Baby Season
Baby Season
We are so busy with all of the orphaned and injured babies! We have already taken in 18 Baby Raccoons, 24 Baby Opossums, 7 Squirrels, 8 fawns (one with a broken leg came), 4 Fox, 2 Chipmunks, 10 rabbits, 1 Groundhog, a skunk, 2 bats and 1 Field Mouse (it was a weak moment).
We have a wonderful team, this year, and are able to care for more animals than ever. LaAnna Mraz has organized a large network of volunteers that have been essential to how many animals we can take in and provide care for. In the past, I have not been able to leave the property from May to August for more than a few hours. Because of this wonderful group, I have had time to visit family and reach out in the community to educate about coexistence.
Some barriers to taking in more animals is lack of enclosures and straining the budget to care for each animal. Pat Covault is helping us to obtain our non-profit status which should come to fruition any day. We are on the last leg of that journey. Hopefully, a nonprofit status will open us up to more donations/funding. Here is an estimated cost to care for our intakes so far.
Species/Monthly/Total for Month/Average Length of Stay
Squirrel (8) $14.00 $112.00 3-4 months
Groundhog(1) $11.00 $11.00 3-4 months
Cottontail(10) $8.86 $88.60 <1 month
Fox(4) $83.00 $332.00 5-6 months
Raccoon(18) $75.00 $1,350.00 5 months
Chipmunk(2) $12.25 $24.50 2-3 months
bat(2) $12.25 $24.50 2 months
Opossum(24) $12.75 $306.00 3 months
Deer(9) $137.25 $1.235.25 5-6 months
Total with Admits so Far
$3,344.60
These numbers do not include the cost of caging, enclosures, permits, vaccinations, vet bills, medication costs or other miscellaneous costs; this only includes the cost of feeding healthy wildlife. Also, we are only halfway through the busiest part of the season so there will be a lot more animals coming in. In fact, squirrels and opossums have another litter season in August. Without your generosity, we would never be able to care for this many animals.
Top Stories
Boone has continued to rise in fame. If you google “Boone, the raccoon” you will find a lot of media coverage about him. You can also look up Nolin River Wildlife on TikTok or Instagram and see a lot of attention that Boone is receiving. He became so strong because of the wheelchair made by the local high school, he kept lunging forward and breaking the wheels off of his chair. Gunnar’s Wheels helped us obtain funding for an aluminum chair and he flies around the yard with it. This has made his life so much better.
Dolly, the squirrel with Horner’s syndrome, was released with 2 of her rehab buddies this month. We keep her enclosure open so that she can nest in her squirrel box and provide a close source of food and water. She came to us in December with very little movement in all 4 limbs and made steady gains while in our care.
We have already released squirrels, opossums, chipmunks, a groundhog and fox this year. We leave their enclosures open until they acclimate to our farm (soft release). There have been sightings of the deer that we released over the past few years. One deer has had a baby which she keeps hidden in the woods. The bucks from last year have antlers about a foot long.
In the past two weeks, we have hosted/visited 3 elementary schools where we played games and did activities to teach them about the importance of coexisting with their backyard wildlife. Boone and Twister (an opossum) are our Educational Ambassadors so that the kids can get up close with wildlife. We hope to do more of this and educating our community will be a priority for our facility. Our dream is to have a U-Shape of enclosures with a pavilion in the middle that holds up to 100 kids. This will allow us to teach the children without weather dependency and for them to see the animals that we are caring for without compromising the animal’s well-being
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Friday August 7, 7pm. It’s Dirty Dog Bash! This is a fundraiser for our Hardin County Animal Shelter. Entertainment by Van Winkle and the Spirits. Catering by Food with Soul by Chef Kenny. Silent and live auctions. 100% of proceeds go to support FOHCAS’ mission Friends of Hardin County Animal Shelter. For more info and to buy Tickets go to:
https://www.fohcas.org/dirty-dog-bash
Only 200 tickets will be sold.
If we sit in our corners, feeding and rehabbing wildlife, we may make a little difference. If we educate the community in coexisting with wildlife, we are making a much bigger impact on a healthy ecosystem. Because of our efforts, so far, I am seeing a reduction in admissions caused by humans. Our community has been more open to humanely evicting wildlife and why trapping/relocating is never a good option. Here is how you can encourage your neighbors to leave their backyard wildlife alone:
Mammals hate these things and will move out if bombarded with:
Smells- Critter Ridder, Ammonia/peppermint oil/spearmint oll soaked cotton balls or pieces of t-shirt in a ziploc with holes punched in it, coyote urine, human urine, dog/cat hair and Capsacin sprinkled around problem areas.
Sounds-putiing a radio on talk radio as close to their den and turning it up as loudly as is reasonable
Sights- solar powered predator eyes (can find on Amazon), motion activated lights, a “HOONT” owl
Trapping/relocating is a slow death sentence for the relocated animal who can not compete with already established species, invites a less healthy species into your area which spreads disease, is illegal in most states and often orphans babies that are left behind.
Thank you all so much for your support. We could never return nearly as many orphaned/injured animals back to the wild and educate people about the importance of coexistence without your generous contributions. I really do not know how to best express my gratitude for all you do for these beautiful animals.
Here are some of the animals in our care this year.