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Backyard Rescue
Lindsay and Greta run a backyard wildlife hospital, caring for such creatures as Troll, a wounded screech owl, but they have to worry what will happen to the animals if the Fish and Game officer closes their illegal hospital down.
128 pages, Hardcover
First published October 1, 1994
4 people want to read
About the author
Hope Ryden
34 books23 followersAuthor-Naturalist Hope Ryden has spent years in the field, studying and photographing North American wildlife. Her behavioral findings have been published in National Geographic, Smithsonian, and Audubon magazine, and her books have been translated into German, Swedish, Finnish, Norwegian, Dutch, Spanish, Italian and Russian. To date she has twenty-three books to her credit, all of which are illustrated with her own photography. Her most recent titles can be ordered through Barnes and Noble.com or Amazon.com. Some of her earlier books can be ordered directly from her or from iUniverse.com. Hope is available for school programs, and she also lectures for adult audiences. Her wildlife photographs are handled by the National Geographic's Image Collection or can be ordered directly from her.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
June 22, 2018
I saw this at the bookshop, and thought it looked cute. I would have been all over this as a kid.
I know why they would rescue caterpillars in Greta’s backyard, but it didn’t make sense to go around the whole neighborhood saving them. And how it was possible to keep hundreds of caterpillars in a sandbox without them getting out. But as someone who saved wildlife growing up, I appreciate the endeavor,& might have even done something like that myself.
I love their plans to live next door, raise horses, dogs,& a few cats. Those are the kinds of plans you make as a kid. I made ones like that too.
It was so irresponsible to take the eggs from the sand& carry them back to the house, and keep them in a bucket & a tub.
When they tell her family they hatched turtles, her brother Will says turtles ruin the fishing so he’s gonna destroy them. Lindsay starts crying and rushes from the table, and her dad says “Come back here, Lindsay. You haven’t been excused” which annoyed the crap out of me. She’s upset, and you should have told Will not to mess with the turtles. The one thing her dad protests is that Lindsay left the table. How stupid. And her mom says “You’re excused, Greta, if you want to go with her.”
Her dad says they have to be considerate of the summer people who come there, because they wouldn’t want a lake full of snapping turtles. Turtles are born every year, you can't stop them from hatching. This is just one batch. & that doesn't give you a right to kill the turtles.
It was pretty mature for a ten-year old to say “if we kill everything that eats what we eat, whet will the earth be like?”
I didn’t like that their summer vacation to the lake was over after one chapter.
I liked when Greta said caterpillars turn into butterflies so they were really saving butterflies which made the task easier.
The synopsis says owls need bones & fur, as if it's the only part of an animal an owl eats.
The librarian told her to try to feed it raw hamburger meat but the book said they need to eat fur, claws and bones.
Tidbit of info for kids when the owl rolled on it's back & showed it's talons not to reach into the box. The fur, bones and teeth are necessary otherwise they'd have trouble digesting the meat part of the food and might get sick & die.
I liked how Lindsay didn't like to see things hurt.
When they caught all the mice at the Mallard home they wonder what they'll do next. It didn't even occur to them to trap mice at Lindsay's house, or to ask the neighbors for any mice they catch.
Their plan is to feed him raw hamburger meat, & cut fur off her mom's mink coat. They need bones, fur & teeth, but that's just taking care of the fur part. Then when her mom thinks moths have got her coat, they plan to cut dog hair. Wth.
After feeding it for days, that's when the concern over his injury comes up,& they aren't worried, because birds molt their feathers and grow new ones. The feathers aren't the injury. What if it's IN the wing?
To make it worse there's a bird in the mall parking lot that Lindsay takes home.
I liked her dad's phrase, "always be quick to embrace the opportunities that come your way."
Grebes swim all the time & never come on land. Their babies are born on floating nests made from weeds and reeds. Almost directly after hatching from their shells, they climb on their mother's back & ride around. When she dives for fish they hang on & go under water.
They put the bird in lukewarm water and later found they live in lakes that are pretty cool. She says the warm water didn't do it any harm & it may have liked the heat after having frozen wings. She just guesses that the wings are frozen & that's why it was in the parking lot. Airplanes crash because of ice on it's wings,& she never imagined it could happen to a bird. You're comparing a bird to an airplane.
