Just when I thought the season was nearing the end and I might be able to catch up on sleep and other parts of my life, the last summer litters of babies started to arrive! Here are the stories on a few of them.

This is Bunchowski. He is an Eastern cottontail, and came to me at only 4 days old. He's about 3 1/2 weeks old now. Anyone who has been following this blog knows how incredibly difficult it is to keep these tiny ones alive, but Bunchowski was a real fighter! However, like my other tiny ones that survived to this age, it appears that he may be a victim of metabolic bone disease; his right arm broke a week ago (you can see it wrapped up in the picture) after jumping a few inches. But he is bright and alert and is almost weaned and LOVES cilantro! He is almost 4oz.

And this little lady is a Southern Flying squirrel. Her name is Lady Sedgwick and she weights 20g, or about 2/3 of an oz. Baby flyers are a funny shape- they are about 1/3 head, 1/2 tail, and have a little body in between. She was found when a cat walked up to its owner with her tail hanging out of its mouth. She suffered a few injuries, and is now on antibiotics and is doing really well. If you all remember, Amelia, my last little flyer, came to me with suspected neurological problems. And comparing Lady's behavior to Amelia's at the same age (she is about 4-5 weeks old) confirms this: Lady is so much more "with it" at this age, and has even decided to wean herself!

And these two cuties are 4-5 week old Grey squirrels. They are "Soixante neuf" (on the right) and "Soixante dix," or 69 & 70- their patient numbers (but it sounded so much better in French!)- and were both found wandering on their own flea ridden and thin. 69 is a little girl. And the day she came in, 70 arrived later that day. They are not related, but the same size and instantly snuggled and adopted each other as siblings! After only 24 hours of warmth, snuggling and TLC, their tails started fluffing up! :)

WTS also welcomed another little Virginia Opossum. She was in a wonderful local bakery/lunch place for a week raiding jelly bellies. And she arrived with green poop to proove it! She had some bad abrasions around her neck, but they look OK. She'll stay for a few weeks to get her nutrition back on track and to grow a bit bigger before release.

Meet Amelia! This 20g handful of adorableness is a Southern Flying Squirrel baby.  She was found lying on her back on a trail by a jogger one morning. She appeared to be OK, but kept lying on her back, perhaps some indication of neural upset. She came to WTS a week ago, has been kept cozy and warm and has already gained 14g- I'm so proud of her! She's even moved on to eating solids.  She was very happy with the discovery of a pinenut this evening...and it was almost as big as her head! I'm very glad she is eating a little on her own now; with such a tiny tummy I had to feed her every few hours because her stomach can't hold much at one time, so self-feeding frees me up a bit to help all the other WTS'ers.

She has started learning to jump, but is still rather wobbly! And hasn't really learned how to climb yet.

I was hoping I might be able t return her to the woods asap as mothers will claim their babies up until the babies are about 6 weeks old (she is about 4weeks), but it was too much of a risk, especially with her slightly disorientated condition.

On the left is a picture of her after a meal with milk all over her face! And on the right she is resting after eating- you can see her patagium, the extra skin on her sides which stretches out and allows her to glide...but not quite yet, in another month or so! I love how her head is so big in comparison to the rest of her body! You can also see that her tail is completely flat- perfect to use as a rudder when flying! Take a look at my earliest blog posts to see more on flying squirrels!

Btw, speaking of squirrels, Little Brother & Little Sister are doing great in the WTS woods. They have started coming around a lot in the last few days as this time of year, in between seasons (spring buds are gone, no nuts yet, not always wild fruit around), young rely on their mothers for food help- as mothers were busy storing nuts before they were born. Little Sister has become quite aggressive if there is food around. She is sporting a scratch on her nose, which I'm sure is from fighting! I always see her trying to fight with Little Brother! Can you find her in the picture below???

And talking about past WTS residents, sadly the little shrews didn't make it. They were so tiny! And after consults with both neural and opthalmology veterinary experts, it is still uncertain what is wrong with the fawn, though we do know that he is blind. The great news is that he is going to live in luxury with a top white tailed deer rehabilitator who will use him as an educational animal. She also just adopted a little blind girl fawn this season, so he will have a friend at his new home!

I'll try to be better at blogging- it has just been super busy with sometimes up to 20 patients, many of them not eating on their own, my days usually start at 6am and doesn't end until midnight or later. My hands are chapped from washing up food dishes and bottles all day,  I haven't managed to have lunch before about 5pm all week, my back aches from building bunny hutches and  nest boxes, and I  fell asleep on the kitchen floor the other day...but I love it! :) Major bunny dramas that I have to report, so stay tuned....