DIRTY LAUNDRY!! (A glance into the daily life of CLAWS)

The title of this blog might sound rather boring but when you add two very cute baby otters running wildly through the CLAWS kitchen to jump into their green turtle shaped kiddy pool it gets more exciting! Splashing and tumbling in the water to get the best pool toys first, Hansel and Gretel are quite the tag team! Hansel manages to get that best pool toy (which happens to be a bottle cap!) before his sister has a chance! Gretel jumps on his back trying to wrestle ALL the toys from Hansel and water drenches the floor AND our feet. Hansel refuses to lose his cap so he grabs it in his mouth and jumps out of the pool to run for the safety of the corner of the kitchen where his human mom (Mrs. Claws) sits watching. The floor has been covered with at least a dozen or so towels for them to slither on to dry off however Mrs. Claws’ jeans are preferable at the moment! The two lose interest in the bottle cap only to tumble around on the towels, scoot and slither to dry off a bit more before chasing each other back into the pool to start all over again!! This is just a small window into life at CLAWS where laundry is not a weekly task but a daily one that the two baby otters have upped by 1.5 loads/day all by themselves!

When doing my research on how much it costs to do laundry (detergent- TIDE with bleach, water, electricity for both washer and dryer) I found this really neat website for calculating costs http://michaelbluejay.com/electricity/laundry.html If you ONLY count laundry for the two baby otters (averaging ~11 loads of laundry per week) CLAWS pays approximately $83 a month for ONLY the otter babies!!!! Again, that does NOT include the many other rehab babies being raised at CLAWS OR the permanent educational animals that live with CLAWS. Hence my blog!

When thinking of CLAWS expenses the ones that immediately come to mind are things like food- (formula & solids) as well as medical care. Surely these are the first and most expensive part of saving these wonderful animals in need, but there are day to day expenses that we the general public, volunteers and fans rarely think of….like the expense of feeding utensils (baby bottles and nipples- the otter babies do not suck, they chew!!), paper towels, dish detergent, electricity and LAUNDRY all add up quickly in the monthly budget!! So the next time you are grumbling about doing laundry (something I personally grumble about often!) think about CLAWS! AND if you are like me and you don’t want to DO their laundry, think about donating some TIDE with bleach and maybe sending them a little extra cash this month towards baby otter laundry!! Remember, all donations go straight towards the care of the animals. No one at CLAWS is paid. And to reward you for reading my “dirty laundry” blog, check out these adorable baby otter pool photos!! Thank you CLAWS for all you do for wildlife!

Favorite Perches

There is no greater honor than to be chosen as a “Favorite Perch” by a CLAWS raptor. The birds definitely have preferences. Whenever possible, those preferences are accommodated so the birds have as enjoyable a time at an event or program as possible.

Anyone who has been to an event and witnessed the total adoration Styx exhibits when Vinny is holding her knows who her preference is! She doesn’t take her eyes off him the entire time and looks at him like he is the greatest thing since freshly killed mice! She’s OK if someone else holds her, but if Vinny is there she watches him the entire time. But if she sees her man holding another bird, she pouts. Yes, owls pout. They squat like a chicken and droop their wings.

Then there is Odo who doesn’t care who you are as long as you have red hair. He’s a bit on the shallow side. If you have red hair, you’re in. When he first came to CLAWS, Kindra’s hair was red, he loved her. Now that she has changed hair color, he doesn’t care for her so much. He is uncooperative about loading and unloading from his crate for her. However, for Gina (who is a redhead) he will step off the glove and walk right into his crate when he is done. The last time he waited until he was sure Kindra was watching before putting himself away.

Which brings us to my all time favorite…Alf. The last fundraising event we had there was a special young girl who wanted to have her picture taken with him. I got her a small raptor glove and transferred him to her hand. If looks could kill, I would have burst into flame on the spot! Being the consummate showman, he looked his normal regal self for the picture. However, when I took him back, the tantrum began! I happened to be wearing the fingerless leather gloves I always wore when holding him. He knew EXACTLY where those gloves ended. In addition to the “look of death” and overachieving owl pout, he sidestepped until he had one foot on my bare finger, then turned it into a vise and clamped down. While not immediately all that painful, after about 15 minutes when your finger is bright red and throbbing and has also been impaled by a couple of talons, with no end in sight, it does become quite uncomfortable. People thought the tears in my eyes were due to the pain, and I had to explain that they were actually caused by the effort it was taking not to burst out laughing at his tantrum. I finally had to put him up for a while so he could get over himself, and so he would let go of my finger!

After his “time-out”, he decided that I had been sufficiently punished, and he was back to his normal worship-worthy self.

Each animal has their own unique personality and quirks. We are very privileged to be able to share in their lives and educate other people about their special place in this world. We thank you for reading our blog and hope you are inspired by the work CLAWS does with the wildlife of North Carolina and the special animals with no other place to go who now call CLAWS their home.

Lori
Screech Owl Fanatic