Here are ways you can help:

• * Make a donation towards our emergency relocation fund (see sidebar)
• *Write to your local city council, to express your views about the importance of having a wildlife center and ask them to help
• *Write to the Mayor to express your views about the importance of having a wildlife center and ask them to help.
• *Contact us with any other ideas, suggestions, or if you have another way to help. CONTACT US

Thank you for your interest and your support!

Here are a few helpful Links:

In Oakland: Remind them that the work we do is important and does not duplicate what Oakland Animal Control does!

• officeofthemayor@oaklandnet.com
• cityadministrator@oaklandnet.com

Oakland City Council

• jbrunner@oaklandnet.com
• jpkernighan@oaklandnet.com
• nnadel@oaklandnet.com
• jquan@oaklandnet.com
• idelafuente@oaklandnet.com
• dbrooks@oaklandnet.com
• lreid@oaklandnet.com
• atlarge@oaklandnet.com

We are not adverse to moving out of Oakland in order to save the wildlife center. We do need to stay in the Oakland/Berkeley/Alameda area to continue to do our good work here.

To advocate us moving to Alameda, please visit this website for the contact information of Alameda’s mayor and city council: http://www.ci.alameda.ca.us/gov/city_council.html

To advocate us moving to the Berkeley area, please contact the Mayor and City Council at: http://www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ContentDisplay.aspx?id=22466

Do you think it is a good idea for us to establish our wildlife rehabilitation & education center in the regional parks? Perhaps near the Little Farm, at the old “pony rides” stables that have been empty and unused for the last 20+ years? If you said yes, please write a letter to the East Bay Regional Park District and tell them so. Feel free to email us for content suggestions. Thank you!

East Bay Regional Park District
2950 Peralta Oaks Court
P.O. Box 5381
Oakland, CA 94605-0381

Or use their email form at this link: http://www.ebparks.org/contact

Thank you for your support. Together, we can SAVE OUR WILDLIFE CENTER!

Why are there so many raccoons in cities?

Should I be worried if I see a raccoon out in the daytime?

Join Megan Isadore, a naturalist and wildlife rehabilitator with Oaklandʼs Yggdrasil Urban Wildlife Rescue, for a family-friendly slide and video presentation on one of our most common urban wildlife neighbors. Megan will discuss raccoon life history and behavior, answer your questions on humanely solving nuisance raccoon problems, and show an exciting video update on our most famous raccoon patient, Tiny Tim!

When? Thursday, July 22, 2010 7PM-8PM (half hour talk, plenty of question time!)

Where? Oakland Animal Services, 1101 29th Avenue, Oakland, CA

Cost? FREE
Featuring the beautiful wildlife photography of Jack Gescheidt,
jackphoto.com and raccoonery.com

_________________________________________________

(all photos and video were provided by Jack Gescheidt, photographer, and Amy Pfaffman, Tim’s caregivers!)

_________________________________________________

Tiny Tim had broken his back and both his rear legs were paralyzed. Because our job is to release the wildlife animals back into the wild, giving them a second chance, this was a very grave situation for this baby raccoon.  Paraplegic animals do not survive in the wild! Something had to be done.

Tiny Tim’s miracle began when he was brought into care with our own “Rancho Raccoon” team and, under the supervision of raccoon team leader, Megan Isadore, placed in the care of two very wonderful fosterers, Amy and Jack, who gave Tiny Tim the extra care he needed.

Here is a video of him at the beginning of his stay with Jack and Amy:

Tiny Tim’s plight caught the interest of Dr. Andrew Sams of The Sams Clinic, an orthopedic specialty vet practice in Mill Valley, who has donated consultations about our rehabilitation raccoons, and provided great veterinary guidance. The Sams Clinic has a neurosurgeon on staff, Dr. Lisa Klopp, who looked at the spinal x-ray and examined the 9-week-old raccoon. Dr. Klopp determined that the fracture would need to heal for a month, and agreed to perform a laminectomy to free the spinal cord from the compression causing his paralysis. Tiny Tim needed back surgery!!

