Leaves changed color and fell as the air cooled while the semester continued. Aspen was studying when she got a message from Kim, “Hey Aspen, this is Kim from the center. I was wondering if we could release some squirrels out at your parents’ house. Give me a call.” Arrangements were made to pick up squirrels from the center, to be released first thing Saturday morning. After her classes, she headed to the center where she found Kim leaving, “Hi Aspen! I’m headed out to pick up an owl that was hit by a car. The squirrels are all crated up on the back porch. You know the drill, right?”
“Yep,” Aspen replied. She released squirrels a few times a year since she had been a junior volunteer. Sometimes at her parents’ house, which was on several acres by the lake, other times at her Grandpa’s house that was out past Gilbert.
“Hopefully you’ll have time to volunteer again soon,” Kim said.
“I hope so, my classes are pretty tough this semester, maybe over Thanksgiving break,” Aspen said as Kim waved goodbye.
Aspen proceeded through the building, saying hi to Dusty as she picked up the side gate’s key. Once again the Pekin duck greeted her and followed her to the porch, quacking the entire time. Outside Aspen unlocked the gate. “Hey now, you get back here,” she said to the duck. Aspen had to corral her back inside so that she would not wander off while she loaded the squirrels. She could hear her quacking at the door. She packed up the five wooden cages in her car, one in the front seat, and four along the back. Locking the gate, she headed in to return the key. The duck charged at her, complaining about the shut door. Aspen spent a few minutes petting her. The duck squatted low and shook her tail feathers. “Sorry baby, I have to get going. I’ll see you next time.” Aspen stopped briefly to catch up with Dusty. He would be leaving soon for Australia, where he went during the winter to surf. The first time he told Aspen this she was confused, then he explained that the southern hemisphere has opposite seasons, which was why Aspen’s Grandpa was planning to visit Antarctica in December; their summer.
“I leave town December 1, for the Land Down Under, then get back March 15 just in time for the Baby Shower,” Dusty explained. “I won’t be missed; it will be so slow. But I will miss all the spring cleaning, bummer,” he laughed as Aspen left smiling. Aspen drove to her parents’ house while the squirrels, covered with towels, sat in their crates munching on goodies. It was not long before she pulled down the gravel driveway. Her brother Jack heard the car and was out the door with Vader hot on his heels before she even had time to get out of the vehicle.
“Hey, sis! What ya got?” He asked eagerly looking in the back.
“Go put Vader in the house, first,” she replied. Jack ran willy-nilly around the front yard, getting Vader excited. Then the two of them ran in the front door, but only Jack came running out the side door, leaving Vader barking inside. “Careful, Jack. They bite and might be freaked out from the drive. Will you help me put them in the garage?” she asked as she lifted the first crate. “Make sure you grab the crate at the edges like this. You don’t want to stick your fingers in there at all. Trust me.” They carried the crates one at a time and placed them in the corner of the garage. It was a big three-car garage; the far side was more a shop with tools everywhere, old paint cans, scrap wood, and who knows what else. Once they had all of them in, they covered the crates with a sheet and went inside. In the morning they would release them. Jack was excited because this meant Aspen would be spending the night.
When Aspen first moved to the college dorm, Jack thought it would be cool to have the house to himself. He would get all the attention from mom and dad. He would have the bathroom to himself, would not have to call dibs on food, and would not have to fight over the TV remote. It was not long however before he missed his sister terribly. He missed having someone to play video games with, and now it was his responsibility to keep the bathroom clean! Jack was excited to spend time with her, but he was not going to let her know that.
A stack of board games on the coffee table in the livingroom greeted Aspen. “I see you’ve made plans for us tonight,” she said, her eyebrow raised staring at Jack. He smiled slyly.
“Yeah, and mom already ordered pizza. Pepperoni for me, and those yucky fungus things for you,” he said, disgusted. Aspen laughed that he referred to mushrooms on pizza as fungus like the pizza had a case of athlete’s foot or something. They stayed up past midnight playing board games and eating pizza with their parents. Monopoly was Jack’s favorite game; he was a little tycoon and usually ended up owning two sides of the board and bankrupting everyone.
Aspen’s alarm clock blared at 7 am. Time to release the squirrels! Their bedrooms were right next to each other, so Jack heard the alarm and popped up ready to go, leaving Vader still asleep in his bed. Wearing pajamas and tennis shoes, they headed to the garage where the lack of sunlight had not alerted the squirrels that it was day. The squirrels were still sleeping until the sound of the garage door opening woke them. “Remember how to carry the crate, so you don’t get bit, Jack,” Aspen reminded her yawning brother. They each brought a crate out to the backyard, which was surrounded by acres of dense pinewoods. They set the crates down a few feet apart and popped open the lids, backing away quickly. Jack’s squirrels popped straight up, like a jack-in-the-box and scampered away up the trees. Aspen’s squirrels were not so trusting. They sat looking up at the open lid for a bit before gathering enough courage to slowly crawl up and sniff the air. The first one stayed there for a moment or so just assessing the situation while the second hid under a small blanket. “Let’s just leave this cage, and we will come back once they have gone.”
