A Broken Beginning
I needed to cycle the 7 km to the animal ambulance this afternoon.
Perhaps a welcome relief to be on 2 wheels where the police couldn’t pull me over and fine me for unknown reasons. My wife quipped it was still possible if my back light didn’t work. Guess what fell off on the way…
I was able to find it back again, but only 2 of the 3 batteries. A lot of guilt about leaving a battery somewhere in nature, but I really couldn’t find it. Luckily I had a spare light with me I’d be able to use on the way home in the dark. (It later transpired there were only 2 batteries and not 3…!)
Our first rescue involved meeting someone at 14:00 at a house in the local town. Intrinsically, local towns are usually local and not far away, but the travel time, given the nonsensical roadworks, meant that we’d be lucky to make it. My phone rang just as the driver arrived at the base. It was the vet calling me about my own cat who’d had surgery last week and was returning my call regarding some queries. I had to take it.
During this time the driver and the co-ordinator prepared the ambulance. I felt guilty about this, but I couldn’t help it.
5 Cats, 2 Rabbits and 3 Guinea pigs
There’s a Dutch expression “2 flies with 1 clap” which means accomplishing 2 things at the same time. This rescue was 5 times as great because these 10 animals were all in the same rescue!
The resident of a house was moving out and giving these 10 animals up for adoption. The paperwork had already been arranged, so our task was collecting the animals (and payment for the service) and transport them all to the animal shelter. We were in the small ambulance so finding space for all of the extra animal boxes was a struggle (…so I’d heard; I was struggling with my emotions about my own (adopted) cat).
Satnav told us we’d be late for our appointment with the resident and their carer, so we phoned them to let them know we’d be a bit late. The carer waited outside for us and shrugged off the extra 10 minutes he’d waited for us because he was simply so grateful we were there to catch the animals.
Enormous Cat Litter
His gratitude was easily understood when he lead us inside the house, which as the driver later commented, was more like an enormous cat litter than a house.
The stench of ammonia hit us like a hammer on an anvil as we walked inside. There was animal crap and old food all over the floor, dirty cat litter boxes overflowed. Amongst it all, 5 cats and 3 rabbits ran loose; the guinea pigs were in 2 large pens.
All that said, the animal owner clearly loved their animals. They were vaccinated and had had regular visits to the vet to make sure they were healthy. Giving them up for adoption must have been a hard decision.
And to work…
We found out very quickly that none of these animals were tame! They hid behind, under and within the furniture, as they did with the many boxes and bags piled up and strewn around the property. As soon as we spotted an animal and made our way gently towards it, the creature hurtled away from us as soon as we got anywhere near. And each failed attempt to catch an animal made that particular animal more nervous and stressed.
Our plight was made all the worse because we needed to match the animals with animal-specific boxes – the cats couldn’t go into a box designed for rabbits, and vice versa. (“Designed” means “has the right size for”). So whilst one of us held a box ready for a cat, attention needed to be on catching a cat, when for example, a rabbit might have been nearer at the time.
It was no wonder the carer was glad of our help – though after 20 minutes I wondered what kind of help we’d ever be able to give!
“A Bird in the hand is worth 2 in the bush.”
You don’t say!!!
The first capture was a rabbit, and the second followed quickly after that. The cats were terrifying! They hissed and bared their teeth, and my goodness…those eyes staring us down, just daring us just to even try come any closer!
Cat Attack!
In desperation, the driver went back to the ambulance to get a net, although we both knew using it couldn’t possibly be practical given the clutter in the rooms. Whilst she was away, the animal owner somehow managed to catch one of the cats…by her tail!!! The cat hung upside down, squirming like crazy trying to escape. For clarity, holding a tail – let alone picking up a cat by a tail – is never good! I rushed over to take the cat from the owner, planning to hold it tight until the driver came back and could help me get it into a box.
Plans are great aren’t they? So are cats at not being held if they don’t want to be, and I’ve got scratches and blood stains to prove it. And still no cat.
Cat Capture!
