July 2025 summary
- Kim Reynolds
- Aug 4
- 2 min read
One new face was Kamela Houdini, a Chinese soft-shell turtle who was found wandering the outskirts of Tokyo. She may have escaped from being put on a dinner table, and was brought to AnimO. Softshell turtles can’t pull themselves into their shell for protection, so they tend to be aggressive – their attitude is their armor! We are still building and establishing animal enclosures, so for the time being she has gone to a friend who already has a turtle-friendly setup.
We had some owner surrenders as well, a mama Showgirl hen and three chicks with their unique naked necks, a leopard gecko, a budgie we named Buddy, and a tenrec named Squid. Tenrecs may look like hedgehogs, but they are more closely related to elephants and aardvarks. Nature is fascinating!
Unfortunately we also had some new faces that were dumped rather than surrendered in person. Four roosters were left for us in a sealed cardboard box under the blazing summer sun, and we did not find them soon enough. One didn’t make it, and the remaining three were dangerously weak. The three are doing much better now!
One more new face was a tiny baby wild bat. It was found by a kind couple who drove him more than 4 hours to bring him to AnimO. At first he was doing well, feeding every few hours and sleeping in an incubator. Unfortunately he didn’t make it, but we did everything we could to give him the best possible chance at life.
There was a little bit of drama when the pigs Hamlett and Rose broke through their enclosure fencing, ate their fill from the vegetable storage, and took a nap right there. Ashley the crow had to get involved, so she spent some time riding around on the pigs. The dogs were confused to see pigs in this part of the sanctuary, but they don’t tend to react to other animals, so the peace was undisturbed. Next month we will need to buy some more fencing and make a stronger pig pen!
Russel the Crow is doing well! We don’t know if he’ll ever be able to properly fly, but he is learning that people are not all scary monsters and Ashley is teaching him how to be a crow.
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