Wow... I've just done a bit of a price-up on the kit I need for TWR. The kit I possess currently is the bare minimum for small animal work (e.g. cages, transport boxes, nursing kit, mite treatment) but I don't have anything for the larger mammals and birds - fox, badger, deer, swan etc. So I looked on a supplier website to get some prices, and get this:

Laptop (I add this because it'll be used to keep the website up-to-date and for me to do my degree): £499

Aviary net (to catch birds and ducks): £15.60

Catch net (for mammals and swans): £95

Quick release grasper (for badgers and foxes): £64

Fox trap: £165

Transporter cage for large mammals: £63.82

Wildlife gauntlets: £69

Stretcher for RTA casualties: £64

This is I believe just over £1000... wow.... I had put to bed any ideas of fundraising and was going to go it alone but I need that equipment and, if TWR takes off, I need it fast... thinking caps on people - how do you raise £1000 quickly?

I'll be opening a TWR bank account next week so will put an online donation link on my website... hopefully that'll generate something

Not cool being worried before the service kicks off!

I can more than afford to care for the little critters but without the equipment, I'm failing the big ones... it's gonna be a slow process but I'll get there in the end

Woohoo

Just a quick blog to let you guys know I've been awarded the Welsh Assembly Government's Staff Volunteer of the Month for my work with wildlife - go me!

I've taken screen shots of the article that appeared on the WAG Intranet today & uploaded it into my Media section under the Press/Publicity file - feel free to have a nosey!

All the best xx

Just 4 days to go until the kick-off of TWR!!

Things are going great - I've got a number of cages bought in, just in case I need to rehabilitate anything here (a fledgling, for example, wouldn't be any hassle), I've got transporter boxes of various sizes in the boot of my truck and I've got a nursing kit, mite treatment and I'll be ordering a grasper tomorrow... just in case I get called to a fox or badger (which I ain't looking forward to!)

I'm doing my best to spread wildlife awareness - I've got 3 colleagues coming with me to the wildlife centre over the next couple of months to try their hand at it, see if they can learn anything & I've got a local teenager also doing the same - she's gotta stay with me all day because of insurance stuff, so I'll be educating her on all things wildlife - how cool is that!

Regular readers may recall me talking about "23", my first ever rescued blackbird in my previous blog... well the photo is in my photo album for you all to check out (it won't let me put a photo in the blog, sorry!)

I've also added my advert into my profile pictures - feel free to spread the word (particularly if you live in Wales or surrounding areas!!!) Any free bulletin boards, your photo albums, a group email... anything! Get the word out there, people!!

In other news... there's likely to be a change to the Dangerous Wild Animals Act soon - Defra are proposing to increase licence periods from 1 year to 2, and to omit the need for a welfare inspection (as this is covered under Animal Welfare Act 2006) - I'm sure there's much more to it than this, but that's all I've heard about - if I were to take in a Dangerous Wild Animal e.g. a wild boar or an adder, I'd need a licence to keep this animal to ensure it didn't pose a risk to the public, that its welfare needs were being met etc etc.

Righty.. last but not least, Martin (Sloshed and Vexed) has shown me the errors of my way & I will never ever mention myspace here again... all blogs and photos will be posted here as well as there.

Get in touch guys - love to hear from ya!

All the best xxx

Hey guys!

Firstly, please accept my sincere apologies for not blogging here much anymore - I've generally kept them to Myspace as I can upload more photos etc etc. Anyway...

The wildlife rescue service is going to be launched in just one week from today! I have a rather rubbish temporary website set up: http://www.wildliferescuer.webs.com and obviously there's my myspace: http://www.myspace.com/wildliferescuer - if you're signed up, add me to your friends list!

I might've mentioned the name of the service in previous blogs: The Wildlife Rescuer - simple, to the point etc - perfect!

I decided that the purpose of the service should change slightly also - I was hoping to rent a barn to set up a hospital but that's been unsuccessful to date so the purpose of the service now is to act as a go-between between animal and specialist i.e. to respond to a call-out and to take the animal to the most appropriate help. Smaller animals such as garden birds or hedgehogs, I'm able to care for here at my home but I'm afraid there's no way I could keep larger mammals, birds of prey etc here so they'd have to go straight to a wildlife sanctuary for rehabilitation.

I've had 2 rescues to date (1 successful and 1 unsuccessful) - the first was a fledgling blackbird I came across in the middle of a busy main road. It was stumbling along (fortunately, between 2 traffic islands - how's that for lucky!) and it was cold and raining so I pulled up, dodged traffic, put it in an animal transporter box and took it to the nearest wildlife hospital (fortunately, I was on my way to the wildlife centre that was training me anyway so I was only 15 minutes away - that's one lucky bird!) I named it "23", as this was the number on its ring. I'm pleased to announce that, after a bit of recuperation, it made a full recovery and has since been released. A photo of 23 is featured on my Myspace site

The second rescue was my first requested rescue. A lady called me after seeing a magpie injured on the side of the road. Her colleague had seen it in the morning on her way to work and she had then seen it at lunchtime when she returned from a meeting. I agreed to go check it out as she was too scared to touch it, but unfortunately, it was nowhere to be seen. I don't get disheartened by such things - even if the bird died, that's nature's way - it will become food for another animal. That's the food chain. I was very glad that this lady thought to contact me though, and it did give me more motivation to keep things moving.

News, news... my story will be featuring in my staff newspaper next week - that'll be super cool! I'll be scanning a copy for my Myspace page!

I'm a soon-to-be member of the British Hedgehog Preservation Society - have filled out all the necessary forms and will be sending off on Monday. That's a big thing because they'll advertise my details on their website and they have given me the biggest pack of hedgehog booklets that I can use or reproduce to help my cause - rock on!!!

So in a nutshell, that's TWR to date - kick-off is next Saturday so watch this space! I promise I'll keep you updated as and when things start happening :-)

All the best guys!!

Sian x