Pet Chat July 26th: Saving Wildlife - Inside a Small Sanctuary's Mission

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Pet Chat today has a special guest: Wildlife rehabilitator Janie Girardin who shares her experiences caring for orphaned and injured animals at Spicy Paws Wildlife Sanctuary, explaining the delicate process of rehabilitation and eventual release back to nature.

• Specializes in rehabilitating squirrels, rabbits, songbirds, and fawns
• Currently caring for eight baby squirrels, five rabbits, and six fawns
• Animals typically come into care when orphaned, injured, or showing distress signals
• Uses a "soft release" approach, allowing animals to transition gradually back to the wild
• Minimizes human contact to ensure animals retain their wild instincts
• Explains how to tell when wildlife truly needs human assistance
• Debunks myth that touching baby birds causes mother rejection
• Advises keeping distressed wildlife "warm, dark and quiet" until professional help arrives
• Warns against feeding baby animals without professional guidance
• Becoming a rehabilitator requires specific training, testing, and licensing

If you'd like to support Spicy Paws Wildlife Sanctuary, visit their Facebook page.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:09):
hello pet enthusiasts .
Welcome to pet chat.
My name is jason zakowski.
I'm the dog dad of bunsen,beaker and bernoulli the science
dogs on social media.
My co-host with the mostest ishi there, I'm chris sakowski.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
I'm the dog mom to bunsen, beaker and bernoulli and
ginger, who's a cat.
So I'm the cat mom to gingerthat's right.

Speaker 1 (00:35):
Welcome to pet chat everybody.
We've linked together all ofour communities on twitter or x.
You're listening to that audioonly on x spaces.
We're on x, on X Video Hello,hello, we've got 72 people
watching there.
We're on Facebook Live andwe're on YouTube now and, of
course, as well on Instagram.

(00:55):
So welcome to everybody Today.
We have another guest, our guesttoday, and about after we
answer some questions, we'regoing to bring her up.
It's Janie Girardin.
She is the, I guess thecaretaker of a wildlife rescue
called Spicy Paws.
Hopefully I'm getting that andit was Paula who brought her to
our attention and we'll have agood conversation with her in

(01:17):
about I don't know five, tenminutes.
We'll see, but we do start withQ&A.
We'll bring up Janie in asecond but for right, we like to
do a little bit of question andanswers.
Some people just want to pop inand they have a burning
questions that they would likeus to answer right off the bat.
Oh, there's a good questionfrom positivity with crit888 on
Instagram how did you start yourjourney with first baby to

(01:41):
fourth?
Short story of introducing themand handling their temper and
choices.
So Bunsen was alone.
He was the lone dog for threeyears until we got Beaker.
During COVID and Beaker gotalong so good with Bunsen.
We were very worried becauseshe was so tiny.
Bunsen is big and when we gotBeaker she was this little tiny

(02:04):
golem retriever puppy and weintroduced them outside the
house.
We introduced them in stagesand it was a slow, kind of
gradual, letting them just seeeach other.
So it took a bit but thereweren't any problems with Bunsen
and Beaker and then they justbecame best friends.
It was super cute.

(02:25):
Ginger came along later, so howdid we do the Ginger
introduction to the house, chris?

Speaker 2 (02:33):
Ginger is a bit of a work in progress because she had
to build up the I guess theimmunity to the Fel-D1 protein,
or get that immunity built up inher so you would not be
allergic to her.
She was eating that food overat my stepdad's house and so
that that was about three orfour weeks and then we finally

(02:54):
just said, ok, we're going tobring her over and see how it
goes.
And we had space for her tojump around and escape and we
always have the gate on the doorgoing down the stairs like she
can get through there and thedogs can't.
And we started with I tookBunsen somewhere.

Speaker 1 (03:14):
We tried to separate the dog so it was only one dog
at a time with Ginger.
Yeah, we did try to.

Speaker 2 (03:19):
No, Bunsen went somewhere.

Speaker 1 (03:20):
He may be.
I don't know my school, maybe Ithink I took him.

Speaker 2 (03:25):
I know, I think I took him to Waggles.

Speaker 1 (03:26):
I took him to waggles .

Speaker 2 (03:26):
Oh, maybe waggles, yeah so he went to me with what
went with me to waggles, yeah,and you and adam had beaker on
your own, or it was the otherway around no, anyway, we had
one dog at a time.

Speaker 1 (03:38):
It was beaker, because beaker came over to see
ginger and beakers, or gingerwhapped Beaker on the nose.

Speaker 2 (03:44):
That was their first greeting and Bunsen was fine
with her.
He was like curious he's, Iwant to be your friend and she's
not really I don't think so.
Yeah, and he's okay.

Speaker 1 (03:53):
I guess not and we did the same thing with
Bernoulli.
It was a lot more chaos becausewe had three animals.
Bunsen, beaker and Ginger andthen bernoulli was fearless and
we thought bunsen was beingreally aloof to him, but it I
think it was because at thatpoint bunsen was getting very

(04:13):
sick, he had that tapeworm cystand he was not feeling good at
all.
So that's perhaps why he wasnot super wanting to play with
baby bernoulli, but I but Ithought they got along great as
well as Giant Pack could, soslow and in steps.
Okay, so that's that question.
Heidi has a really hardquestion for us to answer

(04:35):
because it's an emotional one.
Is Ginger leaving with Adam orstaying home?
So Ginger is Adam's cat and thefirst little bit of August is
probably when Ginger will begoing with Adam.
So she's going to be leavingher house, which is sad, and if
it doesn't work out, as we'vesaid, she's welcome back home

(04:58):
because we love her too.
Yeah, it is a tough thingbecause it's Adam's pet and he's
leaving.
So we're gonna be sad becauseadam's gone and we're also gonna
be sad because ginger will beas well.
So that is the truth, as bestas we can say.
Yeah, somebody asked aboutbernice training versus the

(05:21):
retriever training, and bothdogs are, we found.
Both breeds are very willing towork.
They want to make you happy and, like, bernoulli was pretty
easy to train, bunsen was supereasy to train and Beaker was
maybe more of a challenge.
But that's because we got herduring COVID and it was on again

(05:43):
, off again like in-persontraining with her.
So that was she had a toughergo because of when we got her.

Speaker 2 (05:51):
Now, let's be honest, Bunsen was a rock star the
entire time.
He was potty trained within aweek.
He is amazing and like littleto no accidents in the house.
Awesome Beaker, I think, had amuch smaller bladder.
So we were always at the doorand she outsmarted the bell

(06:15):
system because we got the littlebells and she would just ring
the bells to go outside becauseshe's oh, if I ring these I get
to go outside, hoor, hooray.
But then what we would do is wewould take her out, she would
pee, bring her right back in andshe would run to the water bowl
for a refill, yeah.
And so we were always runningout the door, like we set a

(06:37):
timer, but it just was morechaotic with her because she
refilled all the time.
So she was like constantlyneeding to go.
It was a thing.
And then Bernoulli, I was like,oh yes, we've got a Bernie's
mountain dog, he's gonna getthis.

Speaker 1 (06:54):
No, no, he doesn't he didn't bark to go to the
bathroom doesn't alert, hedoesn't alert to go outside.
So we've got it down we've'vetimed it so it's fine, but that
was a big learning curve when hedidn't bark to go out.

Speaker 2 (07:08):
Yeah, we're like.
Why aren't you like Bunsen?
Why aren't you so perfect andamazing?

Speaker 3 (07:12):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (07:12):
What?
And so, of course, if a dog has, or a puppy has an accident in
the house, it's not their fault.
It's the owner's fault for notlooking for the cues or
listening to the wine, or etcetera, et cetera.
So Bernoulli was a lot morework, yes, than Bunsen.

Speaker 1 (07:30):
Then we were also dealing with, like Bunsen's
health declining as well.
So you know there are somechallenges there.
Bunsen is doing great.
By the way, That'll probably bein our story that we share.
At the end, I think we shouldprobably get to our guests.
Janie, I'm going to bring youup to the stage, so hello.
I'd like to welcome JanieGerardin, who is the caretaker

(07:54):
of Spicy Paws Wildlife Sanctuary.
Janie, how are you doing today?

Speaker 4 (07:57):
Wonderful.
Thank you for having me.

