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The Science Pawdcast
The Science Pawdcast breaks down the latest science happening in the human world AND the pet world.
Each episode will also bring you a guest to enthral you with their area of knowledge.
You'll learn, be captivated, and laugh along with host Jason Zackowski.
Pets and Science, it's the pawfect mix.
You'll also get episodes of PetChat which are the live shows from social audio.
PetChat is a live community gathering updates about the animals in our life, but also the animals in the wonderful community that supports us!
Heart and Hope.
Science and Shenanigans.
The Science Pawdcast
Pet Chat July 26th: Saving Wildlife - Inside a Small Sanctuary's Mission
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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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 is hi there, I'm chris sakowski.
Speaker 2:I'm the dog mom to bunsen, beaker and bernoulli and ginger, who's a cat. So I'm the cat mom to ginger that's right.
Speaker 1:Welcome to pet chat everybody. We've linked together all of our communities on twitter or x. You're listening to that audio only on x spaces. We're on x, on X Video Hello, hello, we've got 72 people watching there. We're on Facebook Live and we're on YouTube now and, of course, as well on Instagram. So welcome to everybody Today.
Speaker 1:We have another guest, our guest today, and about after we answer some questions, we're going to bring her up. It's Janie Girardin. She is the, I guess the caretaker of a wildlife rescue called Spicy Paws. Hopefully I'm getting that and it was Paula who brought her to our attention and we'll have a good conversation with her in about I don't know five, ten minutes. We'll see, but we do start with Q&A. We'll bring up Janie in a second but for right, we like to do a little bit of question and answers. Some people just want to pop in and they have a burning questions that they would like us to answer right off the bat. Oh, there's a good question from positivity with crit888 on Instagram how did you start your journey with first baby to fourth?
Speaker 1:Short story of introducing them and handling their temper and choices. So Bunsen was alone. He was the lone dog for three years until we got Beaker. During COVID and Beaker got along so good with Bunsen. We were very worried because she was so tiny. Bunsen is big and when we got Beaker she was this little tiny golem retriever puppy and we introduced them outside the house. We introduced them in stages and it was a slow, kind of gradual, letting them just see each other. So it took a bit but there weren't any problems with Bunsen and Beaker and then they just became best friends. It was super cute. Ginger came along later, so how did we do the Ginger introduction to the house, chris?
Speaker 2:Ginger is a bit of a work in progress because she had to build up the I guess the immunity to the Fel-D1 protein, or get that immunity built up in her so you would not be allergic to her. She was eating that food over at my stepdad's house and so that that was about three or four weeks and then we finally just said, ok, we're going to bring her over and see how it goes. And we had space for her to jump around and escape and we always have the gate on the door going down the stairs like she can get through there and the dogs can't. And we started with I took Bunsen somewhere.
Speaker 1:We tried to separate the dog so it was only one dog at a time with Ginger. Yeah, we did try to.
Speaker 2:No, Bunsen went somewhere.
Speaker 1:He may be. I don't know my school, maybe I think I took him.
Speaker 2:I know, I think I took him to Waggles.
Speaker 1:I took him to waggles.
Speaker 2: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 other way around no, anyway, we had one dog at a time.
Speaker 1:It was beaker, because beaker came over to see ginger and beakers, or ginger whapped Beaker on the nose.
Speaker 2:That was their first greeting and Bunsen was fine with her. He was like curious he's, I want to be your friend and she's not really I don't think so. Yeah, and he's okay.
Speaker 1:I guess not and we did the same thing with Bernoulli. It was a lot more chaos because we had three animals.
Speaker 1:Bunsen, beaker and Ginger and then bernoulli was fearless and we thought bunsen was being really aloof to him, but it I think it was because at that point bunsen was getting very sick, he had that tapeworm cyst and he was not feeling good at all. So that's perhaps why he was not super wanting to play with baby bernoulli, but I but I thought they got along great as well as Giant Pack could, so slow and in steps. Okay, so that's that question. Heidi has a really hard question for us to answer because it's an emotional one. Is Ginger leaving with Adam or staying home? So Ginger is Adam's cat and the first little bit of August is probably when Ginger will be going with Adam. So she's going to be leaving her house, which is sad, and if it doesn't work out, as we've said, she's welcome back home because we love her too. Yeah, it is a tough thing because it's Adam's pet and he's leaving. So we're gonna be sad because adam's gone and we're also gonna be sad because ginger will be as well. So that is the truth, as best as we can say.
Speaker 1:Yeah, somebody asked about bernice training versus the retriever training, and both dogs are, we found. Both breeds are very willing to work. They want to make you happy and, like, bernoulli was pretty easy to train, bunsen was super easy to train and Beaker was maybe more of a challenge. But that's because we got her during COVID and it was on again, off again like in-person training with her. So that was she had a tougher go because of when we got her.
Speaker 2:Now, let's be honest, Bunsen was a rock star the entire time. He was potty trained within a week. He is amazing and like little to no accidents in the house. Awesome Beaker, I think, had a much smaller bladder. So we were always at the door and she outsmarted the bell system because we got the little bells and she would just ring the bells to go outside because she's oh, if I ring these I get to go outside, hoor, hooray. But then what we would do is we would take her out, she would pee, bring her right back in and she would run to the water bowl for a refill, yeah. And so we were always running out the door, like we set a timer, but it just was more chaotic with her because she refilled all the time. So she was like constantly needing 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 get this.
Speaker 1:No, no, he doesn't he didn't bark to go to the bathroom doesn't alert, he doesn't alert to go outside. So we've got it down we've've timed it so it's fine, but that was a big learning curve when he didn't bark to go out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we're like. Why aren't you like Bunsen? Why aren't you so perfect and amazing?
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2: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 not looking for the cues or listening to the wine, or et cetera, et cetera. So Bernoulli was a lot more work, yes, than Bunsen.
Speaker 1:Then we were also dealing with, like Bunsen's health declining as well. So you know there are some challenges there. Bunsen is doing great. By the way, That'll probably be in our story that we share. At the end, I think we should probably get to our guests. Janie, I'm going to bring you up to the stage, so hello. I'd like to welcome Janie Gerardin, who is the caretaker of Spicy Paws Wildlife Sanctuary. Janie, how are you doing today?
Speaker 4:Wonderful. Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's so good to have you on the show. Paula Moses is a big part of our community with the Bunsen and Beaker stuff, and she found a bird and it maybe didn't have the best outcome, but she brought it to you and we try to get guests occasionally and it's an interesting thing to talk about, which is wildlife sanctuary, wildlife rehabilitation. Janie, could you talk a?
