I was in the Florida Today

The Florida Today put in a picture of me feeding a marsh rabbit at the Florida Wildlife Hospital & Sanctuary. Normally the bunny would be wrapped up in the washcloth in a "bunny burrito" so that it can't run away but this bunny cooperated for his photo shoot and stood still which I gave him some Pedialyte. We'll slowly start to introduce it to milk and hopefully it will start eating lettuce on its own and get released. We release them back into the wild once they weigh over 180 grams.

Merry Christmas

Devin and I spent Christmas morning volunteering at the Florida Wildlife Hospital. They had a shortage of volunteers and since neither of us has family in the area I though it would be a nice thing to do on Christmas. Devin and I were the only ones in the nursery and between the two of us we fed all of the squirrels, bunnies, tortoises, turtles, and Devin also took all of the tortoises for walks and sharpened all of the knives in the kitchen. It was a nice but very busy way to spend the morning.In the afternoon we took Grant to the beach to enjoy the warm weather and waves. BothDevin and I had a lotof fun running Grant up and down the beach and Grant had a big smile on his face. While Grant and Devin were playing I made a sand/snowman. There were a lot less shells on the beach than last year and it was much harder to find buttons for him. Both Grant and I were completely soaked by the time we headed home so we gave Grant a shower as soon as we got home. After the beach we took a nap and spent some time relaxing and reading.

In the evening Cate and Andy came over and we played my new

Nightmare Before Christmas Jenga. Andy was really good and kept making the stack really unstable. They are both doing

very well and I w

as really interested in hearing about how grad school was going for Cate. At the end of the night we were all tuckered out and I slept really well.

Wildlife Hospital release

My volunteer shift at the wildlife hospital didn't start well since I had to pull out two squirrels that died overnight. But then I got asked to help in the critical care unit where they keep the larger birds (most volunteers work in the nursery with the songbirds and squirrels). I got to carry a pelican outside (which of course pooped on me) and restrain some pelicans as Heida changed the bandages on their wigs. The trick to grabbing pelicans is to wait until after they try to bite you because afterwards they can't bite again right away and you can grab their beak. You have to make sure their beak stays open a little bit because that's how they breathe. In addition to pelicans there were also coots, a eastern screech owl, a barred owl, some kind of duck, and terns. The terns were ready for release and at the end of my shift I got to take them to the river and set them free. It was great to see them go back into the wild.

Florida Wildlife Hospital

I started volunteering at the Florida Wildlife Hospital again and I'm really glad to be back. I missed taking care of animals and seeing them get better and released back into the wild. Today I got to take a box turtle and gopher tortoise for a walk and feed lots of baby birds. There are mostly grackles, mocking birds, house swallows, blue jays, crows, and a wood pecker who tried to bite me whenever I fed it. As always, the people here are really nice. There are lots of wood storks, herons, egrets, and squirrels around the property trying to get free food. I'm hoping to get some good pictures of them one of the times I am there.