Speaker 1 (07:59):
Yeah, it's so good to have you on the show.
Paula Moses is a big part ofour community with the Bunsen
and Beaker stuff, and she founda bird and it maybe didn't have
the best outcome, but shebrought it to you and we try to
get guests occasionally and it'san interesting thing to talk

(08:23):
about, which is wildlifesanctuary, wildlife
rehabilitation.
Janie, could you talk a?

Speaker 4 (08:28):
little bit about what Spicy Paws Wildlife Sanctuary
is.
Yep, so I'm a small nonprofitand I specifically deal with
squirrels, bunnies, federalbirds and fawns.
That's my main focus ofrehabilitating and releasing of
those specific animals and youhave a Facebook page for Spicy
Paws.

Speaker 1 (08:46):
Is there?
Is it anywhere else on socialmedia?
Tiktok, I think, TikTok.
Okay, We'll have some linksthat people can find you in,
because I was like scrollingthrough this and you have some
fawns and baby deer and bunniesand things like that on there,
and we were talking just beforewe started.
You still, how many do you have?

(09:07):
How many fawn do you have rightnow currently?

Speaker 4 (09:10):
Currently I have six that are hopefully slated to
release, probably September toOctober.

Speaker 1 (09:15):
Okay, cool.
So what got you started doingthis as a nonprofit Were you?
Did you have a calling to helpthe animals?

Speaker 4 (09:23):
I've always loved the animals but, I had a couple of
my own run-ins.
I found a fawn in the road thatI took to my mentor and then,
when I met her a couple monthslater, I had baby birds fall out
of a transformer at my house.
And she came up and she triedto help me re-nest them at least
in a better spot.
And then we got to talking andshe told me, if I'd go through

(09:46):
the course and pass my test,that she would be willing to
mentor me.

Speaker 1 (09:50):
And what does that entail?
What do you have to know?
I'm curious what's the testthat you had to take?
If you don't mind me asking,I'm sorry.

Speaker 4 (09:58):
We have to do a full day's class with DEP.
It's a one day class and thenthey have a test thereafter and
then, once you pass that, youhave to do 40 hours of mentoring
with a rehabber that has yearsof experience.
And then, once you get your 40hours, and then you get a vet to
sign off, then you can finallyapply for your license.

Speaker 1 (10:21):
Okay, I've, if you're watching on live, I'm just
sharing some photos from thefacebook.
These are the from june.
The fawns there does it everget old?
How cute they are, even thoughI'm sure there's some very sad
stories when they get bigger.

Speaker 4 (10:36):
Yes, oh, when they get bigger, it's not so cute
it's not so cute when they tryto run you over.
There's still.
There's still your little ones,and no matter what.

Speaker 1 (10:46):
Yeah, yeah.
So do you have some memorablestories that have happened, like
some big saves or some thingsyou're proud of that you, you
did, I my, my one big one thisyear.

Speaker 4 (11:00):
All my babies were put out.
All my baby fawns were putoutside.
We're big enough to go out.
No-transcript see some blood onit.

(11:31):
So I went out and againexpecting a big baby.
He was a little, eight poundbaby.

Speaker 1 (11:38):
Oh my.

Speaker 4 (11:39):
So I had ran him over to our vet and they worked very
hard.
He had probably a good close toa thousand maggots.
He had five bite wounds from acoyote and of course the maggot
damage as well.
So he's been my little successstory.
He is still with us, still hasa long road to recovery, but

(12:00):
hopefully I'm looking forward togetting him outside in about
three, four weeks.

Speaker 1 (12:06):
Why You'll have to excuse my ignorance.
What causes Fawn to come intocare?
Do we know the reasons?
Why Are there some big ones?

Speaker 4 (12:18):
So there's some big ones, Mom's hit by cars.
That's usually a big one,that's one of the most
Occasionally you'll have anorphan baby just running around
screaming.
We don't have proof that themom's gone, but you can pretty
much tell because a normal happyfawn should be laying down
quiet.
They'll get up.
They might have a little tempertantrum like a kid every now

(12:38):
and then, but they're normallypretty quiet.
But when they start coming upto humans they're screaming,
they're crying in this heat,blood or anything like that.
Then at that point we take theminto care.

Speaker 1 (12:51):
They're pretty defenseless, hey, when they're
on their own, yeah.

Speaker 4 (12:54):
Yep, so they're born scentless and so that's why most
people don't realize.
But they'll find a fawn layingin the grass or somewhere very
strange.
This year We've had a fewplaced babies.
That were very odd locations,but they'll place them there and
they'll leave them for 12 hoursand then they'll come back
later, and as long as it's safefor them to come out, then they

(13:15):
will come back.
So we've had to do a fewrelocations on some babies this
year.

Speaker 1 (13:20):
How do you know?
How do you know when, forexample, I know we're on fawns
right now.
They're just cute, so my mindis like zeroed on them.
How do you know, for example, afawn is ready to go back?
Are there a checklist that yougo through mentally so we don't
bring them back.

Speaker 4 (13:36):
We have to soft release them.
So we have a really big penthat was built and they stay
with me.
So once a fawn comes into care,they're with me until I release
them.
Usually it would be September.
We might have to push a littlelater this year because of that
young one that came in Cause I'dlike to.
I want them to go out as agroup, as a herd.
They do better as a herd, sothey'll stay with me until we're

(13:59):
released and then when Irelease, it's a soft release, so
I open their door to their penand they can come and go as they
please.
I'll still supplemental feedback there for a little while,
offer fresh food and wateroutside until they decide their
time for them to go.

Speaker 1 (14:16):
So they do the act as a group, or there are some that
come back and they're harder torelease, or did they?

Speaker 4 (14:22):
so last year was my first year and I did have my two
bachelors that really hungaround for a while.
They hung out until november.
They got friendly with theneighborhood but they survived
the winter.
He and him.
One of my boys came back andpopped in february and just like
a quick passing and said hi,but people have told me they've
seen him throughout the winterand that he had done very well

(14:43):
for himself.
So all in all, my bachelors didvery well.

Speaker 1 (14:46):
Ah, let's hope that bachelor finds a little lady
friend.

Speaker 4 (14:50):
That would be this year, so that would be hoping.

Speaker 1 (14:54):
Gets all Twitterpated ala Bambi.
Hey, Yep, I'll go over to you.
Do you have any questions?

Speaker 2 (15:04):
So how do you know that they're yours?
Do you tag them or do you justrecognize them?
How do you know?

Speaker 4 (15:10):
So next year we are going to start tagging when my
first year new on everything.
One of them was a little bittoo friendly my first year, but
the other ones I've hadneighbors with game cams.
Two of my younger ones actuallyhooked up with those from last
year.
From what we could see on thegame cams, it looks like we had
two successful hookups withthose, which was nice because

(15:32):
they were still young when wereleased last year, and the
other two bachelors I just knewbecause they hung around for too
long.
One of them became very flightythough and didn't really want
to be around me anymore, and wejust had one lone bachelor that
he hung with his buddy, but hestill came back and said hi, and
then he finally left inNovember and then showed back up
in February now you mentionedthe other things you specialize

(15:56):
in.

Speaker 1 (15:56):
Did I get it right?
Squirrels, squirrels and thenwas it a type of bird?

Speaker 4 (16:00):
or do I do all federal songbirds?
Okay so, like cardinals robins,anything under the Federal
Migratory Bird Act.

Speaker 1 (16:07):
Gotcha and then like rabbits or yeah.

Speaker 4 (16:11):
Yeah, I do Baby bunnies yeah.

Speaker 1 (16:13):
So currently, right now at the sanctuary, do you
have any of those?

Speaker 4 (16:18):
Yes, I do.
I have eight baby squirrelsthat are about three weeks old
right now.
Five baby rabbits, eyes areopen, they're in there, they're
already up eating on their own,and squirrels bunnies.
And then the six fawns.

Speaker 1 (16:31):
And no songbirds currently.

Speaker 4 (16:33):
Nope, not currently.
All mine are gone.

Speaker 1 (16:36):
How does it go with squirrels?
They're pretty dexterous asthey get older.
Are they hard to do?
You have a specialized cage, orwhen they're ready to go, they
go.
I don't know.