Speaker 4:little bit about what Spicy Paws Wildlife Sanctuary is. Yep, so I'm a small nonprofit and I specifically deal with squirrels, bunnies, federal birds and fawns. That's my main focus of rehabilitating and releasing of those specific animals and you have a Facebook page for Spicy Paws.
Speaker 1:Is there? Is it anywhere else on social media? Tiktok, I think, TikTok. Okay, We'll have some links that people can find you in, because I was like scrolling through this and you have some fawns and baby deer and bunnies and things like that on there, and we were talking just before we started. You still, how many do you have? How many fawn do you have right now currently?
Speaker 4:Currently I have six that are hopefully slated to release, probably September to October.
Speaker 1:Okay, cool. So what got you started doing this as a nonprofit Were you? Did you have a calling to help the animals?
Speaker 4:I've always loved the animals but, I had a couple of my own run-ins. I found a fawn in the road that I took to my mentor and then, when I met her a couple months later, I had baby birds fall out of a transformer at my house. And she came up and she tried to help me re-nest them at least in a better spot. And then we got to talking and she told me, if I'd go through the course and pass my test, that she would be willing to mentor me.
Speaker 1:And what does that entail? What do you have to know? I'm curious what's the test that you had to take? If you don't mind me asking, I'm sorry.
Speaker 4:We have to do a full day's class with DEP. It's a one day class and then they have a test thereafter and then, once you pass that, you have to do 40 hours of mentoring with a rehabber that has years of experience. And then, once you get your 40 hours, and then you get a vet to sign off, then you can finally apply for your license.
Speaker 1:Okay, I've, if you're watching on live, I'm just sharing some photos from the facebook. These are the from june. The fawns there does it ever get old? How cute they are, even though I'm sure there's some very sad stories when they get bigger.
Speaker 4:Yes, oh, when they get bigger, it's not so cute it's not so cute when they try to run you over. There's still. There's still your little ones, and no matter what.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. So do you have some memorable stories that have happened, like some big saves or some things you're proud of that you, you did, I my, my one big one this year.
Speaker 4:All my babies were put out. All my baby fawns were put outside. We're big enough to go out. No-transcript see some blood on it. So I went out and again expecting a big baby. He was a little, eight pound baby.
Speaker 1:Oh my.
Speaker 4:So I had ran him over to our vet and they worked very hard. He had probably a good close to a thousand maggots. He had five bite wounds from a coyote and of course the maggot damage as well. So he's been my little success story. He is still with us, still has a long road to recovery, but hopefully I'm looking forward to getting him outside in about three, four weeks.
Speaker 1:Why You'll have to excuse my ignorance. What causes Fawn to come into care? Do we know the reasons? Why Are there some big ones?
Speaker 4: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 an orphan baby just running around screaming. We don't have proof that the mom's gone, but you can pretty much tell because a normal happy fawn should be laying down quiet. They'll get up. They might have a little temper tantrum like a kid every now and then, but they're normally pretty quiet. But when they start coming up to humans they're screaming, they're crying in this heat, blood or anything like that. Then at that point we take them into care.
Speaker 1:They're pretty defenseless, hey, when they're on their own, yeah.
Speaker 4:Yep, so they're born scentless and so that's why most people don't realize. But they'll find a fawn laying in the grass or somewhere very strange. This year We've had a few placed babies. That were very odd locations, but they'll place them there and they'll leave them for 12 hours and then they'll come back later, and as long as it's safe for them to come out, then they will come back. So we've had to do a few relocations on some babies this year.
Speaker 1:How do you know? How do you know when, for example, I know we're on fawns right now. They're just cute, so my mind is like zeroed on them. How do you know, for example, a fawn is ready to go back? Are there a checklist that you go through mentally so we don't bring them back.
Speaker 4:We have to soft release them. So we have a really big pen that 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 little later this year because of that young one that came in Cause I'd like to. I want them to go out as a group, as a herd. They do better as a herd, so they'll stay with me until we're released and then when I release, it's a soft release, so I open their door to their pen and they can come and go as they please. I'll still supplemental feed back there for a little while, offer fresh food and water outside until they decide their time for them to go.
Speaker 1:So they do the act as a group, or there are some that come back and they're harder to release, or did they?
Speaker 4:so last year was my first year and I did have my two bachelors that really hung around for a while. They hung out until november. They got friendly with the neighborhood but they survived the winter. He and him. One of my boys came back and popped in february and just like a quick passing and said hi, but people have told me they've seen him throughout the winter and that he had done very well for himself. So all in all, my bachelors did very well.
Speaker 1:Ah, let's hope that bachelor finds a little lady friend.
Speaker 4:That would be this year, so that would be hoping.
Speaker 1:Gets all Twitterpated ala Bambi. Hey, Yep, I'll go over to you. Do you have any questions?
Speaker 2:So how do you know that they're yours? Do you tag them or do you just recognize them? How do you know?
Speaker 4:So next year we are going to start tagging when my first year new on everything. One of them was a little bit too friendly my first year, but the other ones I've had neighbors with game cams. Two of my younger ones actually hooked up with those from last year. From what we could see on the game cams, it looks like we had two successful hookups with those, which was nice because they were still young when we released last year, and the other two bachelors I just knew because they hung around for too long. One of them became very flighty though and didn't really want to be around me anymore, and we just had one lone bachelor that he hung with his buddy, but he still came back and said hi, and then he finally left in November and then showed back up in February now you mentioned the other things you specialize in.
Speaker 1:Did I get it right? Squirrels, squirrels and then was it a type of bird?
Speaker 4:or do I do all federal songbirds? Okay so, like cardinals robins, anything under the Federal Migratory Bird Act.
Speaker 1:Gotcha and then like rabbits or yeah.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I do Baby bunnies yeah.
Speaker 1:So currently, right now at the sanctuary, do you have any of those?
Speaker 4:Yes, I do. I have eight baby squirrels that are about three weeks old right now. Five baby rabbits, eyes are open, they're in there, they're already up eating on their own, and squirrels bunnies. And then the six fawns.
Speaker 1:And no songbirds currently.
Speaker 4:Nope, not currently. All mine are gone.
Speaker 1:How does it go with squirrels? They're pretty dexterous as they get older. Are they hard to do? You have a specialized cage, or when they're ready to go, they go. I don't know.
Speaker 4:No. So we once, as they grow up, we move up to a starter cage and then we move up to the big critter nation cages. It's a double, a double layered cage, so I usually can put five to six babies in each layer and then they go from being really sweet to don't touch me no more. Once we get big enough and their tails start to get bushy, we get them outside into a pre-release cage, which is just a really big, wired in safe cage where they can finish up growing, and I usually keep them in there for two to three weeks and then I soft release them as well. So I'll open up the door one day and then they can come and go as they please and I also supplemental feed them as well.