They hold a smelt in front of the bird's beak & it struggled and shook it's head. They decide to force it's mouth open. When it doesn't work, they pinch the beak with two fingers & force the fish in it's mouth. It starts eating on it's own when they hold it up after,& the dad declares that it's going to be fine and they can release it tomorrow. Because he's certified w/ wildlife & knows this. Earlier he said they wouldn't release it if it couldn't fly. He's only started to eat, but that has nothing to do w/ whether he can fly or not.
Even though the bird can't stand & toppled over, the dad said it just needs help gaining lift, & gives it a toss. The bird falls to the ground w/ a thud. Lindsay asks if it's hurt and the dad assure her that it's fine, w/o even picking it up and looking at it. But he does pick it up again & toss it into the air where it falls again. After all that, he agrees that it's best to bring it back inside. The almighty lawyer, Mr. Show Me Your Case, isn't very smart at common sense.
He calls a friend who happens to be a bird watcher. She's sure he'll tell them if it needs to be taken to a bird doctor, 'if there were even such a thing.' Of course there's such a thing.
It turns out it needs to take flight on the surface of a pond or lake to gain speed to fly, which made the whole thing all the worse.
Lindsay says they'll have to keep it til spring when the water thaws & the dad says "nothing doing" w/e that means.
Mrs. Freed, the only sensible person in here says a bathtub is no place for a wild creature to live. And he needs to explore lakes, hunt for his food, find a mate & raise chicks. Where is this logic w/ the owl?
The next page up & says she had stopped worrying about Greta moving, w/o having said before that Greta's moving.
She takes the owl to show and tell,& tells everyone he'll be much happier when he's free, and would like a tree better, and it's no fun in a cage with nothing to do. Where has that thought been?
Children from school start sending them animals. One gives them a squirrel,& it astounds me that their parents are letting their kids send injured or abandoned wildlife to CHILDREN. Has no one heard of wildlife rehabilitators?
They heat up regular milk & give it to the squirrel,& Greta's mother then tells them that that milk is made for calves & that babies have special formulas. 'Greta was not to be stopped, though. "Something is better than nothing,& she has to eat right now," she insisted. "We'll find the right thing to give her later." I trusted Greta. As my mom says about her, she has all the right instincts to survive. Now she was applying those instincts to save the baby squirrel.' What the heck. A kid has instincts about a baby squirrel?? She knows better than her mom, who's actually raised a baby. Do you know dangerous it is giving a baby animal the wrong kind of milk, even if it's only one feeding? If they're body can't process it it could be lethal. Her mom suggests they call a vet because they should know what to feed a baby squirrel. But a wildlife rehabber would ACTUALLY know.
The vet gives her Esbilac, formulas for kittens and puppies, saying it'll do just fine for a squirrel.
It was cute when Lindsay said it's lucky Greta's dad is there to help with the squirrel & turned red at how dumb it sounded.
They say they needed to get Troll the owl on a serious exercise program otherwise his wing muscles would be like old, flabby rubber bands until he flapped them everyday. Where was this concern all winter?!? Why are they just now worried now that it's spring?? They say they've continued feeding it hairy meet balls. So you're giving an owl cow meat & a squirrel cat & puppy formula. It's march so they've had him all winter, for probably many months.
They've been feeding him hairy meat all winter& only in march say they have to feed him mice because he needs calcium in their bones & teeth.
Red squirrels keep their babies for 2 months. They eat sunflower seeds, spruce cones from blue spruce trees,& new leaf buds from oak & maple leafs. Gray squirrels have a dif diet from red ones. They can't open up a spruce cone to get seeds inside. They eat acorns. Acorns don't form until summer,& only a mother squirrel could find acorns in spring, because the previous fall they buried thousands of them in secret places.
I love how she said she was glad Nutkin was a red squirrel so they didn't have to go around looking for acorns but 'we would have done it though. We would have done anything for Nutkin.'
Someone sent them a baby chipmunk that didn't appear to be wounded, just in shock, so they put it in a box& later found it dead. A mole dies too.