Speaker 4 (16:51):
No.
So we once, as they grow up, wemove up to a starter cage and
then we move up to the bigcritter nation cages.
It's a double, a double layeredcage, so I usually can put five
to six babies in each layer andthen they go from being really
sweet to don't touch me no more.
Once we get big enough andtheir tails start to get bushy,
we get them outside into apre-release cage, which is just
a really big, wired in safe cagewhere they can finish up

(17:12):
growing, and I usually keep themin there for two to three weeks
and then I soft release them aswell.
So I'll open up the door oneday and then they can come and
go as they please and I alsosupplemental feed them as well.

Speaker 1 (17:25):
I was just thinking like these animals are all so
cute, but your goal is not tomake them a pet Girls don't
become pets very easy.

Speaker 4 (17:33):
With too many in care , unfortunately, I don't have
the time to handle, and with toomany in care, unfortunately I
don't have the time to handleand love on all of them.
It's just not enough time.
So they really do wild up veryquickly on their own I'm usually
using welding gloves by thetime they're ready to go out oh,
so they're ready to do, they'reready, they're ready to let you
know yeah, how about what's theprocess for rabbits?
I'm just curious there rabbitsare nice are nice Rabbits are

(17:55):
hard release.
So once they're old enough,usually I moms release their
babies about four weeks, threeto four weeks with that, and
then she just walks away.
I like to make sure they're alittle bit bigger and ready and
then I'll just release them.
I have a couple of propertiesthat have really nice protected
properties and you don't want tokeep rabbits in care too long
because they can just pass awayvery quickly.

Speaker 1 (18:17):
They're very high stressed animals oh, okay,
gotcha, so they do betterreleasing them as quickly as
possible, if possible yep, assoon as you know that they're
healthy, they're ready, they'reeating on their own.
Out the door they go turn 18,you're out of the house bye-bye.
But for a rabbit, four weeks orwhatever yep, it's very quick

(18:37):
out, especially out in the wildI have one more question, janie,
and then we'll maybe have theaudience ask you some questions,
if you don't mind taking a few.
Well, yeah, and one thing wealways like to ask our guests is
if they you yourself have petsyou're taking care of yeah,
you're taking care of all ofthese animals.
What do you have pets yourself?

Speaker 4 (18:59):
I do so.
I have a Goffin Cockatoo who'sbeen very peaceful in the
background at the moment.
And then I tried fostering twoyears ago.
Not the brightest idea when I'mdoing wildlife but I foster two
dogs.
They were pit mixes and theyboth had come in.
It was my first time fosteringand they came in with mange, but
then they both came down withkennel cough.

(19:20):
One of them got very sick.
He was actually admitted intothe local emergency hospital vet
for three days with doublepneumonia.
He was very sick and of coursehe became my spoiled rotten brat
and I ended up adopting him.

Speaker 1 (19:35):
What's the cockatooos name?
Miles?
Miles, you were in a differentlocation.
He was definitely yelling atyou Not, unlike Bunsen yells at.

Speaker 4 (19:47):
Chris, during toddler time Yep, anytime you're on the
phone it's like having atoddler.
He yells at me.

Speaker 1 (19:53):
Mark, who's watching on YouTube, has a good question
and I was going to get to this,so Mark's got me going a little
bit faster.
How can we support you?
You're a nonprofit.
Do you have a link that peoplewho are watching today that can
support?
They can support you somehow.

Speaker 4 (20:09):
Yes, we have a.
We have a wishlist, our Amazonwishlist, we have a Chewy's
wishlist and we also do ourVenmo and our paypal.
But our wish lists are veryimportant to us because we put
on a lot of supplies that weneed where can we find that,
janie?

Speaker 1 (20:23):
on our spicy paws page okay, on your feet, on the
wild life rehab yep on facebookokay, I'm there right now, would
you?

Speaker 4 (20:32):
I'm just trying to find, let's see I know I did an
amazon one not too long yeah,we'll work at finding it as we
talk.

Speaker 1 (20:45):
Yeah, sorry, I just don't I see.
Is it under fundraisers?

Speaker 4 (20:48):
sorry, let's see on my main page.
Let me get on my own page yeah,if everybody bears with us.

Speaker 1 (20:56):
A second mark asked her that's a really good
question, yeah.
And then, yeah, paula, who'swatching on youtube, says she's
an amazon wish list.
Yeah, so that's what we'relooking for, paula, you bet.
Yeah, we can put that insomehow, like in a link,
somewhere for folks to take alook at yeah.

Speaker 4 (21:13):
Yeah, it's sorry, it's a post from July 9th on my
main page July 9th, okay, youbetcha.

Speaker 1 (21:20):
Yeah, I've got it.
You got it.
Okay, chris, if you put that?
Oh, there it is, I see it.
If you put that on X, I willdeal with this one on.
You know what?
I think people, it would be alot easier if people just click.
They're not going to be able todo it through viewing, so I

(21:41):
will just share my screen andpeople can go check it out on
your Facebook page.
Okay, so one sec here.
Share screen Facebook.
Yeah, so on the Spicy PawsWildlife Rehab page on July 9th
there's the Amazon wish list andI can share that too.

(22:04):
Hopefully I can share that tothe Bunsen and Beaker.
Here is Spicy Paws wish list.
Okay, it is tough to share onInstagram Folks who are on
Instagram.
You'll just have to travel onover to Facebook to click links.
Okay, all right, unless youhave other questions, chris,

(22:25):
we're going to go to.
Yeah, so somebody posted onFacebook there.

Speaker 2 (22:32):
I'm just putting the Amazon link in the.
So my question is like with thedeer and like the idea is that
they're well, and the rabbitstoo is the idea of
rehabilitation, and it was myunderstanding that the more
human contact they have, theless habitable that they are.
So how do you do you lessenyour human contact with them?

(22:56):
How does that work?

Speaker 4 (22:57):
So I do.
We had a shed set up last yearthat they built me a fawn room
in specifically, and this waythere's no other contact other
than me.
So when we had a deepinspection come out, it was very
antsy when she walked inbecause without they're in a
very quiet place.
It's just me and myself and theanimals in there.

(23:18):
So they definitely are muchmore spooky this year.
Big difference Just having justmyself in there.
You don't like the noises.
They don't like people comingin and coming out, and this
group is much spookier withpeople and it's exactly what we
wanted, even if as long as it'sjust myself.
I keep my time limited Now thatthey're outside.
I'm out only twice a day, oncein the morning, once at night to

(23:40):
feed and that's it.
So I even keep my own contactvery limited.

Speaker 1 (23:47):
Good question Chris.

Speaker 2 (23:48):
I just was wondering, because we had found that owl
and we had taken it to the aplace called the medicine
wildlife rehabilitation centerhere in central alberta and the
bird was able to berehabilitated and we helped
release the bird back into thewild.
But they said you do have tominimize that human contact,

(24:09):
otherwise they just have to juststay in the rehabilitation
center forever.
Thank you.

Speaker 1 (24:17):
Okay.
So if you folks who arewatching live, if you have a
question, type it up, we'll getto it.
And if you're on Twitter,spaces, x, spaces, and you want
to ask a question live, we'llbring you up, and, through the
magic of technology, all ofthese platforms will work
together.
So, janie, we're going to bringup some folks who are on audio
You're going to hear their voicebut not be able to see them and

(24:39):
the people who are typingquestions, like Ann.
We'll get to Ann's question.
If I can, I'll put it up in theJumbotron or the Chiron there.
Ann asks what general area areyou located in?
And that's I should have askedthat too.
So, ann, thank you for doing abetter job with the interview.

Speaker 4 (24:55):
I'm located in Connecticut.

Speaker 1 (24:57):
And what's your range for help?

Speaker 4 (25:01):
All of Connecticut.
I've taken animals all the wayin from the northwest corner.
I've had people drive an hourand a half easy to bring things
over to me.
Certain times of the year itgets rough, with rehabbers being
full, unable to take more thanthey're at capacity.
A lot of us are just home-basedand some of them do work
full-time jobs, so they'relimited on what they can take in
.

Speaker 1 (25:22):
Perfect, okay, paula, we'll go to you.
Paula Moses, who you know,paula's on Twitter watching
listening.
Go ahead, paula.

