Evelyn's Wildlife Refuge

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Notes from the President

Hello and welcome to our newsletter. I hope everyone enjoyed the holidays and are ready to face the New Year. We are still waiting to receive our letter of exemption from the IRS. As you may have noticed we have named our newsletter Critter Notes. Now that everything seems to be falling in place, I want everything yesterday! My New Years resolution will be to be more patient. At this writing I am almost critter free. Only one gray fox, recovering from a run in with a car. The fox got the worst of it.

I’m able to watch a TV show in its entirety! Also catching up on much needed painting and cage repair. Unfortunately the quiet time won’t last and once again especially during spring we will again be taking in orphaned babies and I’ll be “Mom” to them. I wish we didn’t have to do this each year, but it’s a fact of life.

Just let us do a good job so we are able to release healthy animals and birds back to the wild.

Evelyn

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Membership

Our membership continues to grow. Quite a few people have joined our Refuge who are not wildlife rehabilitators, but are animal friendly. We always hear people say they want to help in any way they can, and by becoming a member, the $15.00 fee goes towards helping our rehabilitators in caring for wildlife by providing formula and medicines for their “critters.” If you know of anyone interested in joining our Refuge ask them to go to our web page http://www.evelynswildliferefuge.org where they can sign up.

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Education

Carol Carsten and Beth Coulling have kindly agreed to be part of the Education Committee for our Refuge. Both are available to speak to any group concerning wildlife, including but not limited to Schools, Church group, Civic groups, Boy/Girl Scouts, Brownies and Cub Scouts.

If anyone is interested please contact:

Carol Carsten at basketbiznis@aol.com or 757-495-2932

Beth Coulling at beffer@cox.net or 757-421-3766

Evelyn’s Notes

I’m always in need of wild bird seed as I feed 365 days a year. If anyone can put me in touch with a source to purchase seed at a reasonable price, please contact me at evelyn@evelynswildliferefuge.org or 757-430-2886.

Robyn Jones, a state and Federal licensed rehabber who lives in Suffolk, VA is looking for anyone interested in training as a rehabber or acting as a transporter for her. The transporter would deliver “critters” from her house to our Refuge. The refuge will pay for gas mileage.

A few Thank Yous are in order.

First let me introduce Bill and Jane Cole. They are a retired Navy couple living in Virginia Beach. Earlier, last spring, Bill had a tree in his yard cut down. Seconds away from being fed to a chipper/shredder Bill discovered a squirrel’s nest that contained four baby squirrels. He called around and finally got in touch with Evelyn and was told to bring them to the Refuge. Bill and Jane stayed in touch, calling weekly for an update on “their babies.” Months after the squirrels release Bill and Jane have since become members and contributors to the Refuge.

Thanks goes to Robin and Andrea Gilbert who assist us with a monthly donation which enables us to provide food for our critters. Robyn, through her and Andrea’s donation is insuring we will have enough food for everyone in the critter world.

Last but not least, thanks goes out to Dave Coulling our webmaster. He insures everything is up to date and presentable on our web page. Also our web page is due to his generosity.

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REEVE

I would like to tell you about Reeve, the Raccoon named after the actor Christopher Reeve.

Reeve came into my care last spring. He and his two siblings were barely a month old. I believe their mother had distemper when she delivered, because when we got them they were very damaged, having no motor skills and partially paralyzed. I had Reeves two siblings euthanized, but kept Reeve alive as he showed the most promise of becoming “normal.” I hoped he would get better as he got older and stronger but it was not to be. The dreadful disease had taken its toll and Reeve was a quadriplegic. By the time I decided to have Reeve euthanized I got another baby raccoon. Reeve was reprieved in order to help “J.R.” adapt to life and to have a playmate. Then I received another raccoon. She was at least two months younger than Reeve and J.R. Again I used Reeve to assist “Leila.” He acted as a big brother when J.R. got to rambunctious or when Leila needed a snuggle she would lie across Reeve’s neck and go to sleep. As all good stories go, J.R. and Leila eventually outgrew me and Reeve. One day J.R. and Leila never returned for supper, and for me, that meant they were raccoons. The wild streak had kicked in and they were now on their own. Reeves job was done but mine wasn’t. I had one more task. A few days later after much soul searching Jim and I took him to our Vet (Dr. Bostic). I held him in my arms as he slowly slipped into his eternal sleep. He passed without any stress or fear. I just hope there is a Rainbow Bridge where Reeve is climbing trees, running and wading in streams trying to catch a fish or two and being a normal raccoon.

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