'We probably should have done something more than we did. But what? The chipmunk must have been hurt in some way that we couldn't see. And even if we had found the problem, we really didn't know how to treat an injury.'
You can call a rehabber, that's what you can do. I couldn't believe she admitted they rlly didn't know how to treat an injury, because they've been acting like they know everything.
'I felt like we were to blame, because everyone thought we knew how to take care of animals, and we really didn't. Up until now we had done our best and been lucky. But our patients hadn't needed any medical attention, only good care.'
Greta felt bad,& said she was gonna be a vet so she'd know what to do,& I wondered where her instinct had gone to. Lindsay maybe wanted to but she didn't think she could give a dog or cat a shot. I wanted to, also, but I can't handle surgeries.
They then get a raccoon that they mix formula for. And the topic of rabies is mentioned. And I wondered why it wasn't w/ the squirrels. Once they're old enough that's a concern.
If it had been raccoons from the east the vet would have had to contact the Board of Health & they'd have to get vaccinated. But no ones stepping in & telling fish and wildlife about them keeping wild animals.
They wore gloves to protect from bites, which is what I had to do even with the neonatal squirrels at the wildlife center.
Racoons' whiskers show how relaxed or awake they were. When interested they stand straight out like a cat's. When sleepy they lay flat against their faces. Mothers lick their stomachs after every meal to make them urinate. They massages his belly with a warm sponge.
I had to rub squirrels with a wet cotton ball so they'd go to the bathroom.
They've put a warm bottle of water in a towel for all the animals, the owl, the raccoon,& maybe the grebe,& the squirrel too. Idk if you should actually do that.
They treated Rocky Star like a pet, playing w/ him & holding him a lot. That is not a good idea to make wild animals tame, because then they'll look to humans for food sources& that can get them killed.
They fed him baby food from a jar & gave him table scraps. They fed the squirrel peanut butter.
They mentioned how they loved watching show called Nature & I wondered if it was real.
The mean boy Russell was actually right in saying it's illegal to keep wild animals. The girls didn't understand what was illegal about it,& that they're helping them stay alive until they can survive on their own. And because Lindsay's dad is a lawyer he can defend them if they get arrested. Who hasn't heard it's illegal to keep wild animals?
When Greta's dad tells them the department of fish & game called, Greta's face went white & Lindsay's burned and she knew it was turning red. I would have been just like that in a situation like that.
Her dad says "they have some screwball idea that all wildlife belongs to the state." That isn't a screwball idea, although it was funny when Greta said "well then, we should just send them a bull for all the food we've been buying for THEIR animals."
I couldn't believe Lindsay actually asked if they'd take good care of them,& even more when he said no, they wouldn't do anything for them. The department calls them trash animals because they're so common & aren't worth spending money on. If they were endangered they would. This seems very unlikely because rehabbers take in any animal.
They couldn't believe they would get into such trouble for caring for animals that needed their help. But it's a problem because you don't know what you're doing. I mean, two animals died in their care.
She was worried if Nutkin didn't live to be released she'd never know what it was like to be a wild squirrel. That's exactly what you're doing to all the animals by handling them and having too much contact with them. You're taking the wild out of wildlife.
Greta's dad's plan to hide the animals is to build cages in the trees, which would easily be ruined if the officer looks up. They said if it happened they'd pretend to faint,& talk loudly to drown out noise from the animals. How is it possible for cages to even stay in a tree? They could easily fall out. They climb out on the roof, balance on a branch& then pass the animals to each other which is dangerous because you could easily drop them.
After all the contact they've had, this finally comes out: 'Greta & I had always worried about having so much contact w/ our wild creatures. It made them too trusting,& this could get them into trouble. After we set them free, they might hop or fly or walk right up to the first person they met, expecting them to be as friendly as us.'
What the f is this book? Where has that been the entire book? They haven't once worried about this & now you throw that out on page 95?!?
It was cute when Lindsay was hurt thinking her parents just accepted she left home for good,& how they just let her go like that. She actually tears up & holds her milk in front of her face so no one notices.
So sweet when she promised the owl they wouldn't betray him and that she'd rather die first.
Lindsay said she had the scare of her life when she opened the door to find the conservation officer there!! It was so funny when the officer said the Latin names of the animals & Mr. Mallard said idk what language you speak, Greek or Latin,& they aren't versed in those tongues so you better come back with a translator!!