Speaker 6 (25:31):
Hi, hi everybody.
How's everybody doing?
Hi, Janie, hi, so nice to haveyou on tonight.
Janie was the one that helpedme with my poor little baby bird
, but that little boy hadsuffered so bad I think he just
had a bad leg.
But I'll tell you she was theonly one that called me back.
Because there is, janie.
Isn't there a website too thatis for?

(25:53):
I forgot what it's called.
It's like a wildlifeorg and itshows a list of everybody that
is like in your state, if youput your zip code in and it'll
give you like the list of peoplethat rehab different animals,
from deer to owls to the birds.
Isn't there a special networksite?

Speaker 4 (26:13):
Yeah, there's two of them actually.
There's Animal Help Now, whichcovers all of the country.
Basically, no matter where youare, you can put in a zip code
and specifically in Connecticut,we have the DEEP Wildlife page
that breaks it down to animalspecifics.

Speaker 6 (26:29):
Okay, good, because I couldn't remember the name.
Thank you.
I have a couple quick questions.
What was the hardest animal youhad to rehab in your history of
doing it?
I know the fawns can bedifficult or maybe even bunnies,
but you thought maybe there wasone that's in particular.
You were mentioning the littleone that you found, but I didn't
know if there was one that youthought that was the toughest

(26:50):
one you had.
And my second question wasreally more of advice.
You were so helpful to me whenI found that little baby bird
and what are the facts about?
Can you touch a human birdwithout the mother coming back?
There's all these facts thatyou don't know what's right and
what's wrong and what to do andhow.
You told me to be careful andmash up some blueberries or do

(27:11):
something, and maybe you cangive people some insight on how,
if you do find something, whatto do at first and see if it's
really the parents aren't aroundor if they're abandoned, and
what steps you have to take oreven to get to somebody like you
.
So maybe if you could elaborateon that would be great and so
nice to have you on.

Speaker 4 (27:33):
So it's always important when you find an
animal, if you truly know it'sin distress, warm, dark and
quiet is the most importantthing.
Put them in a box, keep them asquiet.
If they're baby babies, thenthey're going to need
supplemental heat, a heating pad, a rice sock and just keep them
warm, dark and quiet.
Never try to feed babiesbecause a lot, unless instructed

(27:53):
by one of us, because mostpeople don't know and they run
out and they buy things likegoat's milk and, on certain
animals, their stomachs can'ttolerate that and then by the
time we get them or see them,they've been fed bad stuff A lot
of times.
It's a bad toll for theseanimals.
The biggest one we preach isjust warm, dark and quiet until

(28:13):
you speak to someone of us.

Speaker 1 (28:16):
And can you touch a baby bird?
Is that a myth that if youtouch them, the mom will reject
it?

Speaker 4 (28:27):
So no, it will not reject it.
We don't want people movingthem around and touching them.
But in a case where we need to,yes, it is safe to pick them up
, put them back in their nestsafely.
Mom will not reject them Withfawns because they are scentless
.
We go a little bit further andwe try to cover them in dirt,
put dirt on our hands, put dirton the fawn, because we don't
want to make sure certainanimals, we want to make sure we
, don't get our scents on.

Speaker 1 (28:50):
And then Paula's other question was something
about the hardest animal to tryto rehabilitate or hardest
animal type, like between allthe ones.

Speaker 4 (29:00):
A few times.
I've always done the preyanimals and every now and then
I've taken in a couple ofpredators opossums.
I used to be absolutely afraidof them that they were going to
bite me.
They were always one of mylearning curves.
I've taken in a few very largeowls.
The great horned owls are verydangerous.
It's that little bit of alearning curve.

(29:21):
I'm still working on dealingwith predators in case I need to
take them in.
My little prey animals do bitewhen they're much bigger and
they can do a lot more damage.
It's a little bit more nervewracking.

Speaker 1 (29:32):
I've never seen an opossum in my life that we don't
have them here.

Speaker 2 (29:36):
Oh wow.
So how can you be sure thatthey don't have rabies or
another kind of communicabledisease?
That would be very dangerous toyou.

Speaker 4 (29:46):
So I don't do rabies vector species.
In Connecticut we only haveskunks, foxes, raccoons.
Those are all rabies vaccineanimals and in order to do that
it's another part of yourlicense and you have to have
your injections for that.
But again, that's part of oneof the risks if you're going to
deal with those specific animals.
They do have rabies, they dohave distemper, and it's just

(30:10):
learning to protect yourselffirst.

Speaker 1 (30:12):
I never even would have thought of that.

Speaker 2 (30:14):
With those welding gloves.

Speaker 4 (30:16):
Yes, I have many pairs, and they're usually lying
everywhere.

Speaker 1 (30:22):
Good question here from Sherry how do you know if
an animal needs assistance?
We maybe get to the second partof this through some of the
questions we've asked, but thefirst one's a good one how do
you know?

Speaker 4 (30:34):
so a lot of times, like baby birds on the ground,
the nest can't be found.
My baby squirrels, any babysquirrel, that runs up to you a
lot of times.
That's how I get a lot of callsbaby squirrels running up your
pant leg baby squirrel yeah,they're really cute when they do
that, then that's the lastditch effort.
That's when they're reachingout for help.
That's when, when thosesituations, we know right away

(30:56):
that they need to come in.
Any animals that you see with alarge amount of flies around
them, those are big warningindicators.
Fawns do a lot of crying Againblood or flies coming around
them.
The rabbits are usually eitherdog caught, dog dug up, cat
caught.
Every now and then we'll findthem with the weed whackers, the
lawnmowers.

(31:17):
Yeah, those can be a littlerough sometimes, but most of the
time I try to assess thesituation.
Sometimes we have calls forfledglings, the birds, once they
fledge out of the nest and theydon't fly.
Most of them don't fly rightaway and they usually take a few
days to fly.
So we usually try to assess thesituation over the phone.
Sometimes, if I need to go outand assess a fawn, I will try to

(31:38):
run out and assess them if it'ssomething that needs warming.

Speaker 1 (31:44):
I've told this story before and maybe I'm just.
I don't see any other questions, so I'm just giving some people
some time to think.
This was many years ago, janie,when we had our first dog,
callan, on a walk through ourcreek.
She found a fawn in the bushesand started to chase it and I
was like, ah, and the fawn.
I caught the fawn right.

(32:04):
I was like was Beaker was justchasing it, she wasn't going to
hurt it, or, sorry, callan, itwasn't Beaker and I put it back.
Hopefully I made the rightchoice and we got out of there,
so that's very good.
Is that what you should do?

Speaker 4 (32:21):
okay, all right yeah, just put them back okay, that's
what I did.

Speaker 1 (32:24):
I put it back in its hiding spot and then we got out
of dodge and it wasn't.
We gave it, I think, three daysand then we it was on our path
that we normally walk and Ipeeked and it wasn't there
anymore.
So hopefully it found its mummyAbsolutely.
Christopher has a fun comment.
Christopher just says I lovethis.
So thanks, christopher, you'reliking the conversation.

(32:46):
That's really cute.
I love that.
That's great.
And then we have Christopheralso saying possums are so chill
.
And Mark is saying we have somany possums that eat our
neighbors avocados.
That is not a problem.
We have in central alberta,canada.
I'll tell you, right now thereare no avocados being grown
outside.
That's probably why we don'thave any possums.

(33:08):
And paula, who's watching onyoutube, also says we have
possums, we, we see possums atnight.
Is there nothing in chat, chris?
Is the chat screwed on?
X?

Speaker 2 (33:19):
No, I don't think it's messed up at all.
I just don't think that there'sany more questions on it,
because what I've done is I'verefreshed the page and that that
typically brings all thecomments to the yard when you,
when you, refresh the page.
But I'm just still seeing the18 comments that are there.

Speaker 1 (33:41):
That's fine, so there's a fun one on on x or
twitter.
In the chat there, chris ddstessa is watching the show on
their television.
Because we're on youtube nowand a lot of tvs have YouTube
enabled, like things you canwatch YouTube.
Adam and Annalise actually werewatching YouTube the other day,
so we're being watched onsomebody's TV right now, which

(34:02):
is cool.

Speaker 2 (34:04):
And that is cool because the dog's name is Proof
and is watching the TV, andthat's something that we just
covered in our latest podcast oh, that's right um dogs watching
tv and then just a randomcomment.