Speaker 1:I was just thinking like these animals are all so cute, but your goal is not to make them a pet Girls don't become pets very easy.
Speaker 4:With too many in care, unfortunately, I don't have the time to handle, and with too many in care, unfortunately I don't have the time to handle and love on all of them. It's just not enough time. So they really do wild up very quickly on their own I'm usually using welding gloves by the time they're ready to go out oh, so they're ready to do, they're ready, they're ready to let you know yeah, how about what's the process for rabbits?
Speaker 4:I'm just curious there rabbits are nice are nice Rabbits are hard release. So once they're old enough, usually I moms release their babies about four weeks, three to four weeks with that, and then she just walks away. I like to make sure they're a little bit bigger and ready and then I'll just release them. I have a couple of properties that have really nice protected properties and you don't want to keep rabbits in care too long because they can just pass away very quickly.
Speaker 1:They're very high stressed animals oh, okay, gotcha, so they do better releasing them as quickly as possible, if possible yep, as soon as you know that they're healthy, they're ready, they're eating on their own. Out the door they go turn 18, you're out of the house bye-bye.
Speaker 1:But for a rabbit, four weeks or whatever yep, it's very quick out, especially out in the wild I have one more question, janie, and then we'll maybe have the audience ask you some questions, if you don't mind taking a few. Well, yeah, and one thing we always like to ask our guests is if they you yourself have pets you're taking care of yeah, you're taking care of all of these animals. What do you have pets yourself?
Speaker 4:I do so. I have a Goffin Cockatoo who's been very peaceful in the background at the moment. And then I tried fostering two years ago. Not the brightest idea when I'm doing wildlife but I foster two dogs. They were pit mixes and they both had come in. It was my first time fostering and they came in with mange, but then they both came down with kennel cough. One of them got very sick. He was actually admitted into the local emergency hospital vet for three days with double pneumonia. He was very sick and of course he became my spoiled rotten brat and I ended up adopting him.
Speaker 1:What's the cockatooos name? Miles? Miles, you were in a different location. He was definitely yelling at you Not, unlike Bunsen yells at.
Speaker 4:Chris, during toddler time Yep, anytime you're on the phone it's like having a toddler. He yells at me.
Speaker 1: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 people who are watching today that can support? They can support you somehow.
Speaker 4:Yes, we have a. We have a wishlist, our Amazon wishlist, we have a Chewy's wishlist and we also do our Venmo and our paypal. But our wish lists are very important to us because we put on a lot of supplies that we need where can we find that, janie?
Speaker 1:on our spicy paws page okay, on your feet, on the wild life rehab yep on facebook okay, I'm there right now, would you?
Speaker 4: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:Yeah, sorry, I just don't I see. Is it under fundraisers?
Speaker 4:sorry, let's see on my main page. Let me get on my own page yeah, if everybody bears with us.
Speaker 1:A second mark asked her that's a really good question, yeah. And then, yeah, paula, who's watching on youtube, says she's an amazon wish list. Yeah, so that's what we're looking for, paula, you bet. Yeah, we can put that in somehow, like in a link, somewhere for folks to take a look at yeah.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it's sorry, it's a post from July 9th on my main page July 9th, okay, you betcha.
Speaker 1: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 will deal with this one on. You know what? I think people, it would be a lot easier if people just click. They're not going to be able to do it through viewing, so I will just share my screen and people can go check it out on your Facebook page. Okay, so one sec here. Share screen Facebook. Yeah, so on the Spicy Paws Wildlife Rehab page on July 9th there's the Amazon wish list and I can share that too. Hopefully I can share that to the Bunsen and Beaker. Here is Spicy Paws wish list. Okay, it is tough to share on Instagram Folks who are on Instagram. You'll just have to travel on over to Facebook to click links. Okay, all right, unless you have other questions, chris, we're going to go to. Yeah, so somebody posted on Facebook there.
Speaker 2:I'm just putting the Amazon link in the. So my question is like with the deer and like the idea is that they're well, and the rabbits too is the idea of rehabilitation, and it was my understanding that the more human contact they have, the less habitable that they are. So how do you do you lessen your human contact with them? How does that work?
Speaker 4:So I do. We had a shed set up last year that they built me a fawn room in specifically, and this way there's no other contact other than me. So when we had a deep inspection come out, it was very antsy when she walked in because without they're in a very quiet place. It's just me and myself and the animals in there. So they definitely are much more spooky this year. Big difference Just having just myself in there. You don't like the noises. They don't like people coming in and coming out, and this group is much spookier with people and it's exactly what we wanted, even if as long as it's just myself. I keep my time limited Now that they're outside. I'm out only twice a day, once in the morning, once at night to feed and that's it. So I even keep my own contact very limited.
Speaker 1:Good question Chris.
Speaker 2:I just was wondering, because we had found that owl and we had taken it to the a place called the medicine wildlife rehabilitation center here in central alberta and the bird was able to be rehabilitated and we helped release the bird back into the wild. But they said you do have to minimize that human contact, otherwise they just have to just stay in the rehabilitation center forever. Thank you.
Speaker 1:Okay. So if you folks who are watching live, if you have a question, type it up, we'll get to it. And if you're on Twitter, spaces, x, spaces, and you want to ask a question live, we'll bring you up, and, through the magic of technology, all of these platforms will work together. So, janie, we're going to bring up some folks who are on audio You're going to hear their voice but not be able to see them and the people who are typing questions, like Ann. We'll get to Ann's question. If I can, I'll put it up in the Jumbotron or the Chiron there. Ann asks what general area are you located in? And that's I should have asked that too. So, ann, thank you for doing a better job with the interview.
Speaker 4:I'm located in Connecticut.
Speaker 1:And what's your range for help?
Speaker 4:All of Connecticut. I've taken animals all the way in from the northwest corner. I've had people drive an hour and a half easy to bring things over to me. Certain times of the year it gets rough, with rehabbers being full, unable to take more than they're at capacity. A lot of us are just home-based and some of them do work full-time jobs, so they're limited on what they can take in.
Speaker 1:Perfect, okay, paula, we'll go to you. Paula Moses, who you know, paula's on Twitter watching listening. Go ahead, paula.
Speaker 6:Hi, hi everybody. How's everybody doing? Hi, Janie, hi, so nice to have you on tonight. Janie was the one that helped me with my poor little baby bird, but that little boy had suffered so bad I think he just had a bad leg. But I'll tell you she was the only one that called me back. Because there is, janie. Isn't there a website too that is for? I forgot what it's called. It's like a wildlifeorg and it shows a list of everybody that is like in your state, if you put your zip code in and it'll give you like the list of people that rehab different animals, from deer to owls to the birds. Isn't there a special network site?