Her dad uses an example of African Americans fighting to sit on buses & eat in restaurants, which are called civil disobedience, when you break laws for rights like that,& I liked the example & how he's supporting her case. And knowing she was breaking the law because of her conscience.
The neighbor thinks they have a treehouse & said in his day girls knew how to be ladies,& only boys climbed trees. I love how Greta rolled her eyes,& they let the sexist remark pass.
Lindsay is bothered by how if they released Troll they would never know if he made it,& Greta said that's always going to be the case, which is so true for anyone who works with wildlife like that. A very good lesson to readers too.
If they get convicted their parents would be the ones who get the punishment. Her dad said he'd have to argue her case in front of a judge & Mr. Mallard could go to jail. Greta actually says it doesn't matter because her dad wouldn't care if he was in jail cuz he's so mad about the whole thing. Even though she was troubled that was a ridiculous thing to say.
I couldn't believe they had the owl for seven months.
Lindsay found her courage when she said she wished she had been there when the officer came again. & wanted to meet him head on! I love the line when she said they were saving lives & nothing in the world was more important than that.
Her teacher noticed she's distracted in school & her work was suffering. She says she never hangs out w/ anyone, & she says her best friend goes to another school. I wondered what happened to her other friend. It shouldn't be so important that school work is suffering & you forget other friends. Her teacher says she's so lovely she's think she'd have lots of friends,& that bothered me. Don't make someone feel bad because they don't have a lot of friends.
The squirrel gets loose & Greta climbs on the tree after it,& the branch breaks & she's dangling there, w/ the squirrel. That would have been a good moment to release the squirrel into the wild.
Mrs. Freed gives her a wildlife rehab today magazine & it confirmed what they'd doing had been correct. Other articles made her wonder how they'd managed to bungle through. You think?
The lady was sympathetic & didn't ask where they'd hidden them or turned them in, or at least told them that they should turn them in themselves. What is it w/ these adults in here??
It's good to raise orphaned animals w/ others of their kind so they know what animal they are. Otherwise they won't know how to attract a mate.
They wonder who's allowed to keep wildlife if all wild animals are owned by the state. And that it's strange that some ppl are allowed to take care of sick animals but others are persecuted. It's not strange because you have to know what you're doing.
To become licensed you have to take a written exam, showing knowledge on housing, feeding,& caring for dif animals. No criminal record. State wildlife official would have to visit & evaluate our property & interview you in person. Have to be 16+.
Greta & her family were moving at the end of the school year,& I hated it because they would have gone to the same middle school.
Greta's dad was so good at building cages, I kept waiting for someone to say he should do that for a job.
It was funny when she said they put our walnuts & seeds for her so she could come & go as she pleased until she was ready to 'seek her fortune elsewhere.'
Nutkin returned to her cage at night & Mallard says "that goes to show that even a squirrel can learn to like its prison.' That's an odd comment knowing the girls were trying to save her to call it a prison. Unless he's thinking of himself being stuck in the house.
Knowing they haven't totally been taking care of animals properly,& how you don't want to get them used to humans, they let the raccoon & squirrel in the house for exercise,& prob the owl too, Idr. They feed Rocky Star canned dog food & baby food & let it sleep in their laps.
They find a rehabber where Greta is moving & Greta plans to help out there which is cool. However when Lindsay suggests they take rocky there so he can learn from other raccoons Greta says they better check it out before they trust them with rocky. Wth!!
The state doesn't grant rehab license to vets. I wanted to know why but Joe's answer was "beats me" so it looks like I won't be finding that out.
He foot the bill for the fox' splint. The department of fish & game is funded almost entirely by license fees for hunters, fishermen & trappers. Food & medicine is paid for strictly by donations.
The officer shows up again & Greta's dad yells at him that he should have told the girls there are places you can take animals where ppl are licensed to care for them,& I wondered how an adult wouldn't know that themselves. I couldn't believe it, because who doesn't know about wildlife rehab centers?
This was too annoying to be enjoyable,& it felt so long. This could have been much shorter,& even though it's a kid's book, it wasn't a quick, easy read.
