I started my internship at the Wildlife Rehab Center yesterday, doing what I did for a whole summer two years ago: feeding baby bunnies and squirrels! It was nice to start in on something that I'm familiar with. There isn't much to it- fill a syringe with formula, spend about 20 minutes trying to get it into a baby animal. The best description of feeding a baby bunny is actually Anne Lamott's description of feeding her son Sam in her book Operating Instructions:Feeding him is like filling a hole with putty- you get it in and then you shave off all the excess around the hole and gob it back in, like you're spackling.That's about right for bunnies too. They don't really suckle... just goober the formula all over. Squirrels, on the other hand, live to eat and you have to keep them from sucking the formula down too fast. They're a lot more fun to feed, but not nearly as adorable as the bunnies. I'll be in the mammal nursery for the rest of this week, then moving over to the avian and waterfowl nurseries. After we finished feeding the babies, I watched a vet tech give an injection to a snapping turtle... wow. Glad I've never run into one of those guys in East Bearskin!
7 weeks until the start of classes again.....
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