Speaker 4:Yeah, there's two of them actually. There's Animal Help Now, which covers all of the country. Basically, no matter where you are, you can put in a zip code and specifically in Connecticut, we have the DEEP Wildlife page that breaks it down to animal specifics.
Speaker 6:Okay, good, because I couldn't remember the name. Thank you. I have a couple quick questions. What was the hardest animal you had to rehab in your history of doing it? I know the fawns can be difficult or maybe even bunnies, but you thought maybe there was one that's in particular. You were mentioning the little one that you found, but I didn't know if there was one that you thought that was the toughest one you had.
Speaker 6:And my second question was really more of advice. You were so helpful to me when I found that little baby bird and what are the facts about? Can you touch a human bird without the mother coming back? There's all these facts that you don't know what's right and what's wrong and what to do and how. You told me to be careful and mash up some blueberries or do something, and maybe you can give people some insight on how, if you do find something, what to do at first and see if it's really the parents aren't around or if they're abandoned, and what steps you have to take or even to get to somebody like you. So maybe if you could elaborate on that would be great and so nice to have you on.
Speaker 4:So it's always important when you find an animal, if you truly know it's in distress, warm, dark and quiet is the most important thing. Put them in a box, keep them as quiet. If they're baby babies, then they're going to need supplemental heat, a heating pad, a rice sock and just keep them warm, dark and quiet. Never try to feed babies because a lot, unless instructed by one of us, because most people don't know and they run out and they buy things like goat's milk and, on certain animals, their stomachs can't tolerate 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 these animals. The biggest one we preach is just warm, dark and quiet until you speak to someone of us.
Speaker 1:And can you touch a baby bird? Is that a myth that if you touch them, the mom will reject it?
Speaker 4:So no, it will not reject it. We don't want people moving them 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 nest safely. Mom will not reject them With fawns because they are scentless. We go a little bit further and we try to cover them in dirt, put dirt on our hands, put dirt on the fawn, because we don't want to make sure certain animals, we want to make sure we, don't get our scents on.
Speaker 1:And then Paula's other question was something about the hardest animal to try to rehabilitate or hardest animal type, like between all the ones.
Speaker 4:A few times. I've always done the prey animals and every now and then I've taken in a couple of predators opossums. I used to be absolutely afraid of them that they were going to bite me. They were always one of my learning curves. I've taken in a few very large owls. The great horned owls are very dangerous. It's that little bit of a learning curve. I'm still working on dealing with predators in case I need to take them in. My little prey animals do bite when they're much bigger and they can do a lot more damage. It's a little bit more nerve wracking.
Speaker 1:I've never seen an opossum in my life that we don't have them here.
Speaker 2:Oh wow. So how can you be sure that they don't have rabies or another kind of communicable disease? That would be very dangerous to you.
Speaker 4:So I don't do rabies vector species. In Connecticut we only have skunks, foxes, raccoons. Those are all rabies vaccine animals and in order to do that it's another part of your license and you have to have your injections for that. But again, that's part of one of the risks if you're going to deal with those specific animals. They do have rabies, they do have distemper, and it's just learning to protect yourself first.
Speaker 1:I never even would have thought of that.
Speaker 2:With those welding gloves.
Speaker 4:Yes, I have many pairs, and they're usually lying everywhere.
Speaker 1:Good question here from Sherry how do you know if an animal needs assistance? We maybe get to the second part of this through some of the questions we've asked, but the first one's a good one how do you know?
Speaker 4:so a lot of times, like baby birds on the ground, the nest can't be found. My baby squirrels, any baby squirrel, that runs up to you a lot of times. That's how I get a lot of calls baby squirrels running up your pant leg baby squirrel yeah, they're really cute when they do that, then that's the last ditch effort. That's when they're reaching out for help. That's when, when those situations, we know right away that they need to come in. Any animals that you see with a large amount of flies around them, those are big warning indicators.
Speaker 4:Fawns do a lot of crying Again blood or flies coming around them. The rabbits are usually either dog caught, dog dug up, cat caught. Every now and then we'll find them with the weed whackers, the lawnmowers. Yeah, those can be a little rough sometimes, but most of the time I try to assess the situation. Sometimes we have calls for fledglings, the birds, once they fledge out of the nest and they don't fly. Most of them don't fly right away and they usually take a few days to fly. So we usually try to assess the situation over the phone. Sometimes, if I need to go out and assess a fawn, I will try to run out and assess them if it's something that needs warming.
Speaker 1: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 our creek. She found a fawn in the bushes and started to chase it and I was like, ah, and the fawn. I caught the fawn right. I was like was Beaker was just chasing it, she wasn't going to hurt it, or, sorry, callan, it wasn't Beaker and I put it back. Hopefully I made the right choice and we got out of there, so that's very good. Is that what you should do?
Speaker 4:okay, all right yeah, just put them back okay, that's what I did.
Speaker 1: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 days and then we it was on our path that we normally walk and I peeked and it wasn't there anymore. So hopefully it found its mummy Absolutely. Christopher has a fun comment. Christopher just says I love this. So thanks, christopher, you're liking the conversation. That's really cute. I love that. That's great. And then we have Christopher also saying possums are so chill. And Mark is saying we have so many possums that eat our neighbors avocados. That is not a problem. We have in central alberta, canada. I'll tell you, right now there are no avocados being grown outside. That's probably why we don't have any possums. And paula, who's watching on youtube, also says we have possums, we, we see possums at night. Is there nothing in chat, chris? Is the chat screwed on? X?
Speaker 2:No, I don't think it's messed up at all. I just don't think that there's any more questions on it, because what I've done is I've refreshed the page and that that typically brings all the comments to the yard when you, when you, refresh the page. But I'm just still seeing the 18 comments that are there.
Speaker 1:That's fine, so there's a fun one on on x or twitter. In the chat there, chris dd stessa is watching the show on their television. Because we're on youtube now and a lot of tvs have YouTube enabled, like things you can watch YouTube. Adam and Annalise actually were watching YouTube the other day, so we're being watched on somebody's TV right now, which is cool.
Speaker 2:And that is cool because the dog's name is Proof and is watching the TV, and that's something that we just covered in our latest podcast oh, that's right um dogs watching tv and then just a random comment.
Speaker 1:We have a lot of opossums.
