You may remember a few weeks ago we had one of our former hedgehogs called “Grape” come back into care after being found by a young lad called Frazer.
Frazer discovered Grape in his garden with a nasty wound on his side caused by a strimmer. Grape was very poorly, suffering from an extensive infection and dehydration and sadly this was just too much for him and he passed away about 36 hours after being admitted into care.
Frazer has worked long and hard on this poster in the memory of his friend Grape to warn of the dangers strimmers and other garden equipment for our hedgehogs and other wildlife. This is going to be used to educate people locally. Already Fraser poster on facebook has been shared over 251 times and more than 13,552 people have seen it. The poster is being shared across the country by hedgehog lovers! Thank you Frazer and we are so sorry we could not do more for Grape. If you go to our www.facebook.com/wildlifeambulance you will find Frazer’s flyer where you can print it off or share it with friends or neighbours too.
Many thanks for everyone’s support today at the Seaford Dog Show, we received a wonderful £74 in donations and £53 in sales which was very unexpected as I was at the show as one of the judges.
Please don’t forget you can also have a chance to win an amazing hedgehog portrait painted for us by artist Sandra Palme to raise money for WRAS by making a simple donation at www.justgiving.com/hedgehogportrait. There isn’t much time left to enter.
Tony was called out to rescue a couple of fox cubs trapped inside some lobster pots at Sovereign Harbour this week. Two cubs had managed to get inside the pots and Tony had to set them free. Mum was nearby watching and the cubs ran back to her on release. We have never had to rescue a fox from anything like this before, certainly an unusual rescue.
Most of last week I spent looking after Trevor the seal on Seaford beach. It is unusual for a grey seal to be on the East Sussex coast line. The nearest colonies are near Dover and on the north French coast. He turned up near Sovereign Harbour the previous week just after a couple of nights a stormy weather. This may have been the cause of him ending up here. The seal was in good condition and moved round the coast to Eastbourne beach and then on to Seaford Beach where he spent six days. Due to trouble on the first night it was decided that a watch was needed to keep him safe. Medics from British Divers Marine Life Rescue and WRAS set up a round the clock watch of the seal of which I did from 11pm till about 8am. I would like to thank Kate, Lindsey and Kathy for helping to cover during the day while I tried to get some sleep. The seal was moulting and losing its winter coat. When this happens, like some other wild animals and birds, they feel very run down and lethargic.
There have been a numerous other calls this week including over 35 calls on Saturday alone. Luckily many of them were people finding healthy fledglings which needed to be left alone. Other calls included two poorly hedgehogs in a garden in Lewes, a blackbird which had fallen into a pot of grease at the Blue Bell Railway, a young bat in Eastbourne which Tony transported to Jenny at the Sussex Bat Hospital, a kestrel which had collided with a car, and an injured pigeon in Alfriston,
Last week was stressful for us with so many calls for help, but we still managed to deal with over 75% of all calls. You can help support our charity with a donation by calling 01825-873003 or visit www.wildlifeambulance.org