Fancy a Shag anyone?!

No no, it's all above board for any of you who were wondering!  We were presented with a Shag (the seabird - you know, looks a bit like a cormorant, but with a white throat.  Honestly, these British bird names - Tits and Shags... I'm sure Freud would have rather alot to say about all that!), sorry, where was i, get sidetracked!  Oh yes, we were presented with a shag the other day, by a "concerned member of the public."  Now, I do think that I'm getting grumpier and less tolerant as I get older (must be the the 30-ies!) but who chases down a seabird, who was probably just minding it's own business and drying it's wings on a rock somewhere; bundles it up in a jacket and then brings it to the local vet, so that they now have to worry about it, while Joe Soap can just wonder off, warm and fuzzy in the knowledge that they're "saved" some wildlife.  Needless to say, the nurse who then had to clean guano off the kennel, was not impressed, and neither was the SSPCA inspector who then had to drive all the way from the North Coast to fetch the aforementioned shag.

 

Talking off "concerned members of the public" we had another one (a pair, in fact), a few months ago, who were clearly on holiday. Now, I don't say that disparagingly, but people up here are generally, on the whole, pretty sensible, and about as far from bunny huggers as you would be able to get on a scale of 1 to 10. So when someone phones up out of hours, completely hysterical about a myxie bunny (more about that in a sec) that they've found at the side of the road, and which they think has been hit by a car, you just know that they're not from around here!!!  My suspicions were confirmed when they arrived at the surgery in their little convertible sports car (no offense to anyone with a convertible, and in Africa, where there is actually some sun, i can see the point, but in Scotland, where 'scattered showers with outbreaks of sunshine is considered good weather' people who drive convertibles generally have more money than sense, and are not viewed in a particularly kind light by the locals) The wife had a headscarf wrapped around her head doing a Jackie O or Brigit Jones impression, you pick, and was cradling this bunny which clearly had myxomatosis (really nasty disease that was introduced to Britain to control the rabbit population - possibly from Australia, but I'm not entirely sure.  it makes their eyes swell shut, and is generally quite horrendous. There's no cure, and the kindest thing is euthanasia)  So had to explain to them the ins and outs and that the kindest thing for "bun bun's" was really euthanasia.  Hope it didn't ruin their holiday. 

 

And one more wildlife story - our local marine mammal medic got a call the other day to say that a very sick grey seal pup was been brought from Stornoway and needed a lift up to the North Coast.  Now, my geography is not great, but to give you some idea, Stornoway is on the Isle of Lewis, which is one of the "Western Isles" so called because they're off the west coast, and people like things to be simple and descriptive up here!  Ok, so for the seal to get to here, it would need to go on the ferry (yes, i know, sounds bizarre, hey?  This is a seal for goodness sake - they swim!) and then be driven to here, where it could then be taken up to the North Coast.  Just for the seal to get here from Stornoway was a trip of about 220 miles (+/- 500 km!!!!).   Anyway, the medic popped in to the vets on his way past, and I had a quick look at the seal, and it wasn't looking particularly lifelike to me!  "Seals can hold their breath for 20 minutes" was bandied about, but i still had my suspicions that mr seal had shuffled off this mortal coil at some point in his rather long journey!  Apparently the lady who had driven the first leg of the road journey had heard the seal 'let out a long sigh' shortly before handing it over. Ah, that would probably be that then.  So needless to say, the seal didn't make the epic journey from the back end of beyond.