When the driver came back with the net, she also brought a new release of energy. I’ve got no idea how she managed it, but she caught one within 5 minutes of getting back. An enormous one was a bit slower than the rest, and I managed to semi grab hold of him as he ran up (on the far side of) a curtain. Trouble was he’d got to the top and had nowhere to go, and as sure as his feline instincts told him, he wasn’t going to come down! He buried his unclipped claws into the wood of the window frame and simply clung there!
Simple for him! For me it was more complicated. The (stinky) curtain was between my face and the lower body of the cat so I couldn’t see anything. My arms were reaching upwards, holding him under his forelegs desperately hoping he wasn’t going to turn his head and give me a bite. Meanwhile the driver was getting the box ready, and thankfully for my aching arms, the cat allowed himself to fall gently into the box.
2 more cats hid behind waist high furniture. One of these was the little devil who’d hissed and scratched me earlier, the other was a kitten. Both were clearly frightened. The driver was brilliant! She managed to stop the devil from snarling and as I brought the box close, the kitten jumped up and straight into it! That was a stroke of pure luck for us and we closed it quickly before she changed her mind.
As I put the box with the others and came back with another, I was relieved to see the driver already holding the devil! Heaven knows how she did that, but the box was ready and with more than a lot of persuasion, the cat decided it might be OK to be in there for a while.
In all this time I wondered how were these cats were ever brought to the vet for their checkups and vaccinations?!!
Guinea Pigs
We turned next to the 3 guinea pigs. I’ve had guinea pigs at home for years so I’m used to handling them, so getting them into their boxes was refreshingly easy!
Last (or Lost?) Cat
One more cat to go – but if only we could find him! We had a plan to carefully search the property room by room, and as each was declared cat-free we could close the door to that room. The trouble was we could never be certain a room was cat-free because they were so messy and impossible to tell whether a cat was hiding somewhere within!
At one time we thought we heard it, but it turned out to be the little devil hissing in his cage!
There were some logistical problems regarding keys and carer and access to the property, but we left a cat trap there, and arranged for it to be set on a couple of days later when staff could regularly check whether the last cat had been caught.
Finishing Up
The paperwork had already been completed at the base, so it was only a matter of payment before we could leave with 9 animals and bring them to the animal shelter. Except neither the driver or myself knew how to take a payment by card! We phoned for help and got told RTFM – the manual being a hefty A4 lever arch file buried in the back of the ambulance under 9 animals. Thankfully the carer saw our quandary and was pragmatic enough to realise there’d be a second payment due on the cat-trap-set-day, so he agreed to pay everything at once then. It seemed like shuffling the payment problem to another person as well as to another day, so we made a note that needed it to be addressed.
We picked up the vaccination booklets of the animals and the completed adoption papers, and got back to the ambulance where we gave ourselves a good dousing of cleaning alcohol. I was worried about my cat wounds. Whilst they were only small, the claws that made them belonged to a cat who’d been running around in a really dirty house. I couldn’t wait to get home and have a shower, but there was still stuff to do!
To the Animal Shelter
The satnav told us we’d be due to arrive at the animal shelter around closing time, so we called ahead and they told us not to worry. It was a 30 minute drive, and I could take this time relax a little (despite a scary driving style) and rethink what had happened. This was the first time a cat had looked at me like that and hissed. It was terrifying for me, but I know it was just as scary for the cat too. I remembered my shift with a cuddly cat and how I stupidly compared him to my own. I ended up doing the same here and being very grateful for my little feline friend! 🙂
Cold Reception
It was my first time at the animal shelter. We drove around to the back where there is a special entrance for animals who are brought in. Accessing this entrance meant walking along the outside edge of the building where cages holding animals up for adoption were open to the outside air. There was a small locked door at the side, but the key was back in the ambulance! The door opened just as we’d turned back to retrieve the key!
I must admit I was annoyed by the staff who were cold, although this was sweetened enormously when snake girl came out! She works at the animal ambulance too and I had a great shift with her the first time I drove.
The rabbits and guinea pigs were taken away to one department, and the cats stayed in their boxes on the floor whilst one of the staff read through the vaccination booklets. This is when we realised we’d left one in the ambulance!!! And guess which little devil it was?!
