It's Not Too Late to Help Animals in 2012

 

As 2012 draws to a close, we want to extend a heartfelt thank you for your support.

Over the past year—with your help—we have transformed the lives of more than 6,000 injured, orphaned and abandoned animals. Together, we provided much-needed shelter, care and love for the cats, dogs and wildlife who arrived at our door, in need of a second chance.

Your year-end gift to PAWS will help animals like Clementine the kitten, who was rescued along with her brothers and sisters from an overcrowded shelter in Eastern Washington. At PAWS, Clementine and her siblings received the attention they needed to grow healthy and strong.

In 2012, PAWS rescued a record-breaking number of cats, dogs, kittens and puppies from overburdened shelters around the state, providing each of these animals warmth, love and a second chance at life. Your gift today will help us care for many more animals like these throughout the coming year.

Please, take a moment right now and make an end-of-the-year tax-deductible donation for the animals.

From all of us at PAWS, we wish you and yours a very happy, healthy and humane New Year!

Thank you for supporting PAWS!

 

A Successful Year of Saving Animals in 2012

 

Riveting rescue stories, a plethora of interesting patients, and hundreds of happy endings—2012 was a busy year here at PAWS. As we prepare to usher in 2013, we'd like to share with you a few memorable moments and milestones from the past year:

• In 2012, PAWS celebrated its 45th year as an organization. We even recorded the 45th adoption of our 45th year, as Ozzie the Daschund finds his forever home — take a look!

• This year, the PAWS Foster Care program grew by leaps and bounds. Through this life-saving program, we cared for more than 1,600 animals, including an astounding 1,080 kittens—double the number of kittens we cared for in 2011.

• In July 2012, PAWS Wildlife Center veterinarians saved the life of an American Black Bear cub (pictured right) after one of its lungs was collapsed by a tranquilizer dart. Watch the video of her diagnosis and recovery here.

• When the Iranian government threatened a ban on companion animals, PAWS teamed up with Humane Society International and shelters in Tehran to rescue these endangered dogs and bring them to Western Washington for a chance at new lives with loving families.

• This year marked the second anniversary of PAWS Cat City's new home on Roosevelt Way, in Seattle's University District. The new-and-improved facility features three separate cat colony rooms, and has allowed us to expand our services and increase the number of cats and kittens we can take in to our care.

• In 2012, our Companion Animal Shelter set many adoption records, including finding homes for 69 "hard to place" animals during our three-day Black Friday adoption special.

Whether we are celebrating a loving reunion between a lost pet and their guardian, the adoption of a long-time PAWS resident, or the animals who have yet to arrive at our doors, we are deeply grateful for your support. If you would like to help us continue our life-saving work, you can make a year-end tax-deductible donation for the animals at PAWS.

Thank you for your support in 2012 and beyond!

 

 

A Cormorant's Lucky Day

November 13, 2012 was the luckiest day of a young Double-crested Cormorant’s life, although it probably felt like just the opposite to him at the time. On that day the bird was sitting in a sewage tunnel next to the Duamish River. He was entangled in fish netting, and had been for several days. With no way to escape, the cormorant faced a slow death by starvation, but his fortunes were about to change.

The cormorant’s plight had not gone unnoticed, and therein lies the luck. Workers from Seattle Public Utilities just happened to be checking the sewage tunnel on that day. They spotted the cormorant and realized he was in distress. After calling PAWS Wildlife Center for advice, the workers entered the tunnel and rescued the bird.

At PAWS, wildlife rehabilitators cut the cormorant free from the netting. In addition to preventing him from feeding for several days, the fine monofilament had cut into the patagium (wing membrane) of the bird’s right wing. Patagial wounds can be problematic. The skin may contract or badly scar during healing, causing the bird to lose range of motion in the wing. So in addition to bringing the cormorant back from the brink of starvation, the veterinarians and animal care staff had to ensure that his wing wounds healed in a way that would not permanently impair his flight.

It took over a month, but the cormorant returned to a healthy body weight and his wing healed beautifully. He was maintained in a large, filtered pool while he re-grew feathers at the wound site.

On December 20, Wildlife Admissions Specialist Cindy Kirkendall, Assistant Wildlife Rehabilitator Jamie Thomas and a handful of Seattle Public Utilities employees gathered on Constellation Beach in Seattle to watch the Cormorant return home. After exiting his transport carrier, the Cormorant decided to forgo the water and take directly to the air. After making several passes over the group of well-wishers below, he headed off to resume his wild, free life.

Help us continue our life-saving work by making a year-end gift to PAWS today!

