head wound
A pigeon had been found in a garden and placed into a shoe box. Mother and child were waiting with it by their front door as we approached. The notes, and the conversation we had with the lady repeatedly mentioned the pigeon couldn’t fly. Even so, the driver suggested we transfer the pigeon from the shoe box to the rescue box inside, just in case he escaped.
I must say, the pigeon gave flying a mighty good try when I grabbed him! Was I out of practice? He’d got a wing loose and I struggled to hold him – but I won! His head wound wasn’t obvious to me, but I did see that something was up (even if it wasn’t the pigeon). I’d forgotten to bring a small wooden stick with me from the ambulance which we use to hold the lid of the box shut. I held the box shut with my thumbs whilst astro-friend tried to find them in the ambulance; it took some time because the ambulance had a new layout; time in which the lady left the house and went off to work. I figured she must have been waiting for us (hopefully for not too long). I’m glad astro-friend has the same mentality as me and was happy to get started as soon as possible.
Cat Flap!
2 more items on our to-do list; rescue a concussed blackbird, or deliver some cat traps to a nearby location.
We decided to double-back and rescue the blackbird because it was a living thing in need of help, and we didn’t want to keep the pigeon waiting too long before bringing him to the rescue centre. It was gonna be 2 birds in 1 delivery! 😉
Priority Blackbird
The blackbird had flown into a window and lay on the floor for 20 minutes. The property owner was a friendly and chatty chap. He lifted a box in his garden and there was the blackbird! I didn’t know how mobile this little (brown, therefore female?) bird was, so I moved in quickly to pick her up. Like the pigeon, she was stronger than I expected. I thought this is is probably my lack of practice in recent times…
I carefully repositioned my hands around her small body and looked at her. I was amazed at her beak which she repeatedly opened and closed – it was yellow inside! She was placed into the rescue box (this time with a stick at hand!) and we headed to the rescue centre – but not before checking the cat trap situation; we didn’t have enough with us!
Wildlife Rescue Centre
The advance phone call announcing the arrival of the pigeon and the blackbird I think ended up with the head animal carer whose name I recognised. As I was in a muddle enough with the phone / language / ambulance / background noise I didn’t think to ask her if she was who I thought she was. Certainly she’d have recognised my dodgy Dutch, but she didn’t say anything either. Anyway. I forgot to tell her how long we’d be, and she didn’t ask. Hopefully she and / or the birds didn’t suffer by waiting too long for the other.
On arrival, we each took a bird to the wall of cupboards. As it turned out, the driver opened a cupboard for me and I for him. “Hoe lief zijn we voor elkaar!” It was a bit bizarre! 😉
Curious about Cats…
A new and exciting rescue had appeared on our to do list – although a bit strange: a white cat that looks black. Yep. No idea. As for the rest of the message – the cat came into someone’s house with a wound to the left of his mouth and dirty eyes. Amivedi.nl and social media lost and found pet groups had been searched but apparently this poor cat hadn’t (yet) been reported missing.
Presumably we were to see if he had a chip and then return him to his owner, or possibly put a “bell bandje” on him. This is a paper collar asking people to phone in if they see him around ‘homeless’. If he’s called in 6 times (am I remembering this right?) then we’ll pick him up.
It was a frustratingly unhelpful note the centralist had made. But first things first – I took a photo of it and sent it to my wife!
Then there’s the cat trap situation. The message instructed us to bring 2 large cages including a kitten trap. Yeah. Neither of us understood what we needed to bring either, only that we only had one of each in the ambulance. Time to head back to base and ask what on Earth we needed to do.
The centralist was watching a cat video as we walked in. A video of the cat we were now not going to rescue; he had a collar on which meant someone owned him and he may go home on his own. If we were to bring him home, there would be a 45 euro charge for the owner who might not appreciate it. And the wound and dirty eye? Likely a ‘misreading’ from the finder.
It didn’t seem right to me, but what could I do? And it instigated some worry on my side. My cat wears a collar, so does this mean if she’s lost and someone finds her the animal ambulance won’t come and rescue her?
On a side note, the co-ordinator gave me a company woolly hat! 🙂
A Spoonful of Sugar
Onto the cat traps. We needed 3; 2 large and a kitten trap. There was some kerfuffle because we took a cat trap from another ambulance which we should have taken from the shed. And it took me some time to work out how the kitten trap is set up…but I managed!
We headed out to deliver the cat traps where the need for them had turned into 2 large cat traps and no kitten trap. The property had loads of bowls laid around the house to feed and water a number of cats that either came to the property – or were attracted!
On the way there (or back, but it doesn’t really matter), the driver told me a story about a cat he was asked to pick up from a house. When he arrived he saw immediately the cat was extremely well looked after by the owner, sitting on the best chair in the house as if she owned the place! Of course the cat isn’t going to leave!
The rule is don’t feed stray cats because cats are more connected to food than people (which is really bad). So the line of thought is the same as for medicine which needs to taste bad so that recovery is encouraged. Same with cats.
Duck with a Broken Wing
Normally we don’t make a trip to rescue / pick up animals if they’re not already in a box because they might walk or fly away by the time we get there. But now the centralist saw we were close to a location where someone had called in a duck with a broken wing and asked us whether we wanted to give it a try. I was pleased (again) the driver has a good mindset for giving everything a try!
The location was by a company in a huge and ugly industrial terrain. A terrain with cycle lanes, footpaths, car parks, hedges, and water in a location far away from where any casual walker would be. We asked reception for directions, but she had no idea what was going on.
I took a photo of the tablet to get the number of the person who phoned in with the rescue and the driver gave him a call – and left a message to call us back because he didn’t pick up. We decided to look around the area anyway, starting with the stretch of water behind the building.
Trudging up and down near this waterway in our yellow hi-vis jackets seemed to invite the nearby motorway drivers to sound their horns. I was surprised, and also disturbed by the many beer cans strewn on the ground. Who’d come here for a sneaky bevvy?
After 15 minutes we realised this wasn’t going to work and we headed back to the ambulance. My hands were absolutely frozen from being exposed to the cold whilst carrying a large rescue box.
Rubbish Clothes
This task was left over by the previous shift. To be honest I can’t really blame them, but the driver was happy to collect clothes from a clothing back and bring them back to the base because basically he’s a good egg.
The strange thing is we couldn’t find the entrance to the car park outside the housing apartment where the clothes bank was, so we parked on the road. A flight of stairs took us down to the clothing container which we lugged back up the stairs so we could load the contents into the side door of the ambulance.
We headed back to base and got there 5 minutes before the official shift end. Perfect timing! The following team were already there and welcomed us onto the grounds. One of them helped unload the clothing into the storage room. He pointed out a bag which said “Paul; gezilligeheid en hoge kwaliteit” 😉 But the thing that made me the happiest is this chap often seems to give me the hard shoulder so I appreciated his acknowledgement of my existence!
Whoops…
When I got home I looked through my photos and realised I’d made a mistake. When I pulled up the photo with the duck-finder’s phone number and handed it to the driver, I’d actually opened the photo of the cat rescue I’d sent to my wife. Does this mean because of me we lost the opportunity to find the poor duck?
Update (23 February 2026): I drove on the motorway on the other side of the building where we looked for the duck. I can’t remember the instruction we had, but I noticed there’s a second building with the same company name. Did we search by the incorrect building?
