Walnut Gathering

13. November 2006 · Comments Off on Walnut Gathering · Categories: Thank Yous

Saturday, November 11th was a rainy day.
But it was a very special day too.

On Saturday, November 11th, 16 people drove over an hour away to do back-breaking work out in the fields of a Walnut Orchard on the Gursky Ranch. For hours those people worked, gathering walnuts to donate to our wildlife center to feed the animals in our care. By the end of the day we had gathered nearly 600 pounds of walnuts!

A very special Thank you to Roy and Lynn Gursky, owners of Gursky Ranch in Brentwood, CA. The Gursky Ranch is more than just a walnut orchard. It is a wonderful country store packed full with confections and candies, nuts and dried fruits and special food items. Visit them for special gourmet jams, jellies, chutneys and much more! They are only open from October through December so don’t miss it!

A Huge Thank you also, to those dedicated people who went above and beyond to help the wildlife center under difficult circumstances.

Thank you also to Starbucks for providing hot coffee to our hard workers through-out the event, and to Safeway for donating lunch.

Mountain View relents on plan to kill aggressive squirrels

23. October 2006 · Comments Off on Mountain View relents on plan to kill aggressive squirrels · Categories: In The News, Thank Yous

Thank you to EVERYONE who wrote letters, called, and spread the word against the crushing of the squirrels in Cuesta Park in Mountain View.

For those of you just reading this, the squirrels in a park in mountain view had become accustomed to being fed by humans in the park and when this summer’s juveniles started dispersing from Mom’s nest, in their angst they became grab-by and insistent with people, jumping into strollers for cookies stored there, and biting fingers – which look like Peanuts. The result was an alarmist response, saying that the squirrels were aggressive and attacking people. A 4-year old child was forced to get unnecessary and painful rabies shots even though Tree Squirrels don’t transmit rabies to humans (Check out the http://www.cdc.gov/ for verification of this fact!).

Well, here is the latest on the Mountain View Squirrels. A reprieve, for now….

Mountain View relents on plan to kill aggressive squirrels
Associated Press
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. – City officials are relenting on a plan to trap and kill aggressive squirrels that have been attacking humans in a popular park.

The city does not have any immediate plans to arm the steel traps placed in the trees at Cuesta Park two weeks ago, David Muela, the city’s community services director, said Friday.

The city previously said it had no choice but to kill the squirrels after three people – including a 4-year-old boy – were bitten inside the park.

The animals were jumping inside baby strollers, opening food bags and even scratching people giving them handouts including a steady diet of muffins and leftover children’s treats, officials said.

The city hired a pest-control company to set the tube traps, which would crush the squirrels while keeping them from public view.

However, there have been no new attacks since a no-food zone was declared around the children’s play area, park ranger patrols were increased, and a public education program was launched, Muela said.

“People seem to be getting the message,” he said.

The plan to kill the squirrels caused an outcry from animal lovers, who bombarded City Hall with hundreds of letters, phone calls and e-mails.

Animal rights groups also complained, with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals warning the city it could be vulnerable to lawsuits if endangered wildlife were also killed.

Muela said the city is still exploring its options and has not ruled out arming the traps if the attacks start again.

APRIL, MAY, JUNE, JULY Post catch-up

14. September 2006 · Comments Off on APRIL, MAY, JUNE, JULY Post catch-up · Categories: Animal Stories, Thank Yous, The Rescue Life

Thank you all for your patience with the staff here at YUWR over the last several months. It has been quite busy here with various events and dramas as well as an extreme number of orphaned wildlife in need. Below I will attempt to update you all, according to month, on the goings-on.

APRIL:

YGGDRASIL URBAN WILDLIFE RESCUE
RESCUED BY LOCAL REBUILDING TOGETHER ORGANIZATION !

Formerly known as “Christmas in April”, “Rebuilding Together: Oakland” accepted our application for their 2006 non-profit facility grant to enlarge and develop our wildlife center!

The wonderful staff at RTO, together with Pulte Homes, spent 3 weeks in April building stairs and creating an education area at the bottom of the 1/3 acre property, so that we have full access to all the lower caging and animals in recovery. Previously, our staff had to walk/slide down the hillside to get to our cages.