It centered too much on wildlife,& didn't cover anything else. I needed a break from all the wildlife, &them bungling every freaking thing. They fed animals the wrong food, handled them too much, got them tame, interfered when they shouldn't have, & didn't know what they were doing. This is an example of all the wrong things to do w/ wildlife,& I hope kids don't read this & think this is what you should do.
Because they didn't know anything, I didn't even know if the facts in here were actually facts.
Maybe things were different in the 90s, otherwise this author is seriously misinformed.
This might be returning to the bookstore.
Thank God this only took one day to read.
I know why they would rescue caterpillars in Greta’s backyard, but it didn’t make sense to go around the whole neighborhood saving them. And how it was possible to keep hundreds of caterpillars in a sandbox without them getting out. But as someone who saved wildlife growing up, I appreciate the endeavor,& might have even done something like that myself.
I love their plans to live next door, raise horses, dogs,& a few cats. Those are the kinds of plans you make as a kid. I made ones like that too.
It was so irresponsible to take the eggs from the sand& carry them back to the house, and keep them in a bucket & a tub.
When they tell her family they hatched turtles, her brother Will says turtles ruin the fishing so he’s gonna destroy them. Lindsay starts crying and rushes from the table, and her dad says “Come back here, Lindsay. You haven’t been excused” which annoyed the crap out of me. She’s upset, and you should have told Will not to mess with the turtles. The one thing her dad protests is that Lindsay left the table. How stupid. And her mom says “You’re excused, Greta, if you want to go with her.”
Her dad says they have to be considerate of the summer people who come there, because they wouldn’t want a lake full of snapping turtles. Turtles are born every year, you can't stop them from hatching. This is just one batch. & that doesn't give you a right to kill the turtles.
It was pretty mature for a ten-year old to say “if we kill everything that eats what we eat, whet will the earth be like?”
I didn’t like that their summer vacation to the lake was over after one chapter.
I liked when Greta said caterpillars turn into butterflies so they were really saving butterflies which made the task easier.
The synopsis says owls need bones & fur, as if it's the only part of an animal an owl eats.
The librarian told her to try to feed it raw hamburger meat but the book said they need to eat fur, claws and bones.
Tidbit of info for kids when the owl rolled on it's back & showed it's talons not to reach into the box. The fur, bones and teeth are necessary otherwise they'd have trouble digesting the meat part of the food and might get sick & die.
I liked how Lindsay didn't like to see things hurt.
When they caught all the mice at the Mallard home they wonder what they'll do next. It didn't even occur to them to trap mice at Lindsay's house, or to ask the neighbors for any mice they catch.
Their plan is to feed him raw hamburger meat, & cut fur off her mom's mink coat. They need bones, fur & teeth, but that's just taking care of the fur part. Then when her mom thinks moths have got her coat, they plan to cut dog hair. Wth.
After feeding it for days, that's when the concern over his injury comes up,& they aren't worried, because birds molt their feathers and grow new ones. The feathers aren't the injury. What if it's IN the wing?
To make it worse there's a bird in the mall parking lot that Lindsay takes home.
I liked her dad's phrase, "always be quick to embrace the opportunities that come your way."
Grebes swim all the time & never come on land. Their babies are born on floating nests made from weeds and reeds. Almost directly after hatching from their shells, they climb on their mother's back & ride around. When she dives for fish they hang on & go under water.
They put the bird in lukewarm water and later found they live in lakes that are pretty cool. She says the warm water didn't do it any harm & it may have liked the heat after having frozen wings. She just guesses that the wings are frozen & that's why it was in the parking lot. Airplanes crash because of ice on it's wings,& she never imagined it could happen to a bird. You're comparing a bird to an airplane.
They hold a smelt in front of the bird's beak & it struggled and shook it's head. They decide to force it's mouth open. When it doesn't work, they pinch the beak with two fingers & force the fish in it's mouth. It starts eating on it's own when they hold it up after,& the dad declares that it's going to be fine and they can release it tomorrow. Because he's certified w/ wildlife & knows this. Earlier he said they wouldn't release it if it couldn't fly. He's only started to eat, but that has nothing to do w/ whether he can fly or not.