Speaker 1 (34:20):
We have a lot of opossums.

Speaker 2 (34:22):
There's massive are they massive?
I don't know anything about apossum can you tell us a little
bit more about them?
I've only seen little videoswith the babies attached and
they.
I think it looks silly, crazythat the babies hold on to the
mums and stuff um, so they'reborn inside their marsupials.

Speaker 4 (34:41):
They were, they're born in the pouch and then, as
they get older, they will comeout and they'll hang on mom one
of the few babies that they falloff and you find one of them,
mom isn't coming back those areones that have to be taken in
right away.
So if you ever find a babypossum left behind, mom could
have ran.
He fell off and she doesn'tknow how many children she has.
So once you see one of them onthe ground, then it's one of

(35:03):
those.

Speaker 2 (35:03):
You have to pick them up right away oh but how much
do possums weigh, or how big dothey get?
Do they get as big as a small?

Speaker 4 (35:11):
or medium, good size, good size about six, seven
pounds.

Speaker 1 (35:14):
Okay, yeah, so nowhere near the size of a
beaver, chris, if that's no,norbert was huge.
He was the beaver that lived inour creek, all right, so I Like
a woodchuck.
Okay, we also don't have thosePeople.
I'm sorry we live in adifferent part of the world.
I'm sorry we live in adifferent part of the world.

Speaker 4 (35:35):
We have beaver and moose though I'm sure you guys
are cool, Moose are awesome yeah.

Speaker 1 (35:38):
Moose are awesome.
It looks like we're.
We don't have to.
We don't have any otherquestions.
So, janie, we'll just kind ofwrap up our chat with you just
one more time.
Where are you on social mediathat people can connect or find,
like your Amazon wishlist, ifthey want to support you further
?

Speaker 4 (35:57):
I'm on Facebook, okay , and I'm on.

Speaker 1 (36:01):
TikTok.
So I've got the Facebook downat the bottom in the chyron.
There facebookcom backslashspicy pause.
That's easy to remember, that'sgreat.

Speaker 2 (36:10):
Thank you.
Okay, and then for TikTok, isit the same handle?
Yes, okay, that's great,perfect.

Speaker 1 (36:19):
Janie, thank you for being our guest today and we so
appreciate you giving up a bitof your time, and it's wonderful
work that you do out there onthe East Coast of the United
States.

Speaker 4 (36:30):
Thank you.

Speaker 1 (36:31):
It's been enjoyable.

Speaker 4 (36:31):
Thank you, you, betcha.

Speaker 2 (36:33):
Yes, and thank you for answering the phone when
Paula called.
I know Paula wanted to reallysave that baby Robin and she was
just so grateful that youanswered her call and helped her
with all those things and shetried her best but it just
wasn't meant to be,unfortunately for that baby
Robin, yeah.

Speaker 4 (36:51):
Thank you very much, I appreciate it.

Speaker 2 (36:53):
Yeah, thank you.

Speaker 1 (36:55):
Perfect, Janie.
Do you want to stay up top?
Do you want me to drop you downbelow?
Chris and I are just going toround the show with some stories
about that.

Speaker 4 (37:03):
You can drop me down below and I'm going to listen.

Speaker 1 (37:05):
Okay, perfect, all right, so we're going to remove
you from the stage.
It was wonderful to meet youand thank you for being a guest.
That was so cool, chris.
That was amazing.
I was creeping through all thephotos on Facebook earlier today
and all the little fawns.
They are super sweet littlecreatures.
They're very cute.

Speaker 2 (37:24):
But apparently they get a little saucy.

Speaker 1 (37:26):
I guess deer are flighty though right Like they
run away, right yeah, we gotsome people saying that's a good
thing.
Yeah, we have some people sayingthank you for coming to the
chat today, so that's a goodthing.
Yeah, we have some peoplesaying thank you for coming to
the chat today, so that's verycool.
We had some emojis which arelike the, the reactions on x, so
yeah, so we haven't got toshare some pet stories in a

(37:47):
while.
I thought you you actuallysuggested this that after we
have our interview, that we doshare some pet stories.
It's been a bit.
Do you want to go first or doyou want me to go first?

Speaker 2 (37:57):
I wanted to share a little bit of a morbid story.

Speaker 1 (38:00):
Oh God, oh sure Go ahead.

Speaker 2 (38:01):
Yes, start with the morbidity.
So Ginger loves to go out intoher catio, but then she also
likes when she knows thatthere's a mouse in the garage.
And I saw one the other day.
I saw a mouse go in there andso I was like ah, and I put
Ginger in there and then Iwatched her and she's like being
all mouser.
She's excellent.

(38:22):
Anyway, in the bottom of hercatio I almost want to do a
crime scene with a white outline, because there's little darker
spots where she drops the bodiesbefore she eats them.
So it's morbid, but also goodgirl.

(38:42):
Good girl that you're gettingthe vermin yeah, you went out to
her.

Speaker 1 (38:47):
You went out to her patio and you came back in.
You're like, and I'm like what,what happened?
And you're like ginger's got amouse and it was like the only
thing was the mouse's tail likehanging out of her it was the
body.

Speaker 2 (39:01):
So I'm like oh, excuse me, I guess you're not
done your meal.
I'll come back later like awaiter.
Oh, I see you're still eating,I'll just leave you to it.
Yeah, so gross, but so good.

Speaker 1 (39:16):
The mice shouldn't go into her catio no, they do,
because it's just cage, wirefence or whatever they have the
whole wild world to go and I'msorry.
We have a catio for ginger toprotect her from dangerous
predators and also she's adangerous predator so she
doesn't eat like songbirds webuilt.
We have that thing for her andif you wander into it that's on

(39:37):
you.
I'm so sorry that's, and if youwander into our garage yeah I'm
putting her out there yes, sheis a very good mouser, for sure.
Yeah, she does not play aroundand she's incredibly deadly fast
.
It is freaky, of course, that'scome into jokes with text from
Bunsen, where Bunsen is justlike unnerved with how much of a

(40:01):
killer Ginger can be.

Speaker 2 (40:04):
She's pretty murdery with her little murder mitts.

Speaker 1 (40:07):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (40:08):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (40:10):
So I guess I'll share one story.
We went to the mountains acouple of days ago.
I guess I'll share one story.
We went to the mountains acouple of days ago.
We, yeah, we, we went to GrottoCanyon.
For those people who arefamiliar with the Rockies in
around Canmore, it's one of ourfavorite hikes and it was
Bunsen's first like hike sincebeing on extreme rest for his

(40:33):
slip disc and he's made hugestrides In fact, like he's comes
on walks and it was a littlebit of a risk.
I think we took right becausehe was doing well.
But there's a big differencebetween going on our walks
around the creek and then goingon a mountain hike.

(40:53):
Now, to be fair, it wasn't likea crazy up the mountain hike
but it was a good hour half anhour there, half an hour back,
like it was a good hike, waylonger than a normal walk, and
Bunsen did so good like noproblems at all.

Speaker 2 (41:10):
He was so happy, his gait and stride were excellent.
Yeah, and he.
It just made my breath catchbecause, like last year at this
time, like he still poweredthrough and he had a 10 pound
cyst inside of him, and so thistime I was watching him very

(41:31):
carefully because I know that hewill put one foot in front of
the other until he can't.
So it was really good to to seehim, just to have a great time
and be able to be still with themountain wind.

Speaker 1 (41:45):
When we got to the bluff.
When we got to the bluff,that's where my heart leapt into
my throat was Bunsen stoodthere and he just I have it on
video and it was only for aboutthree or four seconds.
He just stood there and helooked because it's a it's an
overlook of all of the rockies,and he looked out, he looked at
the mountains and the wind blewaround him.

(42:08):
It was just very powerful yeahyeah, and bernoulli did the same
thing too.
Maybe he was copying Bunsen, ormaybe he was also feeling one
with the mountains.
Beaker did not care, she wasjust happy to be there.

Speaker 2 (42:22):
I'm just here.
I'm just happy to be here.
Yeah, thank you, jason, for notleading with my spectacular
fall.

Speaker 1 (42:29):
Oh yeah, chris, absolutely ate it on this hike
Just absolutely got wrecked.