Speaker 2:There's massive are they massive? I don't know anything about a possum can you tell us a little bit more about them? I've only seen little videos with the babies attached and they. I think it looks silly, crazy that the babies hold on to the mums and stuff um, so they're born inside their marsupials.
Speaker 4:They were, they're born in the pouch and then, as they get older, they will come out and they'll hang on mom one of the few babies that they fall off and you find one of them, mom isn't coming back those are ones that have to be taken in right away. So if you ever find a baby possum left behind, mom could have ran. He fell off and she doesn't know how many children she has. So once you see one of them on the ground, then it's one of those.
Speaker 2:You have to pick them up right away oh but how much do possums weigh, or how big do they get? Do they get as big as a small?
Speaker 4:or medium, good size, good size about six, seven pounds.
Speaker 1:Okay, yeah, so nowhere near the size of a beaver, chris, if that's no, norbert was huge. He was the beaver that lived in our creek, all right, so I Like a woodchuck. Okay, we also don't have those People. I'm sorry we live in a different part of the world. I'm sorry we live in a different part of the world.
Speaker 4:We have beaver and moose though I'm sure you guys are cool, Moose are awesome yeah.
Speaker 1:Moose are awesome. It looks like we're. We don't have to. We don't have any other questions. So, janie, we'll just kind of wrap up our chat with you just one more time. Where are you on social media that people can connect or find, like your Amazon wishlist, if they want to support you further?
Speaker 4:I'm on Facebook, okay, and I'm on.
Speaker 1:TikTok. So I've got the Facebook down at the bottom in the chyron. There facebookcom backslash spicy pause. That's easy to remember, that's great.
Speaker 2:Thank you. Okay, and then for TikTok, is it the same handle? Yes, okay, that's great, perfect.
Speaker 1:Janie, thank you for being our guest today and we so appreciate you giving up a bit of your time, and it's wonderful work that you do out there on the East Coast of the United States.
Speaker 4:Thank you.
Speaker 1:It's been enjoyable.
Speaker 4:Thank you, you, betcha.
Speaker 2:Yes, and thank you for answering the phone when Paula called. I know Paula wanted to really save that baby Robin and she was just so grateful that you answered her call and helped her with all those things and she tried her best but it just wasn't meant to be, unfortunately for that baby Robin, yeah.
Speaker 4:Thank you very much, I appreciate it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, thank you.
Speaker 1:Perfect, Janie. Do you want to stay up top? Do you want me to drop you down below? Chris and I are just going to round the show with some stories about that.
Speaker 4:You can drop me down below and I'm going to listen.
Speaker 1:Okay, perfect, all right, so we're going to remove you from the stage. It was wonderful to meet you and thank you for being a guest. That was so cool, chris. That was amazing. I was creeping through all the photos on Facebook earlier today and all the little fawns. They are super sweet little creatures. They're very cute.
Speaker 2:But apparently they get a little saucy.
Speaker 1:I guess deer are flighty though right Like they run away, right yeah, we got some people saying that's a good thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we have some people saying thank you for coming to the chat today, so that's a good thing. Yeah, we have some people saying thank you for coming to the chat today, so that's very cool. We had some emojis which are like the, the reactions on x, so yeah, so we haven't got to share some pet stories in a while. I thought you you actually suggested this that after we have our interview, that we do share some pet stories. It's been a bit. Do you want to go first or do you want me to go first?
Speaker 2:I wanted to share a little bit of a morbid story.
Speaker 1:Oh God, oh sure Go ahead.
Speaker 2:Yes, start with the morbidity. So Ginger loves to go out into her catio, but then she also likes when she knows that there's a mouse in the garage. And I saw one the other day. I saw a mouse go in there and so I was like ah, and I put Ginger in there and then I watched her and she's like being all mouser. She's excellent. Anyway, in the bottom of her catio I almost want to do a crime scene with a white outline, because there's little darker spots where she drops the bodies before she eats them. So it's morbid, but also good girl. Good girl that you're getting the vermin yeah, you went out to her.
Speaker 1: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 a mouse and it was like the only thing was the mouse's tail like hanging out of her it was the body.
Speaker 2:So I'm like oh, excuse me, I guess you're not done your meal. I'll come back later like a waiter. Oh, I see you're still eating, I'll just leave you to it. Yeah, so gross, but so good.
Speaker 1:The mice shouldn't go into her catio no, they do, because it's just cage, wire fence or whatever they have the whole wild world to go and I'm sorry. We have a catio for ginger to protect her from dangerous predators and also she's a dangerous predator so she doesn't eat like songbirds we built. We have that thing for her and if you wander into it that's on you.
Speaker 1:I'm so sorry that's, and if you wander into our garage yeah I'm putting her out there yes, she is a very good mouser, for sure. Yeah, she does not play around and she's incredibly deadly fast. It is freaky, of course, that's come into jokes with text from Bunsen, where Bunsen is just like unnerved with how much of a killer Ginger can be.
Speaker 2:She's pretty murdery with her little murder mitts.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So I guess I'll share one story. We went to the mountains a couple of days ago. I guess I'll share one story. We went to the mountains a couple of days ago. We, yeah, we, we went to Grotto Canyon. For those people who are familiar with the Rockies in around Canmore, it's one of our favorite hikes and it was Bunsen's first like hike since being on extreme rest for his slip disc and he's made huge strides In fact, like he's comes on walks and it was a little bit of a risk. I think we took right because he was doing well. But there's a big difference between going on our walks around the creek and then going on a mountain hike. Now, to be fair, it wasn't like a crazy up the mountain hike but it was a good hour half an hour there, half an hour back, like it was a good hike, way longer than a normal walk, and Bunsen did so good like no problems at all.
Speaker 2:He was so happy, his gait and stride were excellent. Yeah, and he. It just made my breath catch because, like last year at this time, like he still powered through and he had a 10 pound cyst inside of him, and so this time I was watching him very carefully because I know that he will put one foot in front of the other until he can't. So it was really good to to see him, just to have a great time and be able to be still with the mountain wind.
Speaker 1:When we got to the bluff. When we got to the bluff, that's where my heart leapt into my throat was Bunsen stood there and he just I have it on video and it was only for about three or four seconds. He just stood there and he looked 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 blew around him.
Speaker 1:It was just very powerful yeah yeah, and bernoulli did the same thing too. Maybe he was copying Bunsen, or maybe he was also feeling one with the mountains. Beaker did not care, she was just happy to be there.
Speaker 2:I'm just here. I'm just happy to be here. Yeah, thank you, jason, for not leading with my spectacular fall.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, chris, absolutely ate it on this hike Just absolutely got wrecked.