Even though the bird can't stand & toppled over, the dad said it just needs help gaining lift, & gives it a toss. The bird falls to the ground w/ a thud. Lindsay asks if it's hurt and the dad assure her that it's fine, w/o even picking it up and looking at it. But he does pick it up again & toss it into the air where it falls again. After all that, he agrees that it's best to bring it back inside. The almighty lawyer, Mr. Show Me Your Case, isn't very smart at common sense.
He calls a friend who happens to be a bird watcher. She's sure he'll tell them if it needs to be taken to a bird doctor, 'if there were even such a thing.' Of course there's such a thing.
It turns out it needs to take flight on the surface of a pond or lake to gain speed to fly, which made the whole thing all the worse.
Lindsay says they'll have to keep it til spring when the water thaws & the dad says "nothing doing" w/e that means.
Mrs. Freed, the only sensible person in here says a bathtub is no place for a wild creature to live. And he needs to explore lakes, hunt for his food, find a mate & raise chicks. Where is this logic w/ the owl?
The next page up & says she had stopped worrying about Greta moving, w/o having said before that Greta's moving.
She takes the owl to show and tell,& tells everyone he'll be much happier when he's free, and would like a tree better, and it's no fun in a cage with nothing to do. Where has that thought been?
Children from school start sending them animals. One gives them a squirrel,& it astounds me that their parents are letting their kids send injured or abandoned wildlife to CHILDREN. Has no one heard of wildlife rehabilitators?
They heat up regular milk & give it to the squirrel,& Greta's mother then tells them that that milk is made for calves & that babies have special formulas. 'Greta was not to be stopped, though. "Something is better than nothing,& she has to eat right now," she insisted. "We'll find the right thing to give her later." I trusted Greta. As my mom says about her, she has all the right instincts to survive. Now she was applying those instincts to save the baby squirrel.' What the heck. A kid has instincts about a baby squirrel?? She knows better than her mom, who's actually raised a baby. Do you know dangerous it is giving a baby animal the wrong kind of milk, even if it's only one feeding? If they're body can't process it it could be lethal. Her mom suggests they call a vet because they should know what to feed a baby squirrel. But a wildlife rehabber would ACTUALLY know.
The vet gives her Esbilac, formulas for kittens and puppies, saying it'll do just fine for a squirrel.
It was cute when Lindsay said it's lucky Greta's dad is there to help with the squirrel & turned red at how dumb it sounded.
They say they needed to get Troll the owl on a serious exercise program otherwise his wing muscles would be like old, flabby rubber bands until he flapped them everyday. Where was this concern all winter?!? Why are they just now worried now that it's spring?? They say they've continued feeding it hairy meet balls. So you're giving an owl cow meat & a squirrel cat & puppy formula. It's march so they've had him all winter, for probably many months.
They've been feeding him hairy meat all winter& only in march say they have to feed him mice because he needs calcium in their bones & teeth.
Red squirrels keep their babies for 2 months. They eat sunflower seeds, spruce cones from blue spruce trees,& new leaf buds from oak & maple leafs. Gray squirrels have a dif diet from red ones. They can't open up a spruce cone to get seeds inside. They eat acorns. Acorns don't form until summer,& only a mother squirrel could find acorns in spring, because the previous fall they buried thousands of them in secret places.
I love how she said she was glad Nutkin was a red squirrel so they didn't have to go around looking for acorns but 'we would have done it though. We would have done anything for Nutkin.'
Someone sent them a baby chipmunk that didn't appear to be wounded, just in shock, so they put it in a box& later found it dead. A mole dies too.
'We probably should have done something more than we did. But what? The chipmunk must have been hurt in some way that we couldn't see. And even if we had found the problem, we really didn't know how to treat an injury.'
You can call a rehabber, that's what you can do. I couldn't believe she admitted they rlly didn't know how to treat an injury, because they've been acting like they know everything.
'I felt like we were to blame, because everyone thought we knew how to take care of animals, and we really didn't. Up until now we had done our best and been lucky. But our patients hadn't needed any medical attention, only good care.'
Greta felt bad,& said she was gonna be a vet so she'd know what to do,& I wondered where her instinct had gone to. Lindsay maybe wanted to but she didn't think she could give a dog or cat a shot. I wanted to, also, but I can't handle surgeries.