Aspen headed back to the garage. They each grabbed two more crates and headed into the woods. This time when they set them down and popped the lids, all the squirrels darted out and up trees. Jack laughed at how fast they were.
“Did you see that guy?” he said pointing to a squirrel on a branch of a pine tree about ten feet above him. “He just went ZOOOM, up the tree.”
Walking back to the garage for the last crate, Aspen said, “Well Jack, it’s their first real taste of freedom. It must be a little scary.” She watched as her brother grabbed the last crate; they carried it to a different spot in the yard even further back. Jack set it down carefully and popped open the lid. Nothing happened; the squirrels were hiding under the blanket peeking out at them. “Let’s go eat. They’ll come out when they are ready,” Aspen said as she headed back to the house where she made pancakes and bacon for everyone. Their mom was the first one to smell it and came down the hall, hair a mess, slippers shuffling, Vader not far behind.
“Oh honey, I love it when you are home. I get to sleep in. Unless of course there’s bacon, then I must have bacon,” their mom said in a sleepy voice.
After breakfast, Aspen went out to collect the crates. Four of them she loaded back into her SUV, the fifth she had to leave in the woods, as the squirrel inside was cuddled up under the blanket still sleeping. With her tests behind her, Aspen headed to the center to return the cages and volunteer. She arrived and put the cages out back to be washed, then headed inside where Morgan and Nicole greeted her.
“Morning,” Aspen said as she checked in. She noticed that Cat was already there. Cat volunteered every Saturday; she was approaching her ten-year volunteer anniversary. Aspen found Morgan and asked what she could do to help.”
Morgan replied quickly, “If you can feed the squirrels we have in the back that would be great, but can you keep an ear out for the door? An owl just came in hit by a car, so Nicole and I are going to be in the hospital examining it.” Aspen collected supplies to feed the squirrels and headed to the back room where she found Cat folding laundry.
“Morning Cat, Morgan asked us to keep an ear out for the door. They are examining an owl that just came in,” Aspen said. She set the squirrel formula on the candle warmer then proceeded to start on the first cage.
“I just saw it come in; they had it wrapped up in a coat. Looked like a barred owl to me, but I could be wrong. I’ll finish this laundry then go hang out up front in case someone comes in. How have you been? I haven’t seen much of you lately?” Cat asked.
“College seems to be occupying all of my time,” Aspen sighed.
Smiling Cat replied, “It has a way of doing that. I am sure you are doing great, though. I’m going to put these away and head up front.” There were fewer squirrels now, so it did not take Aspen long, nothing like the spring, when it took three people an hour or more because there were so many. Aspen could hear the ladies talking at the intake desk so she knew they must be done with the exam. Cleaning up her supplies, and dropping o the dirty dishes in the soak sink she headed to hear what happened with the owl. Apparently, it swooped down and hit the front fender of a car. The driver was shocked and pulled right over to find a pile of feathers in the middle of the road. All they had was a raincoat, so the woman tossed it over the owl picking it up. Once at the car her husband put a towel from his gym bag across her lap to try to protect her from the sharp talons of the bird. Luckily for her, but unluckily for the bird, it was unconscious. They immediately brought it to the center. It was quite traumatizing for them; they could not figure out where it came from. They were very upset by what happened.
During the exam, Morgan detected a broken humerus, which they wrapped. The injured owl was placed in a crate in the hospital where it was quiet. Transport to the area raptor center that specialized in rehabilitation of raptors would be arranged. If the animal had severe injuries that would prevent it from being released, it would live there or be adopted by another facility as an education animal. That is how the center got its current red-tailed hawk,Takota. “Morgan, what’s up with raptors flying into vehicles? I have seen hawks dead in the road before. You would think they would fly over the traffic,” Aspen asked.
Morgan contemplated for a moment, “I think most of them are hit trying to capture food. Humans are slobs; most of our roads are littered with trash. Then vermin come along to eat that trash and are a perfect meal for raptors, whose flight pattern is to swoop low and grab the critter. Sometimes it is just bad timing; the raptor swoops just as a vehicle is passing. This owl broke a wing, but sometimes they are just knocked unconscious. I have examined owls that have no injury after being hit. When that happens, we take them out to the flight cage and watch them fly; if they pass, we release them. That happened not too long ago. A policeman found an owl on the road in the middle of the night and brought it to us. It was just unconscious, but the next car might have hit and killed it. Luckily the policeman found it first.”
“Is that what happened with Luna?” Cat asked.
“Yep, she flew into a semi-truck but was not as fortunate as the owl found by the policeman. Luna lost an eye; now she can’t see well enough to hunt, so she is one of our education animals,” Morgan replied. Luna was a barred owl that lived at the center. She was one of the most popular education animals because very few people ever got to see any owl up close.
“I would love to help in the Education Department this summer, if at all possible,” said Aspen.
“I’d love to have your help! Get with Kim and see if you can work something out. You’ve done pretty much everything else around here,” Morgan chuckled. Aspen finished a few more cleaning tasks then headed back to her dorm.