Now we have stairs – a much safer prospect, especially in the rainy season. Pulte Homes and

RTO also replaced the carpet in our hospital with sterile linoleum and installed a sink to facilitate better sanitary conditions in the isolation ward.

A full article will be published in our winter newsletter, thanking everyone individually. In the meantime, YUWR would like to thank all the companies who donated materials, labor, and ideas to this renovation project. Specifically, Rachel Matthews, Paul Radliff, Anders Schmidt.

And…Thank you to our YUWR volunteers who stayed up til 5am various nights doing prep work, painting, and packing boxes. Thank you all.

MAY:

In the midst of the RTO April Project, we were blessed with a first for YUWR.
A 5 day old fawn was dropped off at the Oakland Animal Shelter.

Seems she was found at a rest stop while traveling through Marin County and driven all the way to Oakland! The staff of YUWR, in cooperation with Wildcare and their Fawn Expert Suzie Sasso, raised this little female fawn and a companion from Wildcare, for the first 6 weeks of their lives before transferring them to the Fawn Rehab facility in Marin.

The director would like to express her extreme gratitude to “Pot of Soup” and “Bombadil”, the two fawns, for helping to put things in perspective and being constant reminders of the beauty in the world, while she was in the middle of coping with the sudden illness and subsequent death from cancer of her father, William Talcott, in early June.

“We may save these animals but they, in turn, save us when the need arises. “

JUNE & JULY:


Mercifully slow months for the Wildlife Center. We had a few baby skunklets and the odd squirrel as well as the fawns to care for.

June and July were spent coping with the death in the family and caring for these orphaned and injured wildlife. Baby tree squirrels were supposed to come in but none came. We found this odd, especially since the spring baby wave was extremely light as well. We did receive in 8 baby Ca. Ground squirrels.

August ~ Squirrel Releases

14. September 2006 · Comments Off on August ~ Squirrel Releases · Categories: Animal Stories

AUGUST:
Baby Tree Squirrels have begun to trickle in. Slowly but steadily.
We have also begun releases for our Spring babies.

Here are some photos from one of these releases of our spring babies:

Belted in for the car ride to their new home…


Richard secures their nestbox into their tree.
Good thing he isn’t afraid of heights!


Lila places food about for them to find as they explore.


One has emerged!


Surveying their new home…


A reassurance among friends that it is safe to come out and play.


Dusk is settling. The squirrels are snug in their nestbox after a day
of exploring. We cannot leave without leaving tribute – or breakfast.

Good luck little ones!

September – A Tsumani of Squirrels!

14. September 2006 · Comments Off on September – A Tsumani of Squirrels! · Categories: Animal Stories, The Rescue Life

SEPTEMBER:
The Baby tree Squirrel wave has turned into a Tsunami!

Things were mercifully slow in early summer, while I adjusted to the death of my father. Baby squirrels usually would have been pouring in, come June. However, for one reason or another, the wave waited til the end of August and the beginning of September. We have been inundated!! In a 2 week period we have received over 30 babies and are now up to 43 nursing little ones!

The call for volunteers is out there.
We need people to come feed babies!!
If you are interested, call us at 510-421-9897 or email. Thanks!

Photo courtesy of George Song. Thank you, George

Solano Avenue Stroll ~ A Success!

14. September 2006 · Comments Off on Solano Avenue Stroll ~ A Success! · Categories: In The News, Thank Yous

SOLANO AVENUE STROLL:
We did our first neighborhood fund-raising/volunteer fair this month.
We received a lot of interest and a good amount of donations.
If only we could do these more often!

The Solano Avenue Stroll is a neighborhood street fair. We had a booth with our informational boards as well as flyers and volunteer-sign-up sheets. We offered photographs of wildlife as well as funny squirrel mugs and rainbow-makers in exchange for donations.

We are restructuring our volunteer orientation program to get new people in here as soon as possible and hope to have an orientation up within the next 2 weeks. We also want to post a messag eboard here on our website to encourage group conversation among volunteers. We shall see how this goes… The Message board is posted at: http://yuwr.proboards61.com/

Thank you to all those at the fair who supported us by making a donation and/or signing up on our volunteer sheets.