They then get a raccoon that they mix formula for. And the topic of rabies is mentioned. And I wondered why it wasn't w/ the squirrels. Once they're old enough that's a concern.
If it had been raccoons from the east the vet would have had to contact the Board of Health & they'd have to get vaccinated. But no ones stepping in & telling fish and wildlife about them keeping wild animals.
They wore gloves to protect from bites, which is what I had to do even with the neonatal squirrels at the wildlife center.
Racoons' whiskers show how relaxed or awake they were. When interested they stand straight out like a cat's. When sleepy they lay flat against their faces. Mothers lick their stomachs after every meal to make them urinate. They massages his belly with a warm sponge.
I had to rub squirrels with a wet cotton ball so they'd go to the bathroom.
They've put a warm bottle of water in a towel for all the animals, the owl, the raccoon,& maybe the grebe,& the squirrel too. Idk if you should actually do that.
They treated Rocky Star like a pet, playing w/ him & holding him a lot. That is not a good idea to make wild animals tame, because then they'll look to humans for food sources& that can get them killed.
They fed him baby food from a jar & gave him table scraps. They fed the squirrel peanut butter.
They mentioned how they loved watching show called Nature & I wondered if it was real.
The mean boy Russell was actually right in saying it's illegal to keep wild animals. The girls didn't understand what was illegal about it,& that they're helping them stay alive until they can survive on their own. And because Lindsay's dad is a lawyer he can defend them if they get arrested. Who hasn't heard it's illegal to keep wild animals?
When Greta's dad tells them the department of fish & game called, Greta's face went white & Lindsay's burned and she knew it was turning red. I would have been just like that in a situation like that.
Her dad says "they have some screwball idea that all wildlife belongs to the state." That isn't a screwball idea, although it was funny when Greta said "well then, we should just send them a bull for all the food we've been buying for THEIR animals."
I couldn't believe Lindsay actually asked if they'd take good care of them,& even more when he said no, they wouldn't do anything for them. The department calls them trash animals because they're so common & aren't worth spending money on. If they were endangered they would. This seems very unlikely because rehabbers take in any animal.
They couldn't believe they would get into such trouble for caring for animals that needed their help. But it's a problem because you don't know what you're doing. I mean, two animals died in their care.
She was worried if Nutkin didn't live to be released she'd never know what it was like to be a wild squirrel. That's exactly what you're doing to all the animals by handling them and having too much contact with them. You're taking the wild out of wildlife.
Greta's dad's plan to hide the animals is to build cages in the trees, which would easily be ruined if the officer looks up. They said if it happened they'd pretend to faint,& talk loudly to drown out noise from the animals. How is it possible for cages to even stay in a tree? They could easily fall out. They climb out on the roof, balance on a branch& then pass the animals to each other which is dangerous because you could easily drop them.
After all the contact they've had, this finally comes out: 'Greta & I had always worried about having so much contact w/ our wild creatures. It made them too trusting,& this could get them into trouble. After we set them free, they might hop or fly or walk right up to the first person they met, expecting them to be as friendly as us.'
What the f is this book? Where has that been the entire book? They haven't once worried about this & now you throw that out on page 95?!?
It was cute when Lindsay was hurt thinking her parents just accepted she left home for good,& how they just let her go like that. She actually tears up & holds her milk in front of her face so no one notices.
So sweet when she promised the owl they wouldn't betray him and that she'd rather die first.
Lindsay said she had the scare of her life when she opened the door to find the conservation officer there!! It was so funny when the officer said the Latin names of the animals & Mr. Mallard said idk what language you speak, Greek or Latin,& they aren't versed in those tongues so you better come back with a translator!!
Her dad uses an example of African Americans fighting to sit on buses & eat in restaurants, which are called civil disobedience, when you break laws for rights like that,& I liked the example & how he's supporting her case. And knowing she was breaking the law because of her conscience.
The neighbor thinks they have a treehouse & said in his day girls knew how to be ladies,& only boys climbed trees. I love how Greta rolled her eyes,& they let the sexist remark pass.
