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Show Lindsays make home for unusual pets "IT: By MARCELLA WALKER " it was dark when Annelle Lindsay, pleasant Grove, heard the dogs in the orchard. She thought at first that they must leader one of the deer that have visited the orchard this past winter and spring. A glance out the window stowed her it wasn't a deer, but a ! skunk that had the dogs in a frenzy . Annelle scared the dogs, all but . ,away. l In the light of morning, she and ; srson, Chris, made the trip into the orchard and found the dead skunk, a ' female. They buried her and then '-began the search for the babies. H Over the years, since she was just lfa little girl visiting her grand mother, Alta Hart, in Castle Dale, Annelle has been a great lover of animals. Her grandmother taught her early on how to take care of them and nurse them back to health if they needed it. As a result, Annelle has had some unique experiences with some unusual animals. In fact, she now often assists Jim Davis, Lehi's well known mountain man who raises a lot of wild animals. Some time ago, Annelle raised about 17 skunks for Jim. From him she learned about these animals and how to care for the babies. She said she knew that skunks give birth to their babies early in April. When she found the dead skunk in the orchard last week, and determined deter-mined that it was a female, she knew that the babies would be in a nest hole somewhere close by . As Chris and Annelle searched, carefully turning the soil so as to not injure the babies, they found the nest. Inside were seven tiny babies. Four had died from exposure to the cold and three were barely alive. Annelle and Chris brought the babies that were still alive home and got them warm. She called Jim Davis and got the formula for feeding the tiny animals. Then she rigged up a doll bottle to feed them. The little boy skunk and his two sisters nurse every two hours so Annelle must get up often during the night to feed them. One even puts its paws on the sides of the bottle, just like a human baby will do. She made a nest for them in a tall plastic bucket which is lined with a pair of men's denims. Sometimes Annelle puts them into a drawstring bag and fastens them inside her shirt where they stay warm and cozy. Because they do not have a mother to do their personal hygiene for them, Annelle must do this, too. She , . said that young animals like this are stimulated by their mother's touch to release the body wastes. This chore is now done by Annelle, who gently rubs them with a clean cloth after they eat. The little skunks do not yet have their eyes open. They make humming hum-ming sounds when they are awake and are ' disturbed. They already have the typical skunk markings of black fur with white stripes. When asked how she keeps track of which one is which as they are fed, Annelle pointed out the different markings on each baby. Sure enough, once she explained the differences it became obvious which one was which, even though at first they looked just alike. "You have to be careful that they don't eat too much at one feeding, or choke," Annelle said. "They sometimes have a tendency to over indulge," she added. Although the family, Annelle is the mother of seven children (four living at home) and the grandmother of three, has not yet named the babies, they have some names in mind. "One little girl we may call Annie Sprite Stink Bottom because she is so refreshing," Annelle quipped. Actually, she said they would like to give them flower names. When the babies are old enough to fend for themselves they will be put back into the wild. Annelle said that Jim Davis cautioned her to be sure they did not get too domesticated. She will teach them to find food for themselves as they will when they are on their own. Annelle's grandmother raised canaries, dogs and had a cat. Annelle loved to play with them and watched and observed her grandmother's handling of them. Annelle recalled a time when her father, Dr. Doyle Barrett, a Pleasant Grove physician, was called upon to do a very special Caesarian section She said they had a Chihuahua once which was expecting puppies. The father of the pups was a Cocker Spaniel. When the Chihuahua went into labor she could not deliver the pups. They were too large. When Dr. Barrett came home from the office, Annelle told him about the weakening mother dog. She was afraid the little dog would not survive much longer, as she had been in labor for several hours and nothing had happened. Finally she convinced her dad to help. They took the dog and went down to the office. Her dad delivered the five little puppies. One was already into the birth canal and nearly dead. Annelle's brother, Brian, gave the tiny creature mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and it lived. Another time they had a bunny that died. It left them with six baby bunnies in the nest. They fed those babies with an eyedropper and used diluted infant formula. One of them, which they named Snoopy, followed them all over when he was large enough. Annelle noted that they raised little chickens in incubators but one XJ ' V' y K 1 i tf-l ' wnelle Lindsay talks to one of her family of pets. of her most challenging experiences with baby animals was when her brother brought her three baby Peregrin Falcons after their mother was killed. She lived in Wyoming at the time and called the Fish and Game people to find out what she should do. They told her to feed the babies jack rabbits. The men would shoot the jack rabbits and chop them up line, skin, bones and all, and they fed this mixture to the baby falcons. When it was time for her to feed them, the baby birds would sit on the edge of the box near the sink where she kept them and wait for her. They would watch every move she made ) as she prepared their food. They got so that they would jump on her arm when she fed them. The falcons were given to the Fish and Game when they were 13 weeks old. Annelle stated that she never takes animals from the wild unless they are injured or their parents are killed. She would call the curator at the zoo or go to the library and get books to read about the animals she had to care for, so that she would not make any mistakes. She has helped Jim Davis raise four baby coyotes, one porcupine, one raccoon and the 17 baby skunks. She added, "I serve as a nursery for Jim sometimes." As a single parent, Annelle has enough to do trying to provide for her family. Taking on the care of some of Mother Nature's own is an extra chore, but Annelle does it with love. |