Thank you to Janie Barnes for initiating our participation.

Thank you to Dr. Alex Devigal, DDS, for sponsoring our booth at the fair.

Thank you to Sasha McGowen, and her friends, who volunteered their time to paint faces to raise donations, and who stayed on with an interest in regular volunteering!

Thank you also to the volunteers who came out to give me a hug, bring me food and drink, and make sure I was able to take bathroom breaks throughout the day 🙂

We are still on the lookout for a fund-raiser / grantwriter to help keep this operation operating.

Also, if you were at the fair and received or newsletter, please sign up and shop at Albertson’s or with eScript. It costs you a few minutes of your time and earns funding for us. Thank you

U.S Coast Guard to the Rescue!

14. September 2006 · Comments Off on U.S Coast Guard to the Rescue! · Categories: Thank Yous

On September 6th, 2006, the United States Coast Guard came to the rescue at the Yggdrasil Urban Wildlife Rescue center. We have been drowning in un-done projects and they threw a lifeline and lent us a hand.




A special Thank You to DCC Christopher Garcia, MK2 Louis Ciccoli, MK2 Michael Aarstad, MK2 Lee Jackson, OS2 Stephen Kemp, and long-time volunteer MK1 Jason Hoppenrath for working very hard on a new pre-release cage.

After hours of hard work, they were still ship-shape and ready to help feed baby squirrels!


Thank You Drain Patrol

14. September 2006 · Comments Off on Thank You Drain Patrol · Categories: Thank Yous

The sewer backed up at the wildlife center this summer.
Being donation-dependent, we started to call around to see if any companies would consider helping us by donating services to clear the line.

On my second call, we hit angel.

Drain Patrol of Oakland was willing to help.

Thank you Drain Patrol!

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

Apologies for not posting….

23. June 2006 · Comments Off on Apologies for not posting…. · Categories: The Rescue Life

I want to apologize for not updating the blog in several months.

I regret to inform you that, due to the illness and death of my father, I have been unable to update the blog.

I promise to update in the next few weeks.
I have fawns and skunklets and steller jay babies to write about.

Thank you so much for your patience.

-Lila

WORK DAY at the WILDLIFE CENTER

26. March 2006 · Comments Off on WORK DAY at the WILDLIFE CENTER · Categories: Thank Yous, The Rescue Life

Today was a very productive day at our wildlife center.
We met new volunteers and were reunited with ongoing volunteers.

We FINALLY got one of the new squirrel pens even closer to being functional with a new fresh bed of level soil inside the retaining wall frame, and concrete around the posts. New nestboxes were built, cages and dishes were cleaned, brush was cleared….

It was a good day.

Thank you to David and Mike for driving far, far away, early in the morning to haul dirt.

Thanks to Paul for providing the dirt and the bulldozer.

Thanks to Slade and Manuel and Santiago, for providing even MORE dirt and also concrete blocks, and for performing the grueling task of hauling all the soil down the hillside and into the cage.

Thank you to Galen for pouring cement and digging post holes (and for those Wonderful Strawberries! )

Thank you to Jim for going up and down the slope, cleaning brush and hauling it away!

Thank you to Leslie B. for building 2 wonderful squirrel nest-boxes!

Thank you to Angela M. for cleaning cages and clearing brush and designing our new intake sheets!

Thank you to Leanna for cleaning animal dishes, making sandwiches and clearing brush.

Thank you to Helene for signing on as a new volunteer with many ideas on how to get more support!

Thank you to our neighbors for their ongoing patience with juggling cars on this narrow cul-de-sac.

Thank you to Richard for lugging dirt, cement, lumber and more up and down the slope (for days) and a BIG thanks for sweeping the mud out of the carpet, which inevitably gets tracked inside, after these events.

Our thoughts are with the volunteers who wanted to be here today but were unable to due to their housefire early Sunday morning. We are so grateful no one was hurt.

There is still TONS to do. If you want to help, PLEASE contact me and we can set up another workday!

I thank you, but more importantly, the orphaned wildlife who will learn how to survive in these cages before being released back into the wild, thank you.

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