Speaker 2 (42:37):
Okay, so Jason does this amazing thing that you can
see in the videos when we justwalk on in the grass and he
holds the phone down and he goesthe head and then it just the
dog's trail behind and you cansee them running towards the
camera.
Great, I'm like I can do that,so I get the phone.

(42:59):
I'm there, I'm doing it I amnot watching where I'm putting
my feet and there was a niceroot, a root like this out of
the ground, and I was like, andJason said he heard the sound
that I made and then he turnedaround just to see me smash on

(43:20):
my wrists onto the path.

Speaker 1 (43:22):
I thought you broke your wrist or your arm with how
hard you went down.

Speaker 2 (43:27):
Oh man.

Speaker 1 (43:29):
I was like, oh God, chris broke it.
We're worried about Bunsen andit's Chris and we're going to
have to go back to Calgary tothe ER because you broke
yourself.

Speaker 2 (43:39):
No, did not, and I just had some like scrapies and
some bruising here and thephones did not break.
So, hooray, and I just have ascrape on top of my other scrape
on my knee, so it's great.

Speaker 1 (43:53):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (43:54):
Yeah, so thank you.

Speaker 1 (43:56):
Grotto Canyon has a second part where you have to go
up over the sketchy boulder andthen you walk through the
canyon.
If you've followed us, maybeyou've seen some of the videos
we've taken.
We absolutely did not do thatwith bunsen, that was no.
We went that far.
It was a half an hour there anda half an hour back and it was
a wonderful view and we got somereally good pictures and we

(44:17):
went down to the mountain Creek,which was cool.

Speaker 2 (44:20):
So yeah, and while we were there, I oh yes, that's
right.

Speaker 1 (44:25):
Yes.

Speaker 2 (44:26):
You had Beaker and Bernoulli and all of a sudden we
hear this but it wasn't someonefalling, it was a dog that was
running booking it.

Speaker 1 (44:39):
It looked like it was charging at us yeah.

Speaker 2 (44:42):
It was running quickly and I was like oh man.
And I was like oh man and Jasonwas like oh man, because you
never know, with a dog that'scharging, like what is going to
happen.
I made a split decision.
Jason pulled Beaker andBernoulli back and, because the
dog is coming, the best dog tomeet is Bunsen, because he's

(45:03):
just such a good boy.
And it turned out she was alittle Malinois, yeah, and she's
a puppy, eight months old, andso Bunsen knew right away that
she was a puppy and she was sosoft and she was so gushy, she
was so cute.
But I grabbed I'm like hi,puppy, puppy.
And I grabbed her leash, yeah,and by then, because the family,
there's no way they could makeit over that scree no running.

Speaker 1 (45:24):
Malinois was coming.
Everybody who knows Malinois,they're like crazy athletic
athletic.

Speaker 2 (45:29):
Yeah, so she was all of a sudden with me and Munson's
oh hi, how are you?

Speaker 1 (45:33):
and she's I'm good, I'm a puppy and and Beaker and
Bernoulli were losing theirminds because they're like.
They're like this is weirdenergy.
This dog was charging and theydidn't know it was a puppy, yeah
it's just running.

Speaker 2 (45:45):
It just, it just was.
Hey, I want to see you, I wantto meet you, and so,
unfortunately, the son, the mom,was quite upset with him that
he dropped the leash, the dogslipped out of his grasp.
And that happened it happens.
Everybody knows, things eithergo well or they don't.
And it went well and she saidthere was no tussle.
I'm like no.
Bunsen's a good boy and he knewshe was a puppy and there was

(46:10):
no issues.

Speaker 1 (46:11):
No, so I think I think it probably happened
coming up over that boulder,because that is a hard.

Speaker 2 (46:16):
Yeah, because that's so sketch.

Speaker 1 (46:17):
It is a very it's hard to describe, but it's this.
The only way into the canyon isyou either have to wade through
the mountain creek down belowor you have to go over this
boulder boulders like smooth asan ice hockey rink because of
how many people have crawledover top of it.
It's a thing getting over.
It is hard for me to get overit and I am I've done it many

(46:41):
times like it's not easy, so Ithink that's and you really long
, so like you get a bigger reachand then you can hoist yourself
up.

Speaker 2 (46:49):
Shorty McShortson, that's me.
It's like I can't.
And then I, even with my hikingshoes, my fingers I don't have,
I can't with my nails, I can'tgrip your nails because you've
got long manicured nails.

Speaker 1 (47:02):
They're not good for grabbing rocks, I guess.

Speaker 2 (47:05):
No, not good.

Speaker 1 (47:07):
All right.
So that was the first hike.
It was great.
We went back to the place thatwe stayed at, had one of the
best sleeps I've ever had I'mnot going to lie, Maybe it's
that mountain air.
And then the next day we got upright and early.
Then we went to another one ofour favorite hikes, which is
Troll Falls.
Troll Falls is just outside ofNakiska, which is a ski resort

(47:33):
All shut down.
Now obviously it's the summerand that's a significantly
longer hike in, probably an hourin hour out, Would you say.
Chris.
I'd say hour in hour out.
Yeah, yeah, Hour in hour out.
And there are three series offalls at troll falls and we went
to the first one.
It was gorgeous, the water wasjust roaring.
And then we were going to go tothe next series of falls with

(47:56):
bunsen, but you made a goodjudgment call.
That was too much for him.
That he should.
That should be.
We shouldn't do that with himno, and that was that was a
really good call.
I was like I think he could doit, and then I, because you were
walking with him, no, that wasa really good call.
I was like I think he could doit, and then I, cause you were
walking with him, you were like,no, I don't think he should.
And I think that definitely wasa good choice, yeah.

Speaker 2 (48:17):
Yeah, just watching his body language, yeah, I'll do
it.
And so he rounded the firstcorner and then he paused and he
looked, and then he pausedagain and I'm like, no, no, it's
pretty steep it was very steepand so we're just gonna stay
down here.
And you were worried.
You're like, oh, but he won'thave fun right here.
I'm like he will have fun yeahbunsen's favorite trick is down

(48:40):
stay, and he is perfectlycontent just to chill and relax
yeah, and.
And I don't mind that either.
I know you were probablyworried that I thought you would
be bored I wasn't going to havethat.
I would be bored.
But no listening to the waterrunning and sitting with.
Bunsen and I met all thosepeople and lots of people really

(49:00):
liked Bunsen and want to knowmore about him, and so it was
really good.

Speaker 6 (49:04):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (49:04):
Then you came down, and this is the next part of the
best story.

Speaker 1 (49:08):
Well, I went up to the middle falls with Beaker and
Bernoulli and it was coolbecause you can walk underneath
them.
And with two dogs and trying tofilm, I'm like I am going to
slip on these wet rocks and dieif I don't pay attention.
So I did not film goingunderneath the waterfall, but we
did.
It was very cool.
Bernoulli loved it.
He was like super into probablyleaping into the waterfall pool

(49:30):
because he's a meathead.
Oh, and Annalise brought Gingerup.
Is that what happened there?

Speaker 2 (49:37):
Ginger's up.
She was down here with me.
I don't know if Annalisebrought her up or not.

Speaker 1 (49:41):
It looked like somebody brought her up, anyways
.
Yeah, so we went up to thefalls.
I have a few short videos, but,like I was remembering you
falling over the route, and thiswould have been significantly
worse if I fell, because therewould be no, I was the only one
up there.
There was not another person upthere, just me.
So if I fell and fell into thewaterfall and then down into the

(50:01):
waterfall pool, ain't nobodygonna rescue me but me.
So I was like this is dangerouswhat I'm doing.
I'm just gonna not try to filmwith one hand and two dogs with
another on slippery rocks.
So yeah, so we did that loopand we came down, unbeknownst to
me.
It wouldn't have mattered,because bernoulli pulled me into
the mountain creek once we gotdown.
He saw the creek, he's, I'mgonna go in there, and he is

(50:24):
incredibly powerful and I wentfor a little swim.

Speaker 2 (50:30):
But to be fair, to be fair, the leash was behind your
leg and you had Beaker too, andso you were taken out at the
knees by Bernoulli wanting to gointo the water and Beaker
pulling the other way, and youwere off balance and then you
went, and then you had amatching scrape on your knees.

