(Header image created with microsoft co-pilot)
There’s always a scramble to get a shift at the animal ambulance because there are around a hundred volunteers and only 42 shifts per week. Some people have arranged with the planner for a fixed shift with a fixed person each week (or more) and this also reduces the options available to “show my interest” on the planning app. Every now and then someone is ill or needs to swap a shift, and this can be a good chance to step in, not just helping animals in need, but also other volunteers!
So today was my first shift in 2 weeks, and I was looking forward to it!
But when I turned up, I was doomed for more waiting; it was an extremely quiet shift 🙁
Pregnant Hedgehog
This sounded exciting, even though this poor mother-to-be was suffering from diarrhea. Heaven knows why…there were instructions not to collect it until 18:00 (so at least another 4.5 hours of suffering to go). I made a bid for it, but I got Dutched out.
Dogsbody
Next up were some menial, non-animal related tasks.
Leapfrog over the dogsbody stuff and straight to the interesting rescue call-out!
In the Netherlands, we pay a deposit when we buy canned or plastic or glass bottles of drinks. We stuff the empties in an ’empties reading machine’ in a supermarket which reads the bar code and gives you a receipt which you can use at the till for some money off. (Some machines, if they can’t read the bar code, return your empty drinks packaging to you, highlighting this is a financial venture perhaps more than an environmental one.)
Our task was to place a collection box in a supermarket where people could leave their receipts and let the animal ambulance use the money. So we did.
The main excitement of this task was that I’d forgotten to bring the mobile phone with me so we needed to turn around and pick it up. And the collection box, which was mounted on a wooden structure, was sliding around in the back of the van.
More excitement followed. We posted 3 letters (I think magazines and a pen) to 3 donors.
In wisdom I’m not party to, 10’s of roads are closed due to roadworks, leaving swathes of cones and yellow boards indicating diversions, slip lanes, and closures with traffic cones easily outnumbering the grains of sand being dug up. Notably, the rescue centre we bring birds to that is usually approachable from two sides, has each side closed. I don’t know why so much is being done at the same time, where there are diversions and road closures on diversions from diversions…
I’m not looking forward to driving in my next 2 shifts.
When we got back to the base, the driver tinkered with one of the cupboard door handles in the ambulance. It wasn’t very secure so it banged incessantly whilst it opened and closed as we swerved through the traffic cones. I was really impressed in how he just got on and did it with the limited tools available!
Next up: moving some boxes from one place to another, then some more boxes from a third place back to the first.
Thai Chicken
Time for a rest from all this non-work, so the driver and I sat outside and had a chat. I’ll give myself a pat on the back here. When I first started at the animal ambulance I wondered how it was possible that the co-driver wasn’t permanently stressed and glued to the tablet to keep an eye on whether a call for a rescue had come in. But here I was, relaxed and having a nice chat!
The centralist was on site and knew where we were, and I had my phone with me, so practically speaking everything was OK. But mentally I felt pretty good! 🙂
As an Englishman, a good chat comes with a drink and I’d made myself a cuppa soup. Thai chicken flavour.
I know you feel let down here. It’s one of those annoying writing practices where a title or a photo reels you in, you read a load of stuff whilst you’re waiting for the bit you came for, and then…it’s just a cuppa soup. Estate agents act it out too – they show you pictures of grand, lush bathrooms and kitchens, then when you turn up you see the reality is you’ll be ordering take-out and pissing in a bucket in a corner.
In order to regain your trust I’ll paste here a link to one of my short stories, Are you Chicken? Call it an Easter Egg if you will…
More Dogsbody Stuff
Another writing trick. This isn’t really a new header, but it breaks up the text…
I’ve talked before about the weight of the folder lugged around in each ambulance. Some pages needed updating, and the centralist handed us the new sheets. We got to put them in the folders.
A point of admiration for the centralist here – this was only her 4th shift and she was now on her own as a centralist!! Very impressed!).
Cat on a busy road
A few moments later a rescue call came in for a cat that was weaving between cars on a busy road. It sounded like death was imminent, but this kind kind of rescue needs to be handled by the police or other authorities.
Back to Dogsbody
Now a trip to a local shop to buy some wastepaper baskets and post-it notes for the office. Because I used the money carried in the ambulance, I needed a receipt. The cashier, probably having a bad day, just bunged it into the newly bought wastepaper basket without a smile, a thank you or anything. Apparently his customer service went in the bin too.
Cat with a GPS tag
(Welcome back if you’ve just leap-frogged here! 🙂 )
Finally a rescue! A(nother) cat had been found wandering near a train platform, and a local resident had caught her and kept her safe in her flat. The cat wore a GPS tracker, so in principle the owner knew where their pet was. But this couldn’t be taken for granted because the cat may have been out for days and the tracker lost its power. Or something prevented the owner from finding / retrieving their pet cat.
Our role was to see if the cat had been chipped, and then find and contact the owner directly.
The cat was a beautiful “tortoise” coloured cat, and he was tame – also curious and inquisitive! He liked to give us headbutts, but also wanted to run around and get into all kinds of corners!
You may recall I’ve not yet had success in finding a chip on a cat, but surely with a GPS tracker attached, this cat had a responsible owner who’s got their cat chipped?
The chip reader didn’t think so. I couldn’t believe it! Nor could the driver so he tried – and found a chip! It turns out I’d been using the chip reader incorrectly – it needs to be switched on, wait till it warms up, then switch it on again. Odd system, but at least now I know.
But I don’t feel so good about my learning experience when I think of my previous failures with this chip reader. Have I brought someone’s pet to the rescue centre instead of back home? The rescue centre will have tried to read the chip as well and contact the owner if they found one, but this is a heavy learning point for me.
We contacted the owner who didn’t live far away, and who had no trouble in letting his cat run wild in the area. The finder was shocked, but as the cat parent, the owner has ultimate responsibility, and we let the cat loose.
Officially, this counts as a “broken rescue”, but the cat and her owner continue with their human-cat relationship which is a good thing! 🙂
