Sunday, October 4, 2009

Slowing down

Things have really started to slow down here at the Centre lately. Almost all of the interns before me have left (Dana's the last to go before I do and she leaves on the 6th) so in that sense we don't get as much time off as we used to (less people=less time off), but we also have very few animals left. We only have one seal in iso right now and she's almost off fish mash, close to free feeding. There are two seals in pool 1 and we just released 5 seals yesterday. The only animals we have left on birds are: A robin, two cedar waxwings, a finch (who's going to get release asap), pigeons, a crossbill (that apparently came in today), and the deer. The deer we are hoping to get rid of in the next week, two at the most. We have started to make it so we don't go into the enclosure with them (as they are very friendly and come up to us which is a bad thing). We are having a harder and harder time finding suitable things for them to eat when we go browse as the fall is progressing, which is the biggest reason we want to get them out, that and we want them to be in the wild again while there are still some things they can eat as they don't know how to scrounge and dig for food yet. We are still in the process of finding a suitable place to release them (looking for somewhere where they won't be hunted because as they are friendly that would not be a good situation for them).

Anyway, so a lot of our extra time (as feeding now doesn't take very long at all) is spent cleaning. We have to get the centre cleaned and prepared for winter (which is usually done by Marielle and another lady that comes to help clean after the interns leave, but the lady isn't coming this year and we have so fewer animals than usual). We are nearing completion on the cleaning side of things though, so it is being talked about that if it comes down to it and the staff have to start finding things for us to do then we might as well go home early. I don't know if it'll come to that yet, we can only really wait and see, but it is a possibility.

Today we had a booth at this lady's house for the Apple Festival. She owns this amazing property (most properties on the island are amazing) right next to the ocean where she has this huge plot of amazing gardens and apple trees! They make apple sauce every year and she is a big sponsor for the Centre. She invited us there because so people could get to know about us and the financial crisis that we are in. As the government has cut funding for environmental groups in order to help pay off their deficit, the centre is now out about $65,000, which they were not informed of until just a few weeks ago (not enough time to try and do much about it). We have been sending out flyers to everyone on the mailing list and so far, apparently, have raised about $10,000, which is amazing, but still not enough. Every year the Centre relied on that money and now we don't know even if they'll get it back again in later years. Sucks. The Centre usually stays open through the winter (Marielle stays as vet) and even though they don't get as much action, there are still animals to help. This year though because of the $ shortage they're closing for the winter (although Marielle is still going to stay). What a mess. It's sad that the environment is so low on people's list of priorities, if it weren't for the environment we wouldn't even be here!!

On another note, I think I have found out what is wrong with my computer. Apparently there is some sort of card thing that I forget the name of at the moment that Apple has found failing in a lot of Macbook Pros, which is what I have. They say that if you bring it into an Apple store, and it's within 3 years of the purchase date, then they will fix it for free!! I believe I bought my computer Nov or Dec of 2006, so it looks like I'll make it just in time. I'm going to bring it in to an Apple store in Seattle when I get home. That's about all for now! :)

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