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This blog reflects my personal experiences and opinions and does not represent or reflect those of DierenAmbulance Nederrijn.
Easing of Pressure
It’s been really busy in recent weeks at the animal ambulance! We’ve been told that ambulance volunteers can now call upon external drivers to bring animals to the wildlife rescue centre which not just gives us more time to collect the animals in need, but also – and perhaps more importantly – it means animals spend less time in a hot ambulance.
It sounds like a good idea, but I was curious how this was going to work in practice; we’d need to contact and arrange a time and meeting place with the driver to hand over the animals which sounds like a ripe opportunity for waiting and faffing about 🙁
I spoke to the co-driver from the morning shift about it and how they experienced it. They shared my concerns that the idea seemed good-willed but barely practical – but it also wasn’t compulsory. They hadn’t used the facility. I entered the shift thinking I wouldn’t use this facility either – but who knows?
Prodding Paddy
Paddy was with us again. And now I’m reunited with my regular driver Sally, I felt I had more space in my head to explain things as I went. That said, I asked Paddy to prod me if she wanted to do more (or less); I didn’t want her to feel held back by my enthusiasm to do things myself!
Hare
Our first rescue was a hare that was found sitting on some grass outside a company on an industrial estate since the morning. The finder met us as we pulled up next to a large cardboard box on the grass, and told us she suspected a road traffic accident as she’d seen some wounds on the hare.
Until now I’ve only seen baby hares that have been displaced when gardeners disturbed their home and replaced it with concrete. I didn’t know what to expect with this one regarding size.
Sally lifted the box carefully so I could peep underneath.
The hare was about the same size as a large cat, so I figured I could pick it up like one. I put one hand under her chest, just behind her forelegs, and with my other tried to reach over her rump so I could support her rear legs from the far side.
That was a mistake!
Hares, of course, can jump! And quite easily when their back legs are free! Sally was amazing, and like lightning, pinned her down by gently holding the top of her neck. (Afterwards I realised this is how we learned to hold cats when chipping them, though Sally told me she acted this way instinctively!).
The pair of us – and Paddy who watched closely (and I’ll also thank her here for taking photos! 🙂 ) – noted quickly her injuries; a head wound and some missing skin on her leg. Indeed, we saw some blood on the inside of the cardboard box. We placed her inside the rescue box where she became calmer and loaded her into the ambulance.
For the first time, a finder didn’t want to have our magazine!
Even though we had other rescues in the same town, this hare needed to get to the vet quickly. The centralist had already arranged this for us, so all we needed to do was phone ahead to give our ETA.
Personal Note
The hand-over at the vet was quick and no-nonsense. I suppose it didn’t need to be anything else. By chance they’d had another hare delivered to them earlier in the day so they still had one of our rescue boxes. They handed that back to us, reminding us it was dirty and needed a clean.
Pigeon Residing in a Garden
Parking up for this pigeon rescue was really tricky. It was in a busy Dutch town with gazillions of impatient cyclists undertaking us and weaving in and out which way and everywhere. The roads were narrow, cycle lanes abound, and bollards helpfully blocking any movement of a large, cumbersome ambulance with limited rear visibility.
Sally managed it though, and we were welcomed at the door by a happy family who’d reported a pigeon sitting in the corner of their garden for several days. (Actually, it was their second pigeon; they’d phoned another one in recently! Evidently pigeons like their garden so I told her so!). I handed one of the children a couple of magazines, and we were shown into the back garden where the pigeon was under a box in a corner.
A brick wall and a thick hedge bounded it on 2 sides so even if the pigeon escaped she wouldn’t have anywhere to go. The finders had put a small bowl of water under one edge of the box providing not only water, but some extra ventilation in the heat.
I didn’t see any obvious injuries on the pigeon when I picked her up, but knowing she had been still for so long was an indication something was up (if not the pigeon) and it justified bringing her to the wildlife rescue centre.
We advised the family to wash their hands well if they’d touched the pigeon, and we went on our way.
On a personal note, I was touched by this warm-hearted family. Kids were well-behaved and curious, they listened to their parents, there were lots of smiles and the finder even broke into English for me. And…they gave us some refreshments for in the ambulance! 🙂
Fashion Conscious Injured Pigeon
Like the previous two, this rescue is also going to be unforgettable, but for all the wrong reasons.
This pigeon was wounded and had been found in a clothing shop in a busy (and pedestrianised) shopping centre. Parking was tough before; now there were pedestrians in the mix. Billions of pedestrians who found the appearance of an animal ambulance in their midst and stopped and stared at us so we couldn’t drive! Sally gave up and left the ambulance on the side somewhere. We had a walk ahead of us, so we made sure we had everything with us and set off – avoiding people standing still and in our way, staring at us. It was a very different feel to other town centres we’d been to.
We found the shop (as did a couple of kids who followed us!) and were directed to a cardboard box under a shelf and behind a pile of shoe boxes. Access was difficult enough for one, let alone a second! It was messy on the floor; presumably a customer had decided to throw cherry stones on the floor.
A preliminary glimpse under the box revealed the pigeon in a corner. It was going to be tough getting hold of him in the cramped conditions, not least of all because he didn’t seem calm and flapped a lot. The finder said he couldn’t fly, but I let him know I was afraid if I couldn’t catch the pigeon and it flew around the store it might make his products dirty.
