This blog reflects my personal experiences and opinions and does not represent or reflect those of DierenAmbulance Nederrijn.
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Yesterday I received a message from the animal ambulance that a case of bird flu has been reported at a farm in a local town. There’s a 10 km transport ban in effect around it, although this transport ban does not apply to the animal ambulance. (I’m not gonna risk it though…) We were also told that birdflu has also been detected in wildlife in several other locations in the Netherlands (not yet in our area).
In one of my training days we learned how to put on the bits and pieces of a protective suit against this kind of thing in the right order. Now it seems this might become more of a field task than a practice – but if only I had a shift…
Moments later (and hopefully coincidentally) someone called in sick and asked for a replacement. Healthy greetings sent over the ether then I jumped at the chance to finally do some more rescues after nearly a month!
Preps
My first task is checking the ambulance is well-stocked for the shift ahead. This morning it was especially important to check we had enough bird flu protective gear with us. We did – although I noted there was only 1 protective suit instead of 2. The driver didn’t seem happy with me getting a second, so I made him agree that I’d be the one wearing it if there was a case where it was necessary! 😉
Cat cage
We had an appointment with a local primary school to deliver a cat cage. The agreement was they weren’t going to set it until the children had gone home in the afternoon. This was to make sure they were going to catch a cat and not a child!
The teacher welcomed us in the carpark and directed us to a door at the side of the building where she wanted the cage stored. The cage isn’t heavy, but it’s bulky. And I had a clipboard (forms come with me everywhere), cat food (as bait), a pile of magazines and a phone to carry too. I was glad the driver gave me a helping hand!
An army of curious children besieged us on the playground. My daughters are teenagers, so I’d forgotten how small human beings can be! These ones gathered around our feet which made getting through them – and their toys – quite a challenge! By the time we reached the door of the storage room the teacher had caught up with us.
The kids were a happy, cheerful bunch, even when the driver told them the cage was for catching them! Most laughed back and told him it was OK because they were a cat – except one who was a kitten (with paws)!
The driver showed the teacher how to set the cage. The door slides upwards and balances on a pin. It’s activated by the cage floor which is spring loaded so when the cat enters, the door drops closed behind it. There’s a gap between the floor and the closed door to ensure that the cat won’t lose their tail vie guillotinic amputation. He triggered the floor from outside the cage to show the teacher and the excited children how it drops the door.
The teacher repeated the procedure to make sure she understood. And for reasons known only to education staff, decided to stick her hand through the open trap door to touch the cage floor trigger! About half of the children screamed “No Miss!” in pantomime style whilst I and the driver darted forward to pull her hand free!
I asked her to sign the cage hire form. No deposit was necessary because she wasn’t catching her own cat – and this also meant there wasn’t the possibility of me paying her back too much later! She was happy to receive a magazine, and I also handed her a pile of “Junior Editions” for the school children.
Moles and Cat Feet
For the next 2 hours I understood why only one team works a shift during these Autumn months instead of two like in summer – there were no other rescue calls 🙁
It happened that the gardening team were around today and had brought some cookies to share (nice people! 🙂 ). They were having difficulties outside and told us about them during their break. Just behind our building is a sports field which uses a robot lawnmower. Moles don’t like the vibrations it makes on and in the ground, so they leave and come to somewhere more peaceful. In this case, our gardens!
The gardeners bought a electric device which sends vibrations into the ground. The idea is the moles will go elsewhere. And just to make sure, they’ve got another device which sets of a horrible shrieking noise every now and then. I figure I’d make a good mole because I can’t stand that noise either.
Aside: On the subject of unwanted beasts on our grounds, I discovered a while ago that there are martens in the area. They crawl under the ambulances and nibble brake cables and things which is why they’re parked on metal grids. Now I think of it, I hope it’s because martens don’t like walking on them so don’t, rather than being electrocuted on an electric grid if they do.
Few people can talk about moles for 2 hours, so attention turned to the chair legs.
And as nice as these chair legs are with their footsy covers, that conversation isn’t going to last long either! Out of impatience / frustration I kept checking the tablet for incoming rescues – even though the centralist chatted with us too (because no calls were coming in!
Finally a call did come – and the animal needed our attention.
Robin Red Breast
Someone found a robin red breast in trouble in their garden, but it flew away before he was able to catch him. Today, 3 days later, the robin returned and the property owner was able to catch him. The report said that the finder thought the bird might be sick.
The journey there
On the way to the robin we saw council workers using leaf blowers in the forest(!). And another one on the pavement blowing leaves from a grass verge onto the busy road. This has nothing to do with animal rescue (probably the opposite for local woodland wildlife…) but here it is in this post, as there it was in actual real life…
Also spotted on the way was my wife! She waited to cross the road from our left but somehow hadn’t seen us. The driver asked me why I didn’t wave. The answer was simple; I wanted to blow her a kiss, but since the driver sat between us I didn’t want to risk it! 😉
Pickup and Drop Off
The finder waited by her open door as we pulled up. I greeted her and asked her if she had a robin for us.
Where in English we often shorten “robin red breast” to simply “robin”, the Dutch call it a “red breast”. In other words, as I put on my blue hygienic gloves I asked this elderly lady if she had a red breast for us…
Her husband rushed to the door holding the robin in his bare hands. Not a wise move, particularly if you believe the robin is sick. But he explained he saw the chance to catch it, so he took it. I can understand this; I did the same with a cat a few weeks ago.
He put it straight into the rescue box for us, signed a rescue centre form, and I handed him a magazine. It turned out to be the junior edition, so I swapped it out for the ‘proper’ version.
We brought the robin to the rescue centre, passing a kid on a bike giving us a fist-pump of encouragement! 🙂
A bit out of chronology, but when I got home I remembered the story that a robin’s breast is red because it was under Jesus’ cross and blood dripped on him. Yet we associate the robin with Christmas and not Easter because they’re more active in the winter!
Not such a Fat Goose
Another rescue! A goose had been spotted in a nearby nature park, but although his eyes were clear and alert, he couldn’t fly because he couldn’t stand or walk with his legs.
The centralist noted the goose was suspected to have bird flu (bird flu symptoms include “nerve symptoms, such as turning with the head, crippled walking, keeping the wings low and not being able to fly anymore” (Reference: Dutch Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority), so we were advised to use protective gear.
It was going to be an interesting ‘rescue’ – finding the goose (we had only an approximate location in a large area) and determining whether the goose did indeed have bird flu (surprising because as rescue workers we have no medical training). If we did suspect something, we were to call the rescue centre and they’d come to put the goose to sleep.
Unfortunately, there were only 10 minutes left on our shift and the driver was keen to get back to the base and then home. 10 minutes didn’t give me much time to convince him otherwise, so sadly (for me) this rescue went to the following team.
When we got to the base I told them about their upcoming excitement and that they needed a second protective suit. They were just as excited as I was! By the time I was home I regretted not hanging around with them as a third wheel. My wife tried to console me by telling me not to unnecessarily put myself at risk (true) but there’s a large part of me that wonders what I’ll do next time something like this happens.
Anyway. Despite rescuing only 1 robin (and hopefully a cat), it was a really nice shift and I was happy I got to do it after a break that’s been way too long!