Speaker 2:Okay, so Jason does this amazing thing that you can see in the videos when we just walk on in the grass and he holds the phone down and he goes the head and then it just the dog's trail behind and you can see them running towards the camera. Great, I'm like I can do that, so I get the phone. I'm there, I'm doing it I am not watching where I'm putting my feet and there was a nice root, a root like this out of the ground, and I was like, and Jason said he heard the sound that I made and then he turned around just to see me smash on my wrists onto the path.
Speaker 1:I thought you broke your wrist or your arm with how hard you went down.
Speaker 2:Oh man.
Speaker 1:I was like, oh God, chris broke it. We're worried about Bunsen and it's Chris and we're going to have to go back to Calgary to the ER because you broke yourself.
Speaker 2:No, did not, and I just had some like scrapies and some bruising here and the phones did not break. So, hooray, and I just have a scrape on top of my other scrape on my knee, so it's great.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so thank you.
Speaker 1:Grotto Canyon has a second part where you have to go up over the sketchy boulder and then you walk through the canyon. If you've followed us, maybe you've seen some of the videos we've taken. We absolutely did not do that with bunsen, that was no. We went that far. It was a half an hour there and a half an hour back and it was a wonderful view and we got some really good pictures and we went down to the mountain Creek, which was cool.
Speaker 2:So yeah, and while we were there, I oh yes, that's right.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:You had Beaker and Bernoulli and all of a sudden we hear this but it wasn't someone falling, it was a dog that was running booking it.
Speaker 1:It looked like it was charging at us yeah.
Speaker 2:It was running quickly and I was like oh man.
Speaker 2:And I was like oh man and Jason was like oh man, because you never know, with a dog that's charging, like what is going to happen. I made a split decision. Jason pulled Beaker and Bernoulli back and, because the dog is coming, the best dog to meet is Bunsen, because he's just such a good boy. And it turned out she was a little Malinois, yeah, and she's a puppy, eight months old, and so Bunsen knew right away that she was a puppy and she was so soft 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 make it over that scree no running.
Speaker 1:Malinois was coming. Everybody who knows Malinois, they're like crazy athletic athletic.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so she was all of a sudden with me and Munson's oh hi, how are you?
Speaker 1:and she's I'm good, I'm a puppy and and Beaker and Bernoulli were losing their minds because they're like. They're like this is weird energy. This dog was charging and they didn't know it was a puppy, yeah it's just running.
Speaker 2:It just, it just was. Hey, I want to see you, I want to meet you, and so, unfortunately, the son, the mom, was quite upset with him that he dropped the leash, the dog slipped out of his grasp. And that happened it happens. Everybody knows, things either go well or they don't. And it went well and she said there was no tussle. I'm like no. Bunsen's a good boy and he knew she was a puppy and there was no issues.
Speaker 1:No, so I think I think it probably happened coming up over that boulder, because that is a hard.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because that's so sketch.
Speaker 1:It is a very it's hard to describe, but it's this. The only way into the canyon is you either have to wade through the mountain creek down below or you have to go over this boulder boulders like smooth as an ice hockey rink because of how many people have crawled over top of it. It's a thing getting over. It is hard for me to get over it and I am I've done it many times like it's not easy, so I think that's and you really long, so like you get a bigger reach and then you can hoist yourself up.
Speaker 2:Shorty McShortson, that's me. It's like I can't. And then I, even with my hiking shoes, my fingers I don't have, I can't with my nails, I can't grip your nails because you've got long manicured nails.
Speaker 1:They're not good for grabbing rocks, I guess.
Speaker 2:No, not good.
Speaker 1:All right. So that was the first hike. It was great. We went back to the place that we stayed at, had one of the best sleeps I've ever had I'm not going to lie, Maybe it's that mountain air. And then the next day we got up right and early. Then we went to another one of our favorite hikes, which is Troll Falls. Troll Falls is just outside of Nakiska, which is a ski resort All shut down. Now obviously it's the summer and that's a significantly longer hike in, probably an hour in hour out, Would you say. Chris. I'd say hour in hour out. Yeah, yeah, Hour in hour out. And there are three series of falls at troll falls and we went to the first one. It was gorgeous, the water was just roaring. And then we were going to go to the next series of falls with bunsen, but you made a good judgment call. That was too much for him. That he should. That should be. We shouldn't do that with him no, and that was that was a really good call.
Speaker 1:I was like I think he could do it, and then I, because you were walking with him, no, that was a really good call. I was like I think he could do it, and then I, cause you were walking with him, you were like, no, I don't think he should. And I think that definitely was a good choice, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, just watching his body language, yeah, I'll do it. And so he rounded the first corner and then he paused and he looked, and then he paused again and I'm like, no, no, it's pretty steep it was very steep and so we're just gonna stay down here. And you were worried. You're like, oh, but he won't have fun right here. I'm like he will have fun yeah bunsen's favorite trick is down stay, and he is perfectly content just to chill and relax yeah, and.
Speaker 2:And I don't mind that either. I know you were probably worried that I thought you would be bored I wasn't going to have that. I would be bored. But no listening to the water running and sitting with. Bunsen and I met all those people and lots of people really liked Bunsen and want to know more about him, and so it was really good.
Speaker 6:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Then you came down, and this is the next part of the best story.
Speaker 1:Well, I went up to the middle falls with Beaker and Bernoulli and it was cool because you can walk underneath them. And with two dogs and trying to film, I'm like I am going to slip on these wet rocks and die if I don't pay attention. So I did not film going underneath the waterfall, but we did. It was very cool. Bernoulli loved it. He was like super into probably leaping into the waterfall pool because he's a meathead. Oh, and Annalise brought Ginger up. Is that what happened there?
Speaker 2:Ginger's up. She was down here with me. I don't know if Annalise brought her up or not.
Speaker 1:It looked like somebody brought her up, anyways. Yeah, so we went up to the falls. I have a few short videos, but, like I was remembering you falling over the route, and this would have been significantly worse if I fell, because there would be no, I was the only one up there. There was not another person up there, just me. So if I fell and fell into the waterfall and then down into the waterfall pool, ain't nobody gonna rescue me but me. So I was like this is dangerous what I'm doing. I'm just gonna not try to film with one hand and two dogs with another on slippery rocks. So yeah, so we did that loop and we came down, unbeknownst to me. It wouldn't have mattered, because bernoulli pulled me into the mountain creek once we got down. He saw the creek, he's, I'm gonna go in there, and he is incredibly powerful and I went for a little swim.
Speaker 2:But to be fair, to be fair, the leash was behind your leg and you had Beaker too, and so you were taken out at the knees by Bernoulli wanting to go into the water and Beaker pulling the other way, and you were off balance and then you went, and then you had a matching scrape on your knees.