During his month-long healing time before his surgery and after, Tiny Tim received physical therapy from Amy. Amy exercised Tim’s back legs several time a day, helping place them under him, supporting him minimally. Tim barely needed the help; he was determined to do everything a normal raccoon does. While Amy patiently placed his legs under him for walking, Timmy was on to leaping and climbing, never mind the falling. We were worried that he would further injure his spinal cord — but not Tim. He refused to be anything but what he is…a wild raccoon youngster. Amy’s therapy included roughhousing using a raccoon doll so he wouldn’t get too used to playing with humans.

About a week prior to surgery, we rescued a female raccoon a little younger than Tim. Her mother was hit by a car, and she was found crying by the body.

This little girl wanted no part of humans. She’s a normal 12-week-old raccoon who would rather do almost anything than cozy up to us scary monsters. But when we placed her with Tim, they bonded within hours. Tim was so happy to have a REAL raccoon to bite, and she was delighted to have someone of her own kind to cuddle with. And Tim’s human team was equally relieved Tim could learn from his own species.  This put an end to our concerns about Tiny Tim’s prolonged recovery and extended contact with human caregivers.

Finally the day for Tiny Tim’s surgery arrived. Although over the course of Tim’s month of healing he had recovered some use of both legs, he still needed the surgery to repair the damaged spine. Dr. Klopp, Tim’s neurosurgeon, said she’d never seen a smaller spinal cord. She had to perform delicate manipulation to get her instruments to work for a 3-pound raccoon kit!  Thanks to the hard work of Dr Klopp, plus two surgical assistants, and an anesthesiologist, the surgery went great!

Three hours post-surgery, Tim was up and about, and even PLAYING with his new sister! His caregivers watched him like hawks and made pen modifications to ensure he wouldn’t fall and jar his tender spine. Nevertheless, Tiny Tim and his sister had to be repeatedly constrained to allow Tim’s staples to stay intact over the following 10 days!  Thanks also to Amy’s daily physical therapy, we are seeing improvement in Tim’s abilities. Based on these improvement, and on our experience of raccoon healing, we predict Tim will be released as a normal, wild young raccoon.

Thank you to everyone who was involved in this amazing rescue! Thanks to Dr Sams Clinic, Dr Klopp and her surgical team, Jack and Amy, and Megan.

We will be posting a video of Tiny Tim post-surgery as soon as possible.  Thank you for your interest!

Now, ten years into this, our wildlife center is a vital community resource. But we are being evicted from the property we have operated on for the last 6 years. The owner has taken the property off the rental market and has asked us to leave.

The GOOD News is….

There is a piece of property for sale here in Oakland which would be the PERFECT place for the wildlife center. It is 2/3rd of an Acre of flat, beautiful, forested land. Plenty of land for our pre-release enclosures, plenty of quiet, beautiful field for our fawns to run in, our squirrels and raccoons to learn to climb trees in. But we need your help to get it.

We have found the PERFECT property to relocate our wildlife center to but it is selling as a “cash-only” sale. We have launched a fund-raising effort but still need to raise $125,000 in order to buy the property outright.

• We are looking for tax-deductible donations or matching funds to help us during this crisis. However, we are not just looking for money.

• We are also looking for someone who supports our work who might be willing to privately finance the purchase of this property by providing us with a bridge loan.

Thank you for your support and with your help, we can SAVE OUR WILDLIFE CENTER!

Please, if you want to be involved in any way or have suggestions, call me at 510-547-9897 or email me at lila@yuwr.org

Thank you for your ongoing support and assistance.

Sincerely,

Lila Travis
director

Please check back for updates on Tiny Tim’s progress,
and Please help by donating to Tim’s Care Fund?
Remember, we are 100% volunteer-run and donation-funded here.

Thank you for your support!

Luckily, we have some really great, reliable volunteers this year and are handling it in stride.
Thank you to the volunteers who come here daily to clean and cook for the animals.
Thank you also to the volunteers who have opened their hearts and homes to our orphaned babies, giving them both a family and a second chance at a normal life in the wild. Without our volunteers we would not be.

Thank you!
Start Time: 12:00
Date: 2010-03-06
End Time: 17:00

This will probably take only 1 hour.
Start Time: 12:00
Date: 2010-02-13
End Time: 13:30

If he looks sinister it is because I accidentally woke him up taking this photo. He will be with us a couple more days to fatten up and recover from his four day starvation diet.