Lindsay is bothered by how if they released Troll they would never know if he made it,& Greta said that's always going to be the case, which is so true for anyone who works with wildlife like that. A very good lesson to readers too.
If they get convicted their parents would be the ones who get the punishment. Her dad said he'd have to argue her case in front of a judge & Mr. Mallard could go to jail. Greta actually says it doesn't matter because her dad wouldn't care if he was in jail cuz he's so mad about the whole thing. Even though she was troubled that was a ridiculous thing to say.
I couldn't believe they had the owl for seven months.
Lindsay found her courage when she said she wished she had been there when the officer came again. & wanted to meet him head on! I love the line when she said they were saving lives & nothing in the world was more important than that.
Her teacher noticed she's distracted in school & her work was suffering. She says she never hangs out w/ anyone, & she says her best friend goes to another school. I wondered what happened to her other friend. It shouldn't be so important that school work is suffering & you forget other friends. Her teacher says she's so lovely she's think she'd have lots of friends,& that bothered me. Don't make someone feel bad because they don't have a lot of friends.
The squirrel gets loose & Greta climbs on the tree after it,& the branch breaks & she's dangling there, w/ the squirrel. That would have been a good moment to release the squirrel into the wild.
Mrs. Freed gives her a wildlife rehab today magazine & it confirmed what they'd doing had been correct. Other articles made her wonder how they'd managed to bungle through. You think?
The lady was sympathetic & didn't ask where they'd hidden them or turned them in, or at least told them that they should turn them in themselves. What is it w/ these adults in here??
It's good to raise orphaned animals w/ others of their kind so they know what animal they are. Otherwise they won't know how to attract a mate.
They wonder who's allowed to keep wildlife if all wild animals are owned by the state. And that it's strange that some ppl are allowed to take care of sick animals but others are persecuted. It's not strange because you have to know what you're doing.
To become licensed you have to take a written exam, showing knowledge on housing, feeding,& caring for dif animals. No criminal record. State wildlife official would have to visit & evaluate our property & interview you in person. Have to be 16+.
Greta & her family were moving at the end of the school year,& I hated it because they would have gone to the same middle school.
Greta's dad was so good at building cages, I kept waiting for someone to say he should do that for a job.
It was funny when she said they put our walnuts & seeds for her so she could come & go as she pleased until she was ready to 'seek her fortune elsewhere.'
Nutkin returned to her cage at night & Mallard says "that goes to show that even a squirrel can learn to like its prison.' That's an odd comment knowing the girls were trying to save her to call it a prison. Unless he's thinking of himself being stuck in the house.
Knowing they haven't totally been taking care of animals properly,& how you don't want to get them used to humans, they let the raccoon & squirrel in the house for exercise,& prob the owl too, Idr. They feed Rocky Star canned dog food & baby food & let it sleep in their laps.
They find a rehabber where Greta is moving & Greta plans to help out there which is cool. However when Lindsay suggests they take rocky there so he can learn from other raccoons Greta says they better check it out before they trust them with rocky. Wth!!
The state doesn't grant rehab license to vets. I wanted to know why but Joe's answer was "beats me" so it looks like I won't be finding that out.
He foot the bill for the fox' splint. The department of fish & game is funded almost entirely by license fees for hunters, fishermen & trappers. Food & medicine is paid for strictly by donations.
The officer shows up again & Greta's dad yells at him that he should have told the girls there are places you can take animals where ppl are licensed to care for them,& I wondered how an adult wouldn't know that themselves. I couldn't believe it, because who doesn't know about wildlife rehab centers?
This was too annoying to be enjoyable,& it felt so long. This could have been much shorter,& even though it's a kid's book, it wasn't a quick, easy read.
It centered too much on wildlife,& didn't cover anything else. I needed a break from all the wildlife, &them bungling every freaking thing. They fed animals the wrong food, handled them too much, got them tame, interfered when they shouldn't have, & didn't know what they were doing. This is an example of all the wrong things to do w/ wildlife,& I hope kids don't read this & think this is what you should do.
Because they didn't know anything, I didn't even know if the facts in here were actually facts.
Maybe things were different in the 90s, otherwise this author is seriously misinformed.
This might be returning to the bookstore.
Thank God this only took one day to read.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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