Speaker 1:So we're knee scrape twins yeah, and I have a video of bernoulli going into the creek and then laying down. Laying down in the creek, that's how much this guy loves water. He's such a weird bernice mountain dog. Bunsen even went into the water too. I got that on video yeah, yeah yeah, okay, that's what. 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 week from Barking Beyond, so please remind me. Please remind me about the prize.
Speaker 2:I will okay. So we got home and Annalise said how was the trip? Because it was just you and I, yeah, and so we left Ginger at home and the Annalise is at the house, so it's not like Ginger wasn't without anybody but she said Annalise is Adam's girlfriend.
Speaker 2:For people, annalise is Adam's girlfriend, yep and Adam At least his Adam's girlfriend Yep, and Adam's already in Edmonton, not fully moved, but he's working there. And anyway she said Ginger really missed you. She would go, wait and look at the door and cry and then come find me and be like where is everybody? And then go back to the door and she's like I know they're coming back, but they're not here right now. And then after a little bit Ginger 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:Do you think she missed Bernoulli? Do you think she missed Bernoulli? Do you?
Speaker 2:think she missed.
Speaker 1:Maybe she missed bernoulli I don't know I don't know he's pretty annoying to her, pretty cute it is pretty cute.
Speaker 1:Anyway, that was my story more tlynco5 asks on instagram did bunsen blame you after he went in the water? No, he was happy to get his paws wet. I think he was hot and it cooled him down. Yeah, paula's on youtube says ginger will never say she missed him, even though she did. This is true. That is true. We do. You want.
Speaker 1:We should give people a chance to if they want to share a pet story or ask us a question. We'll do that for the last little bit here and then we'll do the draw, sure, okay? So if you missed asking a question and I didn't read it out, if you have a question for us, type it up, we'll answer it, and if you're listening live and you want to come up to speak we haven't done that because our guests last week took us'll answer it. And if you're listening live and you want to come up to speak, we haven't done that because our guest last week took us to the end. So if you have a story you'd like to share or a question you'd like to ask, come on up and while we're waiting, will you monitor twitter, chris?
Speaker 2:I will. I just noticed Dr Tracy was on earlier and I wanted to offer my condolences about Harry Potter, her cat, who recently passed away, but I don't see Dr Tracy on.
Speaker 1:Okay, we got Anne Mawinney. Okay, we got ann mawini and then cree. So we'll bringing those two people up on twitter. So we'll go to ann first and then we'll go to cree and hello hi, how are you all Good? Hopefully you're doing well.
Speaker 3:Yes, I am doing great. Just a quick thank you to you and Chris, because of the way you kept Bunsen on strict rest. I did the same thing with my dog when she fell down the staircase and tweaked her knee and the vet was afraid she had hurt her ACL. And because of your action with Bunsen, I knew what to do, and so Millie was able to recover and heal and not need any more treatment other than being a good girl in her pen, and so my heart just is huge for you guys because you've taught me so much I thank you.
Speaker 1:Thanks, you're welcome we had a scare with bunsen's acl too, and he was he. We did put him on rest and it seemed to go away. So yeah, it's not always the case, though we should say like sometimes your dog will need surgery. If you can avoid it, that's probably better for the dog yeah, it's always a win yeah, and it was a for us, and she is now no longer allowed upstairs. Can't do stairs.
Speaker 3:Nope, she's seven years old. She's a German Shepherd mix. She's got those hips and I don't want her to slide down the stairs again.
Speaker 1:Yep, fair enough. Like we, we know that Bunsen will probably never get back to 100 and that may mean he never gets to run off leash again. But if that extends his life because he can move short-term fun for a much longer life, that's. I'll take the much longer life and he did. He's still living life to the fullest. He's's still a good boy.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and mine is sound asleep on the couch.
Speaker 1:I love that. Thank you so much though. Thanks.
Speaker 2:Thank you, anne. We also have a ramp because, like outside the door there there's four steps that Bunsen has to go down and it's more the steeper stairs where they're saying that will push into his chest and his neck area. But we still put a ramp there to help him out. Yeah, it's good for their little bodies just to be protected there and Bunsen does like just to chill. He's a good patient and he's a good candidate for strict rest.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he took it like a champ.
Speaker 2:Great. Oh, you're going to feed me in here. Oh, I don't have to do anything. What? This is glorious.
Speaker 3:Yes, breakfast in bed.
Speaker 1:Yeah, if I could just get food delivered to me and watch Netflix all day, what a life. What a life, what a life. Thanks, anne, I appreciate that. Thank you, I really appreciate that. That filled my bucket. I Thanks, anne, I appreciate that. I really appreciate that. That filled my bucket. I appreciate that. Good, we'll go to Cree and then we do have some questions on the other people who are watching live, chris, so we'll go to Cree first. Hi Cree. Okay, hi Cree, you're free to ask your question or tell us your story.
Speaker 6:Hi Jason.
Speaker 1:Hi Chris, I just wondered if you have any tips or tricks on how to keep your dog out of the kitty litter tray. Oh no, you have to make it unaccessible. Some dogs will just get in there. Yeah, it's a tough thing. If your house, if you can't do that in your house, I have heard like if you can make a pen around it, it, that's your cat can jump into. You might be able to do it that way. But yeah, our dogs can't get ginger's kitty litter. Are you froze, chris? Are you there?
Speaker 2:no, I'm not. I was just gonna say that make it inaccessible. Yeah, and ours is downstairs and the dogs have the baby gate that they can't get downstairs.
Speaker 1:Yeah it's kind of leaving the garbage out. Some dogs will never touch the garbage if you leave it out. Some dogs will only touch the garbage when you're not watching, and that's how some dogs are with kitty litter okay it's a tasty treat for them gross it is a gross treat.
Speaker 2:And, like I took buns in for a walk today and we have chickens he also.
Speaker 1:He likes the chicken poo, which makes me want to vomit so, so gross and that's not locked away no, it's just out in the wild, so it's randomly there yeah maybe not the best, maybe not the best thing to say. I wish there was something else we could tell you, but that's the fastest and easiest way to keep them out of it.
Speaker 2:And frequent cleaning, so like every day.
Speaker 1:You could do that True.
Speaker 2:Keeping it clean, yeah, but that doesn't help if they just go and then your dog's in it. Yeah. We're never, never, super fast.
Speaker 1:Polly your hand's up. Maybe you've got a tidbit to share.