The cats (all 4 of them…) were taken away, and we waited up by reception where the empty animal boxes would be returned to us. Snake girl came along and brought us the boxes from the rabbit and guinea pigs, but the wait for the cat boxes took an eternity. We had another rescue waiting for us, so we decided to kill some frustrated waiting time by loading the ambulance with the boxes we already had. When we got there we saw the cat boxes piled up nearby! We got those loaded up as well, and just as we were about to leave, another staff member came running out with another cat box that had been forgotten. I can guess to which cat that belonged!
What a call-out! I didn’t feel I’d “rescued” these animals because they were neither sick, injured or mistreated, but each of them were now going to have a new life of some sort. I think the animal shelter will try to socialise the cats (I don’t know about the rabbits and guinea pigs), and in which case I hope there will be more happy and loving connections between humans and animals!
Wounded Pigeon
Our next rescue was a pigeon with an open wound on his back. The finder had placed him inside a cardboard box – and sellotaped it shut! The pigeon was feisty when I grabbed him; I wondered if this is why the sellotape was used.
The wound was easily visible on his back, but when I asked the finder if they knew what had happened, they replied that actually their friend had found it so they didn’t know. I also saw the tail feathers were damaged and noted these things on the form that accompanies the bird when we bring it to the rescue centre.
This form has details of the finder so that the rescue centre knows in what kind of environment the animal was found. This is important information because with it they know in what kind of environment to release it when it’s healthy again. The finder needs to sign the form to consent to their details being used in this way. I was surprised the driver was very strict that the finder’s details needed to be recorded rather than the person who contacted us, especially as the find location was the same.
Hedgehog with a Head Wound
(As it turns out, the animal ambulance magazine team want an article written about a hedgehog rescue, so I’m going to write about this one. I called up the finder the following day, and I’ve arranged to meet her for some more info. and to take some pictures. So I won’t harp on about it too much here).
Another rescue came in on the way to the rescue centre. A hedgehog with a head wound had crawled alongside a petshop and needed medical treatment. Thankfully the petshop was en route and it didn’t take long to get there.
The finder had placed him into a cardboard box with some water and, being a petshop, some proper hedgehog food! This was a brilliant act of care! The fact that he was eating also made it clear to us we could take him to the rescue centre rather than back to the base for an external driver to bring him to the animal shelter. In practical terms, this meant we knew which box to place him into. This should have been fine, except we had no rescue centre box.
(Are you gripped with this excitement about an animal rescuer with the wrong box?! Don’t worry, we had a plan…)
Our plan was to bring the hedgehog to the rescue centre and place him into one of the empty boxes in the delivery cupboards waiting for us. The finder gave us a smaller cardboard box to place him into for the journey there, we made him secure, and made our way to the rescue centre. Before we left, we made a note on the form that the finder would love to know from the rescue centre how the hedgehog is doing. I felt really bad knowing the the rescue centre seldom makes these kinds of calls. But who knows, maybe I’ll see this little prickly fellow again on one of my Avolare shifts!
At the Rescue Centre, Base and Home
Just as we got to the rescue centre, the other animal ambulance team turned up too. They’d had a crazy shift too and it was good to hear their rescue stories! We delivered the pigeon and the hedgehog and made our way back to the base.
Back at the base we made it clear that another appointment to the first rescue location was needed. Normally we’d clean the empty but used boxes, but as these were already excess to what’s normally carried in the ambulance, and we were tired from a really heavy shift, we left these in the cleaning area.
Today was a day that I really didn’t feel like cycling all the way home! I was physically exhausted, felt dirty after the live-in cat-litter experience and I had no more mental space for anything. At least it wasn’t raining (it’s terrible when wearing glasses) and I was really grateful to my previous self for putting a spare back light in my bike bag! Half an hour later I was home and under the shower where the pain on my stomach made itself obvious – the little cat devil had scratched me there too!
A couple of days later, a friend told me I should get a tetanus injection, so I called the doc and they were really quick in getting me in and jabbed up. It should see me clear for 10 years – and it hurt a lot less than the scratch!