 

Keep Your Pets Healthy this Holiday

 

'Tis the season for celebrating—with friends, family, and a glass of eggnog or hot cocoa. But before you get into the full swing of the Christmas celebrations, please take a moment to make sure that your furry family members stay safe, healthy and happy this holiday season with the following safety tips:

Christmas tree caution. Christmas trees are beautiful, but your pet might think it's just an extra-large toy to climb or play with. Make sure your tree is securely anchored so that it doesn't fall, causing possible injury to your pet. Also, try to keep the tree water as fresh as possible and pesticide-free, in case your pet sneaks a drink.

Retire the tinsel. Sparkly, light-catching tinsel looks good on the tree, but it can wreak havoc on your pet's intestinal system if they ingest it. Brighten your tree boughs with ornaments and other pet-friendly decorations instead.

Watch out for wires. Twinkly Christmas lights make your season (and home) bright, but exposed wires can be tempting for your pets to chew on. Try to keep wires covered or out of your pet's reach.

Hide the holly. Did you know holly, mistletoe, and poinsettia plants are poisonous to dogs and cats? If you normally use these plants to decorate your home, they should be kept in an area your pet cannot reach.

Forego the food scraps. Dinner may be delicious, but fatty, spicy human foods, as well as bones, should not be fed to your furry friends. Keep unattended plates of food out of reach, and be sure to secure the lids on garbage cans.

Happy Holidays from PAWS!

 

A Visitor from the North

 

For the second year in a row, Washington State is playing host to a remarkable group of visitors from the North. A number of Snowy Owls have once again made the trek down from the arctic to winter along our coast. We began receiving calls about sightings of the birds in early November, and we assumed it was only a matter of time before one arrived at the PAWS Wildlife Center for care.  On December 11, that assumption proved to be correct as a Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife enforcement agent brought us an injured Snowy Owl that was found in Monroe, WA.

The owl had been rescued at a Monroe area wetland by a group of duck hunters. The men had been seeing the owl for several days, and she seemed to be having difficulty with one of her wings. When the owl became weak enough to approach, they captured her and handed her off to the WDFW agent who brought her to PAWS.

Some swelling is present in the owl’s left wing, but no fractures were evident on her X-rays. She is very thin and weak. For now, she has been prescribed cage rest while her injured wing heals, and she is also being treated for intestinal parasites.

 

A Case of Mistaken Identity

 

When I first saw patient #12-2776, I said to Wildlife Rehabilitation Manager Emily Meredith, “That is one big Cooper’s Hawk!” A short time later, when I was repeating this observation to our veterinary staff, I joked that the bird was a Cooper’s Hawk pretending to be a goshawk. As soon as I said it, a little voice in the back of my mind said, “I think you might have that backwards.”

I immediately returned to the bird’s enclosure and looked at him with fresh eyes, and in that moment I finally truly saw him. He wasn’t a big Cooper’s Hawk, he was a small Northern Goshawk, a species that is a State Candidate for being listed as threatened or endangered, and an extremely rare patient at PAWS. 

In my 17 years of working at the PAWS Wildlife Center, I can only recall treating one other goshawk, and that was over 15 years ago. Adults of this species are easily identified by their striking gray and white color pattern, bold facial markings, and red eyes. Patient #12-2776 was a juvenile bird. At first glance, his brown, mottled appearance is not that different from the juveniles of a number of other species, the most similar being the Cooper’s Hawk. Still, his white eye stripe, uneven tail bands, and overall size left no doubt about his identity, just as his bedraggled feathers, thin body condition, and severe anemia left no doubt that he needed help.

The goshawk was in our care from November 4 through December 10. During that time he fully recovered from his anemia and his weight steadily climbed from 593 grams at admission to more than 800 grams right before his release.

I have seen goshawks in the wild many times, but always in remote forested areas in the foothills or mountains. Oddly, this goshawk came to us from Queen Anne Hill in Seattle, not a place you would ordinarily expect this woodland bird to be found. Migrating birds do sometimes wander into unexpected places though, and, like this bird, they often run into trouble when they do. After consulting with Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) biologists, I decided to release the bird in an area that contained more promising habitat for a goshawk.

Before sunrise on December 11, I donned a headlamp and entered the goshawk’s flight enclosure. Goshawks are amazingly agile in flight, but the darkness gave me an advantage and I quickly captured the bird. I placed him in a padded transport carrier to ensure he didn’t injure himself in transit, and then I headed an hour north to meet a WDFW raptor biologist in Burlington, WA. The biologist placed a federal band on the bird’s leg, and then we released him in a forested area not far from the Skagit River. The goshawk landed on a nearby stump and paused just long enough for me to capture a few photos before he dove into the forest and was gone.

 

Fall Foraging and Crow Commotion in the latest Campus Update

 

What are all the crows going on about this time? Click below to download the latest Campus Update and find out.

Download Campus Update 120612 (6.0)