Speaker 6:Yeah, I do, because I took care of a lot of cats in my job and there's always a culprit trying to get in there. But sometimes they have those covered kitty boxes that are automatic and they'll scoop it away if you don't want to do it every day. But I was just going to say what Chris said Keep it really clean, because they smell that like it's worse than bunny poop. They just know it's out there and they go. But keep it clean or put it in a different location. We can sometimes do that. Use, like Jason said, gate around it or put it up higher. Put it higher too. I know that sounds weird, but if 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 a counter going out to your garage.
Speaker 1:I know it's gross maybe, but that's a simple way that the dogs won't be able to get up on the counter if they're small I'll tell you a funny cat cat story about kitty boxes I once took care of.
Speaker 6:She never told me till the last minute. She had three, three golden retrievers. And then she says oh, by the way, I had a bunch of feral cats in the cellar. And I was like what? And she's yeah, there's 20 of them, but you'll never see them. I'm not kidding you. She had a kiddie pool full of cat litter boxes and they were all done in a circle. It was like this carousel of cat boxes.
Speaker 6:I was laughing so hard and I had this big shovel and a poop box in the middle. So I came home, my husband's like did they have cats? And I'm like, oh, my god, I think they have 20. But I never saw him. Like I saw eyes. I could see eyes, but I could see some were shy, Some came up to me but I bet you they had probably I don't know about 20.
Speaker 6:But I bet you they had 15 feral cats in their cellar that they were taking care of. But I took care of them. But it was just. That was like the biggest cat box 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 some reason they do like that. It's like I said, it's like bunny poop. I think Trixie's learning what bunny poop is now and she's rolling in it Really, oh gosh, it's like really Pretty gross Because we have Eastern cottontails that's what probably Janie knows about it, but that's our little rabbits around here and they're really cute, but they're always in my garden. I have so many wires around my plants that I like it looks like I've got like a prison out here, but anyway, it's pretty funny. All right, have a good night everyone.
Speaker 1:Thanks, paul. We're going to go to a couple of questions from the live people, and then Dr Tracy's next. So Cindy R L Y Lee asks where do all of our dogs or cats, where does everybody sleep? So Beaker usually sleeps in the bed. She's a bed sleeper, not. She hasn't been sleeping in the bed lately, though, or has she, I don't know she's been up and down yeah, so she sleeps in the bed, usually on chris's side, ginger roams.
Speaker 1:She has two main places that she likes to sleep on the main floor. One is on my feet and if I move too much she bites me, so that sucks. And the other place is she sleeps on top of Bernoulli's crate. She perches up there Like she sleeps on top of him, basically, and Bunsen sleeps on the floor. He always used to sleep by the front door, which is on the live right now that's the front door out of our house. Always His whole life, he would sleep there. And then after his surgery or maybe, I think, after or when we got Bernoulli no, it was after his surgery he sleeps in our room. Now that's where he sleeps. He sleeps in our room on the floor. So it is a busy room at 5.30 when Ginger goes bananas and then Beaker barks and then they all start barking. So that's something we've been dealing with for the last couple months. It's the 5.30 week.
Speaker 2:If you say a couple months, you mean a year and a half.
Speaker 1:I guess since we've got Bernoulli.
Speaker 2:It's been a year and a half, I guess. Since we've got bernoulli it's been a year and a half.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but then but then if we close the door, wake up call. If we close the door, ginger throws herself at the door like all night trying to get in. She just like catapults her body at it. It'd be funny to we should put a camera outside the door to see what it looks like, because it sounds like she's running and like body checking the door with her little cat body trying to get it and she is super strong, like she is so musc muscly, and she has a lot of power it's all that mouse protein, all that mouse protein.
Speaker 2: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 him all night? And have him in bed.
Speaker 3:I want to hug him all night.
Speaker 2:But I say no because Bernoulli is still mischievous and he still chews things like boots, likeason's boots. I had my workout bag on the bed and he puts his nose in and yoinked out, like this piece of paper I had in there and just started chewing it and I said jason, he's not ready, he's not ready to be unsupervised for hours on end yeah, he is cute though he is cute, though he makes it up in cuteness and gooberness.
Speaker 2:but my when, jason's when will he be out of the crate? And I said, maybe never, maybe never.
Speaker 1:He is so cuddly though he probably would. He probably would get too hot and then jump out of the bed and eat a boot.
Speaker 2:He would eat a boot, and I don't want any. What's it called Unidentified foreign object team for a ufo, team for an object? I'm not interested in that, so I'd much rather just keep him safe in a crate at night all right, we'll go to dr tracy on audio.
Speaker 1:Hello, how's it going hi?
Speaker 5:hi hi dr tracy hi, I just wanted to thank you for your comment about Harry Potter cats, but I needed to tell you something interesting about him. He was old he was at least 16 and probably a few years older than that but we had six other cats and he was the leader. He's the oldest one and he was the leader, and I never thought about it before. But nobody came and ate the day after he died. None of the cats would eat. And they finally came the second 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 drifted to a dish and then would leave. And it was odd, and the vet said that wasn't a surprise because harry was the leader and there wasn't anyone to tell them what to do, where to eat, when to eat, and so they were trying to sort things out again oh yeah chris, like the other cats do grieve too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, jason, you've talked about that on the podcast yeah, and I haven't mentioned it, tracy, but also I am also very sorry to hear of the loss of harry potter. Yeah, I'm just putting my condolences out there as well thank you. Thank you, paula keep us in the loop about who which cat becomes the leader if, if a new one rises to the challenge I think it's probably going to be our youngest one.
Speaker 5:Oh he's really. He was really shy for his first couple of years and now, all of a sudden, he's not anymore and he's all over the house and he orders me around, he tells me when he wants to eat and what he wants to eat and where he wants it put, and he tells me when it's time to go to bed. So I think he's going to be the one he sounds like Ginger.
Speaker 1:She's a bossy cat.
Speaker 5:Oh, he's really bossy.
Speaker 1:He didn't used to be, but he is now. You sometimes need to be a leader. You have to be bossy, so I can see that.
Speaker 2:Jason, I was going to say that Ginger isn't bossy, she just has leadership skills.
Speaker 1:Okay, is that?
Speaker 2:what you would say on a kid's report card. Yep, that is.
Speaker 1:Your child is a terror. Your child is spirited has a great imagination.
Speaker 2:Don't let people in on our secrets.
Speaker 1:Your child draws all over the walls and inappropriate things. Your child has a great artistic ability in an authentic expertise expression. There you go.
Speaker 2:There you go.
Speaker 1: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 report card. Okay, we'll see everybody next week for Pet Chat.
Speaker 2:And thank you everybody who tuned in to listen to Janie. We learned a lot about the rehabilitation of wild animals.