Speaker 1 (50:51):
So we're knee scrape twins yeah, and I have a video
of bernoulli going into thecreek and then laying down.
Laying down in the creek,that's how much this guy loves
water.
He's such a weird bernicemountain dog.
Bunsen even went into the watertoo.
I got that on video yeah, yeahyeah, okay, that's what.

(51:17):
Do you have any other stories,chris?
We haven't shared stories okay,go ahead, we'll do one more.
We do have a prize this weekfrom Barking Beyond, so please
remind me.
Please remind me about theprize.

Speaker 2 (51:30):
I will okay.
So we got home and Annalisesaid how was the trip?
Because it was just you and I,yeah, and so we left Ginger at
home and the Annalise is at thehouse, so it's not like Ginger
wasn't without anybody but shesaid Annalise is Adam's
girlfriend.
For people, annalise is Adam'sgirlfriend, yep and Adam At
least his Adam's girlfriend Yep,and Adam's already in Edmonton,
not fully moved, but he'sworking there.

(51:52):
And anyway she said Gingerreally missed you.
She would go, wait and look atthe door and cry and then come
find me and be like where iseverybody?
And then go back to the doorand she's like I know they're
coming back, but they're nothere right now.

(52:13):
And then after a little bitGinger wasn't quite so forlorn
at the door.
In case you're ever wondering,if your cat misses you, they do.
Ginger missed us.

Speaker 1 (52:25):
Do you think she missed Bernoulli?
Do you think she missedBernoulli?
Do you?

Speaker 2 (52:28):
think she missed.

Speaker 1 (52:29):
Maybe she missed bernoulli I don't know I don't
know he's pretty annoying to her, pretty cute it is pretty cute.
Anyway, that was my story moretlynco5 asks on instagram did
bunsen blame you after he wentin the water?

(52:52):
No, he was happy to get hispaws wet.
I think he was hot and itcooled him down.
Yeah, paula's on youtube saysginger will never say she missed
him, even though she did.
This is true.
That is true.
We do.
You want.
We should give people a chanceto if they want to share a pet

(53:13):
story or ask us a question.
We'll do that for the lastlittle bit here and then we'll
do the draw, sure, okay?
So if you missed asking aquestion and I didn't read it
out, if you have a question forus, type it up, we'll answer it,
and if you're listening liveand you want to come up to speak
we haven't done that becauseour guests last week took us'll
answer it.
And if you're listening liveand you want to come up to speak
, we haven't done that becauseour guest last week took us to
the end.
So if you have a story you'dlike to share or a question

(53:33):
you'd like to ask, come on upand while we're waiting, will
you monitor twitter, chris?

Speaker 2 (53:44):
I will.
I just noticed Dr Tracy was onearlier and I wanted to offer my
condolences about Harry Potter,her cat, who recently passed
away, but I don't see Dr Tracyon.

Speaker 1 (54:03):
Okay, we got Anne Mawinney.
Okay, we got ann mawini andthen cree.
So we'll bringing those twopeople up on twitter.
So we'll go to ann first andthen we'll go to cree and hello
hi, how are you all Good?

(54:24):
Hopefully you're doing well.

Speaker 3 (54:26):
Yes, I am doing great .
Just a quick thank you to youand Chris, because of the way
you kept Bunsen on strict rest.
I did the same thing with mydog when she fell down the
staircase and tweaked her kneeand the vet was afraid she had

(54:50):
hurt her ACL.
And because of your action withBunsen, I knew what to do, and
so Millie was able to recoverand heal and not need any more
treatment other than being agood girl in her pen, and so my

(55:17):
heart just is huge for you guysbecause you've taught me so much
I thank you.

Speaker 1 (55:24):
Thanks, you're welcome we had a scare with
bunsen's acl too, and he was he.
We did put him on rest and itseemed to go away.
So yeah, it's not always thecase, though we should say like
sometimes your dog will needsurgery.
If you can avoid it, that'sprobably better for the dog yeah
, it's always a win yeah, and itwas a for us, and she is now no

(55:49):
longer allowed upstairs.
Can't do stairs.

Speaker 3 (55:52):
Nope, she's seven years old.
She's a German Shepherd mix.
She's got those hips and Idon't want her to slide down the
stairs again.

Speaker 1 (56:03):
Yep, fair enough.
Like we, we know that Bunsenwill probably never get back to
100 and that may mean he nevergets to run off leash again.
But if that extends his lifebecause he can move short-term
fun for a much longer life,that's.
I'll take the much longer lifeand he did.
He's still living life to thefullest.

(56:24):
He's's still a good boy.

Speaker 3 (56:26):
Yeah, and mine is sound asleep on the couch.

Speaker 1 (56:30):
I love that.
Thank you so much though.
Thanks.

Speaker 2 (56:34):
Thank you, anne.
We also have a ramp because,like outside the door there
there's four steps that Bunsenhas to go down and it's more the
steeper stairs where they'resaying that will push into his
chest and his neck area.
But we still put a ramp thereto help him out.
Yeah, it's good for theirlittle bodies just to be

(56:55):
protected there and Bunsen doeslike just to chill.
He's a good patient and he's agood candidate for strict rest.

Speaker 1 (57:03):
Yeah, he took it like a champ.

Speaker 2 (57:06):
Great.
Oh, you're going to feed me inhere.
Oh, I don't have to do anything.
What?
This is glorious.

Speaker 3 (57:13):
Yes, breakfast in bed .

Speaker 1 (57:15):
Yeah, if I could just get food delivered to me and
watch Netflix all day, what alife.
What a life, what a life.
Thanks, anne, I appreciate that.
Thank you, I really appreciatethat.
That filled my bucket.
I Thanks, anne, I appreciatethat.
I really appreciate that.
That filled my bucket.
I appreciate that.
Good, we'll go to Cree and thenwe do have some questions on
the other people who arewatching live, chris, so we'll

(57:35):
go to Cree first.
Hi Cree.
Okay, hi Cree, you're free toask your question or tell us
your story.

Speaker 6 (57:52):
Hi Jason.

Speaker 1 (57:52):
Hi Chris, I just wondered if you have any tips or
tricks on how to keep your dogout of the kitty litter tray.
Oh no, you have to make itunaccessible.
Some dogs will just get inthere.
Yeah, it's a tough thing.
If your house, if you can't dothat in your house, I have heard
like if you can make a penaround it, it, that's your cat
can jump into.
You might be able to do it thatway.
But yeah, our dogs can't getginger's kitty litter.

(58:16):
Are you froze, chris?
Are you there?

Speaker 2 (58:20):
no, I'm not.
I was just gonna say that makeit inaccessible.
Yeah, and ours is downstairsand the dogs have the baby gate
that they can't get downstairs.

Speaker 1 (58:28):
Yeah it's kind of leaving the garbage out.
Some dogs will never touch thegarbage if you leave it out.
Some dogs will only touch thegarbage when you're not watching
, and that's how some dogs arewith kitty litter okay it's a
tasty treat for them gross it isa gross treat.

Speaker 2 (58:50):
And, like I took buns in for a walk today and we have
chickens he also.

Speaker 1 (58:54):
He likes the chicken poo, which makes me want to
vomit so, so gross and that'snot locked away no, it's just
out in the wild, so it'srandomly there yeah maybe not
the best, maybe not the bestthing to say.
I wish there was something elsewe could tell you, but that's
the fastest and easiest way tokeep them out of it.

Speaker 2 (59:16):
And frequent cleaning , so like every day.

Speaker 1 (59:19):
You could do that True.

Speaker 2 (59:20):
Keeping it clean, yeah, but that doesn't help if
they just go and then your dog'sin it.
Yeah.
We're never, never, super fast.

Speaker 1 (59:28):
Polly your hand's up.
Maybe you've got a tidbit toshare.

Speaker 6 (59:31):
Yeah, I do, because I took care of a lot of cats in
my job and there's always aculprit trying to get in there.
But sometimes they have thosecovered kitty boxes that are
automatic and they'll scoop itaway if you don't want to do it
every day.
But I was just going to saywhat Chris said Keep it really
clean, because they smell thatlike it's worse than bunny poop.
They just know it's out thereand they go.