Sally and I arranged how we were going to lift the box and the angle I’d go in to grab the bird. And off we went. It was difficult as we expected; she flapped so I wasn’t able to hold the pigeon’s wings down against her body. Her body, which I held, seemed tiny in comparison to her powerful wings which were pulling her away from my grasp. I wouldn’t be able to move her into the rescue box like this.
A thought struck me; I held her against my chest which limited her wing movement and this let me get my hands around the outside of her wings. And now we could examine her – and what a shock we got. There was a hideous open wound on the side of her neck with cherry stones falling out of it. This poor creature!
We phoned ahead to the wildlife rescue centre – this pigeon needed immediate attention! I was sure I was going to be quizzed about my Dutch when I described the presence of cherry stones, but they responded straight away that it sounded like a split sack under the throat and the contents were falling out.
If I can quote a character from the movie Broken Arrow, I’m not sure if I’m more shocked that this happened, or that it happens so often that there’s a name for it.
Getting the ambulance out of the busy town centre with impatient pedestrians and cyclists alike was a tough. Paddy held the floods back and directed Sally out into relatively clear safety.
At the Wildlife Rescue Centre
We were bringing in 2 pigeons to the rescue centre. I handed one of the rescue boxes to Paddy and I grabbed the other. But wait up – this one didn’t have a rescue number written on it!
This is a problem because the rescue centre uses this number to know which bird belongs to which administration. Sally and I write the number on the box after the creature is placed inside and when we’re in the back of the ambulance. Tom (from last week) writes the number on the box before he takes it out of the ambulance. I used this example to illustrate to Paddy that different volunteers have different ways of doing things, but they’re all OK
(Incidentally, I like writing the number afterwards because I want to spring into action when we arrive on-site, sometimes we don’t know which size rescue box we need to use and it’s calmer in the ambulance away from the finders. Writing the number beforehand, like Tom, prevents the issue I faced now; forgetting to write the number at all in the haste to get to the next rescue.)
I peeked inside the rescue box to ascertain which pigeon was inside. The cause of its (surprisingly) heavy weight made itself evident – there was a a load of netting inside! This was the box the vet returned to us from earlier! I located the correct box with the pigeon and put it into the wall of cupboards at the end of the car park.
Train attack: Cat
We left this unpleasant last because it concerned a deceased animal; living animals take priority. A deceased cat had been seen in several pieces on a train line and we were to remove it, and see (somehow) if she was chipped.
I was nervous about this one, but I wasn’t going to take any chances. How close were the remains to the train track? It was close to a level crossing, so there would be sirens and flashing lights if a train approached. But I wasn’t going to be stupid here.
It turned out we saw no sign of the cat, even though we had pretty good instructions on where to find her. We called the finder for some more help but there was no answer.
Strangely, a man driving a car with a trailer past the ambulance, stopped, got out, and sat in the passenger seat! I thought he was angry we’d parked funny or something and I braced myself for aggressive behaviour. I’m small and puny, but I had 2 team mates with me to watch out for. Thankfully my heroism wasn’t needed; it turned out he worked with us! He’d been asked to replace the rearview mirror, and by chance he spotted us here! He took a look at the work that needed to be done now, saving himself a long journey back to the base!
Then our phone rang. We hoped it was the finder of the cat calling us back, although this would be strange because all incoming phone calls go through the centralist. Also strange – it was a finder of another pigeon asking us when we’d be at his house to rescue the pigeon he’d reported early in the morning. Sally explained it was really busy and times couldn’t be given easily because the order of rescues depends on urgency and other rescues in the area. But we’d do our best!
Back at the Base
Rescues were coming in hard and fast. But there was some confusion over which rescues the second team were helping us with. We called into the base to discuss this with the centralist; some things are easier in person than on the phone, and luckily the base was close by.
We had a half a second team – ‘just’ a co-driver. And the poor thing had been sitting there hoping for a driver to become available whilst waiting for something to do.
The remaining rescues were an eclectic bunch. They were located some distance away, or would involve tricky logistics such as catching stray cats and bringing them to distant shelters out of hours. And in one case, waiting for a phone call for an update. Upsetting as it is for the animals, I must admit this sounds like fun!
But ultimately we decided I and the back-up co-driver would switch; she’d ride with Sally and Paddy, and I’d stay at the base. And I feel obliged to admit the decision was made in part because my daughters were home alone and I felt uncomfortable leaving them that way for at least another 2 hours. Thankfully there was a backup so this was an option, and also thankfully – I have a very understanding team!:)
Until the end of the shift I made myself useful by cleaning the box and the net from the vet. This took me ages as the net (approx. 5 m^2) was covered in blood and needed to be disinfected thoroughly.
Final Thoughts
All in all this was a shocking shift with 2 terrible injuries (and a deceased cat) – but also one where we met a lovely family. As usual I appreciated my time with Sally, and noted how we are similar in many things, for example, from high levels of compassion with animals in need to turning down the radio or leaving noisy rooms with people screeching at each other.
And as usual, the teamwork at the end with both Sally and Paddy, helping me out to look after my daughters is invaluable! 🙂
Personal Note
