(Header image created with microsoft co-pilot)
A magical combo of a build-up of uncompleted rescues in the morning and a centralist willing to divvy up the rescue calls between both teams this afternoon, meant there were animals to rescue this shift! 🙂
Let’s do this movie style:
Do we go to the rescue centre first, or the vet?
Well. 5 hours earlier…
Four Pigeons
Four separate call-outs for wounded pigeons! Some people consider pigeons as the bird equivalent of a rat; dirty and diseased. It might be true, but they’re still living creatures and worth helping!
Three of the pigeons were in the same town. I read this as a town full of nature lovers willing to call us out to help pigeons. As it also turned out, the driver lives in this town too!
The first pigeon was the first visit(!) because the finder needed to leave their house soon. Indeed, she waited at her door until we arrived – and held her dog back whilst we took a look at the pigeon.
It was a victim of (her) cat attack, and lay very still in the corner of a box she’d placed it into. We could find no visible damage so hopefully this young bird was ‘just’ in shock. We placed him into a rescue box and moved onto the next pigeon.
The finder of the second pigeon had placed this fellow under a crate in the back of their garden, and had thoughtfully put a cloth over the top to keep it dark inside which helps calm the bird.
It wasn’t clear what had happened, but this pigeon was spotted scuttling around over the garden ground and near the outside bins. A lot of trees overhung the garden, so the best guess was it had fallen and hurt itself. It was also possible a cat had played with it because some feathers were damaged, but the finder had just moved into the neighbourhood and didn’t know yet if there were cats around.
The crate was next to a raised flower bed which made it awkward to lift it up carefully and use both my hands to catch a possibly mobile bird. The driver saw my difficulty at once and helped by lifting the crate whilst I was poised ready for action. It’s moments like this when I really notice the difference between teamwork in an office environment (loud people shouting their ‘helpful’ ideas in a team meeting) and in a practical situation where people really help each other.
The pigeon was indeed a flurry of flapping wings and fluttering feathers, but thanks to the driver I was well-positioned to grab hold of it quickly. She didn’t like being held so we placed her into the rescue box without examining her any further.
The finder of the third pigeon lead us past her big, beautiful, black dog and into her shed at the back of the garden. She’d put the pigeon inside a deep cardboard box and noticed the bird had a dislocated wing.
I was afraid to pick it up because surely it would hurt, especially if it would panic and try flying away to escape. Thankfully it stayed clam in my hand, but I didn’t want to move his wings as I’d normally do to check for signs of damage. When he was in the rescue centre box it was easy to see his right wing seemed further towards the back of his body than his left wing. No wonder he stayed calm.
The last pigeon was reported to have a weak wing. The finders thought he had flown into a window because they’d heard a bump, went outside and then found him on the floor.
Both his wings moved when I picked him up, so hopefully he was simply dazed and was now recovering. I recalled many birds bump into a window and lie on the floor dazed and unmoving, then suddenly fly off. Hopefully it was the same with this pigeon.
We noticed he had a strange thing going on with his beak – a yellowy beady-like growth on one side. I suspect this kind of thing is normal for wild pigeons, but in any case the vet at the rescue centre would take a good look.
(Fatally) Injured Rabbit
During the last pigeon rescue a call came in for a rabbit with an open wound to his head. The wound was so bad that his skull was showing :(. We made this our next rescue before collecting the fourth pigeon.
It was tragic to see. He was an adult rabbit, and the finder found him on a nearby sandy lane whilst walking her dog. Other than signs of breathing, he lay motionless in a large plastic bucket lined with straw that the finder had placed him gently into.
We needed to phone the rescue centre to see if we could bring him there to see a vet. Unfortunately there was no answer so we moved him into the rescue box with a hot water bottle, put towels around him so he wouldn’t roll over, and continued to pick up the last pigeon.
Rescue Centre or the Vet?
We called the rescue centre again. We do this to let them know we’re bringing (or confirm that we can bring) animals to them. It’s a quick call where we tell them what we have and they tell us we can put what we have into their collection cupboard.
This time they were able to take the call and we took the chance to ask them about the rabbit. After checking, it turned out there was no vet until later in the evening so we should take him straight to a ‘regular’ vet. We informed the centralist who arranged we could bring him to such a vet as long as could make it there before 17:00 when they closed.
Now we had a logistical problem. We had an ambulance full of 4 injured pigeons, and a rabbit in a really bad way. Some of the pigeons had been in there for three and a half hours; indeed the rule is “no more than 4 deliveries to the rescue centre at one time” to ensure that the first rescued animal is not uncomfortable for too long and is seen quickly. So there was a case to go to the rescue centre first – 15 minutes away. But we’d never make it to the vet in time before it closed.
So do we go to the vet first for the rabbit? It would prolong even further the time the pigeons had been in the ambulance, especially given the roadworks situation.
We decided to head to the rescue centre because we were closer to it than to the vet. And in 15 minutes all 4 pigeons would be looked after until the vet arrived onsite. We checked the condition of the rabbit whilst we were stopped there; his condition hadn’t changed. A phone call to the vet to give our ETA; would they be willing to wait for us? YES!!! Amazing people! And we made our way to them.
Last Rites at the Vet
The vet took the rabbit very quickly from us on our late arrival and examined him. She came back with bad news. The poor thing had many crushed bones inside and was in a very, very bad way. Her opinion was someone had driven over him. He was put to sleep 🙁 but I hope the idiot who ran over him and drove on has sleepless nights.
Back at the Base, and Eventually Home
We’d been away from the base for over 4 hours and on the go the whole time, so we were keen to get back. For once, I was glad no more rescue calls were coming in! I knew a cunning trick to minimise waiting at the roadworks, so I directed the driver away from the satnav’s suggestions and saved us about 10 minutes.
I dived to put the kettle on as soon as we got back, and the driver for a smoke. A couple of boxes needed to be cleaned – one from the rabbit, and another returned to us from the vet, presumably from a previous visit from another team. Incidentally, when the vet returned the rabbit box I thought the (dead) rabbit was still inside because it was so heavy. When I looked inside and saw nothing I was startled, but the driver reminded me about the hot water bottle under the towels!
As I type this, I wonder what happened to the body of the rabbit. I fear it’s sent “for destruction” which I’ve heard from other team members is a pragmatic but very undignified affair. Perhaps it would have been better if the rabbit remained in our box then I could have buried him.
I went outside after my warm drink to clean the boxes, only to find that the driver had done them already. I felt guilty about that but she said she didn’t mind.
A few minutes were left on the shift and there was no sign of the replacement team. But even though the replacement team wasn’t replacing us (Team 2) but Team 1, we still hung around. I took the chance to check my phone messages and saw one telling me my cat, who I fitted with an airtag borrowed from a friend and fitted on a new collar, had come back inside with no collar (ergo no airtag).
It shouldn’t be a problem tracking a tracker, should it? When I got home there’s no sign of the tracker on my app, other than to say it was last seen in my kitchen 20 minutes ago which was 2 hours after our cat had returned trackerless. Useless. I walked around the block to see if my phone would pick it up (no) sounded the sound on the tracker from my phone (no connection) so I’m gonna buy my mate a new tracker.
So this idea of “trying (my mates’) before I buy (my own)” was a success in that now I know I don’t need to buy my self one. But I still need to buy one and not use it!