(59:52):
But keep it clean or put it ina different location.
We can sometimes do that.
Use, like Jason said, gatearound it or put it up higher.
Put it higher too.
I know that sounds weird, butif you even elevate, elevate it
slightly.
I don't know how big the dog is, but enough so that they
wouldn't jump up if you have acounter going out to your garage

(01:00:12):
.

Speaker 1 (01:00:12):
I know it's gross maybe, but that's a simple way
that the dogs won't be able toget up on the counter if they're
small I'll tell you a funny catcat story about kitty boxes I
once took care of.

Speaker 6 (01:00:22):
She never told me till the last minute.
She had three, three goldenretrievers.
And then she says oh, by theway, I had a bunch of feral cats
in the cellar.
And I was like what?
And she's yeah, there's 20 ofthem, but you'll never see them.
I'm not kidding you.
She had a kiddie pool full ofcat litter boxes and they were
all done in a circle.
It was like this carousel ofcat boxes.

(01:00:43):
I was laughing so hard and I hadthis big shovel and a poop box
in the middle.
So I came home, my husband'slike did they have cats?
And I'm like, oh, my god, Ithink they have 20.
But I never saw him.
Like I saw eyes.
I could see eyes, but I couldsee some were shy, Some came up
to me but I bet you they hadprobably I don't know about 20.
But I bet you they had 15 feralcats in their cellar that they

(01:01:05):
were taking care of.
But I took care of them.
But it was just.
That was like the biggest catbox I've ever seen.
Sorry, I just had to share that.
But it was like OK, oh gosh,but anyway, good luck, Pri.
I hope.
I hope it works, but for somereason they do like that.
It's like I said, it's likebunny poop.
I think Trixie's learning whatbunny poop is now and she's

(01:01:27):
rolling in it Really, oh gosh,it's like really Pretty gross
Because we have Easterncottontails that's what probably
Janie knows about it, butthat's our little rabbits around
here and they're really cute,but they're always in my garden.
I have so many wires around myplants that I like it looks like
I've got like a prison out here, but anyway, it's pretty funny.

(01:01:48):
All right, have a good nighteveryone.

Speaker 1 (01:01:51):
Thanks, paul.
We're going to go to a coupleof questions from the live
people, and then Dr Tracy's next.
So Cindy R L Y Lee asks wheredo all of our dogs or cats,
where does everybody sleep?
So Beaker usually sleeps in thebed.
She's a bed sleeper, not.
She hasn't been sleeping in thebed lately, though, or has she,

(01:02:12):
I don't know she's been up anddown yeah, so she sleeps in the
bed, usually on chris's side,ginger roams.
She has two main places that shelikes to sleep on the main
floor.
One is on my feet and if I movetoo much she bites me, so that

(01:02:33):
sucks.
And the other place is shesleeps on top of Bernoulli's
crate.
She perches up there Like shesleeps on top of him, basically,
and Bunsen sleeps on the floor.
He always used to sleep by thefront door, which is on the live
right now that's the front doorout of our house.
Always His whole life, he wouldsleep there.

(01:02:53):
And then after his surgery ormaybe, I think, after or when we
got Bernoulli no, it was afterhis surgery he sleeps in our
room.
Now that's where he sleeps.
He sleeps in our room on thefloor.
So it is a busy room at 5.30when Ginger goes bananas and
then Beaker barks and then theyall start barking.
So that's something we've beendealing with for the last couple

(01:03:17):
months.
It's the 5.30 week.

Speaker 2 (01:03:19):
If you say a couple months, you mean a year and a
half.

Speaker 1 (01:03:23):
I guess since we've got Bernoulli.

Speaker 2 (01:03:24):
It's been a year and a half, I guess.
Since we've got bernoulli it'sbeen a year and a half.

Speaker 1 (01:03:30):
Yeah, but then but then if we close the door, wake
up call.
If we close the door, gingerthrows herself at the door like
all night trying to get in.
She just like catapults herbody at it.
It'd be funny to we should puta camera outside the door to see
what it looks like, because itsounds like she's running and
like body checking the door withher little cat body trying to
get it and she is super strong,like she is so musc muscly, and

(01:03:55):
she has a lot of power it's allthat mouse protein, all that
mouse protein.

Speaker 2 (01:04:00):
But beaker looks unassuming.
But man, is she powerful?
Yeah, crazy.
And then bernoulli's in a crate.
And you might say what?
Why is Bernoulli in a crate?
Doesn't Jason want to hug himall night?
And have him in bed.

Speaker 3 (01:04:13):
I want to hug him all night.

Speaker 2 (01:04:24):
But I say no because Bernoulli is still mischievous
and he still chews things likeboots, likeason's boots.
I had my workout bag on the bedand he puts his nose in and
yoinked out, like this piece ofpaper I had in there and just
started chewing it and I saidjason, he's not ready, he's not
ready to be unsupervised forhours on end yeah, he is cute
though he is cute, though hemakes it up in cuteness and

(01:04:46):
gooberness.
but my when, jason's when willhe be out of the crate?
And I said, maybe never, maybenever.

Speaker 1 (01:04:54):
He is so cuddly though he probably would.
He probably would get too hotand then jump out of the bed and
eat a boot.

Speaker 2 (01:05:02):
He would eat a boot, and I don't want any.
What's it called Unidentifiedforeign object team for a ufo,
team for an object?
I'm not interested in that, soI'd much rather just keep him
safe in a crate at night allright, we'll go to dr tracy on
audio.

Speaker 1 (01:05:20):
Hello, how's it going hi?

Speaker 5 (01:05:23):
hi hi dr tracy hi, I just wanted to thank you for
your comment about Harry Pottercats, but I needed to tell you
something interesting about him.
He was old he was at least 16and probably a few years older
than that but we had six othercats and he was the leader.

(01:05:44):
He's the oldest one and he wasthe leader, and I never thought
about it before.
But nobody came and ate the dayafter he died.
None of the cats would eat.
And they finally came thesecond day, not all in a group,
at breakfast time.
They didn't all come in a group, and same with dinner time.
They milled around and driftedto a dish and then would leave.

(01:06:08):
And it was odd, and the vetsaid that wasn't a surprise
because harry was the leader andthere wasn't anyone to tell
them what to do, where to eat,when to eat, and so they were
trying to sort things out againoh yeah chris, like the other
cats do grieve too.

Speaker 1 (01:06:29):
Yeah, jason, you've talked about that on the podcast
yeah, and I haven't mentionedit, tracy, but also I am also
very sorry to hear of the lossof harry potter.
Yeah, I'm just putting mycondolences out there as well
thank you.
Thank you, paula keep us in theloop about who which cat
becomes the leader if, if a newone rises to the challenge I

(01:06:54):
think it's probably going to beour youngest one.

Speaker 5 (01:06:57):
Oh he's really.
He was really shy for his firstcouple of years and now, all of
a sudden, he's not anymore andhe's all over the house and he
orders me around, he tells mewhen he wants to eat and what he
wants to eat and where he wantsit put, and he tells me when

(01:07:19):
it's time to go to bed.
So I think he's going to be theone he sounds like Ginger.

Speaker 1 (01:07:24):
She's a bossy cat.

Speaker 5 (01:07:26):
Oh, he's really bossy .

Speaker 1 (01:07:30):
He didn't used to be, but he is now.
You sometimes need to be aleader.
You have to be bossy, so I cansee that.

Speaker 2 (01:07:37):
Jason, I was going to say that Ginger isn't bossy,
she just has leadership skills.

Speaker 1 (01:07:44):
Okay, is that?

Speaker 2 (01:07:45):
what you would say on a kid's report card.
Yep, that is.

Speaker 1 (01:07:48):
Your child is a terror.
Your child is spirited has agreat imagination.

Speaker 2 (01:07:55):
Don't let people in on our secrets.

Speaker 1 (01:08:01):
Your child draws all over the walls and inappropriate
things.
Your child has a great artisticability in an authentic
expertise expression.
There you go.

Speaker 2 (01:08:11):
There you go.

Speaker 1 (01:08:13):
Yeah, you can't just say your kid is annoying, please
tell them not to be so annoying.
You can't put that on a reportcard.
Okay, we'll see everybody nextweek for Pet Chat.

Speaker 2 (01:08:26):
And thank you everybody who tuned in to listen
to Janie.
We learned a lot about therehabilitation of wild animals.