WRITTEN BY: Kim Doner
One of my all-time favorite childhood movies was “The Incredible Journey,” the adventure of three pets who travel crosscountry to find their owners. In true Disney style, by sheer accident they’re lost from their family, and the trek homeward is fraught with threats to return to their beloved humans. The most moving scene (and I’m feeling the bite of tears as I write) is the ending (spoiler alert) when an aged Bull Terrier named Bodger—whom we’re convinced has not survived—emerges, at last, from a concealing thicket and wags his way into the arms of “his” boy.
If you’ve ever had a pet disappear, you know that sickening feeling, the constant buzz of worry that is relentless as it rises and falls in your gut all day and, for some, all night, ‘round the clock, until a (hopefully) lucky return.
Stories of reunions are everywhere; if you follow the animal online world, you can indulge in happy boohoos all day long (OK, fine, yes: guilty) from your own neighborhood to the most exotic of locales. Engaging videos range from an armed service member and his or her ecstatic pup to former caretaker/animal reunions, like Damian
Aspinall being hugged by the gorilla Kwibi, whom he’d raised and released five years before. Good stuff indeed. It feels great to discover how deeply other animals can bond with humans, then continue to remember them for years with such joy.
But there are more than strictly “person and their animal” moments out there. Animals love and miss each other, too.
You can enjoy some spectacular warm fuzzies by googling “monkey family reunion” and watch as rehabbers send a healed baby vervet back to his family that had mourned him. Animals separated from their babies or their best friends show heartbreaking eagerness the second they’re back together.
Some of the most recognized stories are pretty big deals, and I do mean “big.” When MeBai is sent to the sanctuary where her mother Mae Yui waits, their elephantine display as they reacquaint is nothing less than charming. Initially, the two are hesitant (as elephants are upon introduction), but as trunks explore each other, the recognition dawns. Then everything speeds up. Those appendages never stay still; they sniff, taste, pat, entwine and embrace over and over as the mother and daughter exchange, in
“elephant speak,” a myriad of sounds one can only interpret as joyful. Perhaps Dumbo was a fantasy, but the love of his pachyderm parent was not.
Aside from these more exotic stories, there happen to be a number of much smaller tales—or I should say “tails”—that exist locally, some perhaps even happening in your neighborhood as you read this article. And let me assure you: these situations are equally valid for the families involved.
Wildlife rehabilitators seek to keep native young with their parents as much as possible. During the summer months, Wing It (the network of which I’m a member) gets phone calls galore from people who want to bring us babies who aren’t in need. If someone finds a fawn nestled in their yard, Mama purposely placed it there. Healthy fawns have clear eyes and noses and should be dry (meaning Mama left just before dawn, shortly after nursing). They lie curled on their sides or tummies, and their ear tips are full and rounded. Mom should be back within 10 hours, so just keep a distant eye on the baby.
Fawns in distress will have any number of indicators outside of injuries: ticks covering their eyes, clumps of fly eggs or maggots around the tail or face, lying on their side with legs extended, and the biggest sign, due to dehydration, is their ears curl down from the tips. That’s when you call a wildlife rehabilitator. If none of these are present, back off, get your binoculars and observe when Mother returns as she gently nudges her little one to his feet for a meal.
So much of getting wild families back together depends on patience and a particular understanding of the physical: all mammals who nurse their young are signaled by their bodies that it’s time to feed. As rehabbers, we’ve educated many who believe mother raccoons or squirrels have abandoned babies when the reality is the nest gave way or a sibling was being moved, and Mom is returning.
Even the most threatened mothers will overcome much to care for their brood. A few years ago, Wing It got a call from a woman whose dogs had dug up, but not destroyed, a nest of baby cottontails during an especially cold springtime. Bunnies are notoriously difficult to raise; their systems are fragile, and the slightest amount of stress can trigger dreadful consequences.
Rehabbers beg people to leave bunnies alone in their nests. Please don’t worry about touching them; just cover them back up. Rabbits feed their young only twice a day, and Mama will return, we promise. Leave them alone, and it will be OK. But too often, this advice is ignored.
However, this rescuer listened. She made a plan. Since her dogs had unearthed the nest, she knew they would return to dig it up again if given the chance. She put the bunnies back and waited as the sun set. Mama bunny returned, pulled up the grassy cover and crouched over the nest. Within a few minutes, she’d fed and cleaned up babies, then covered them back before leaving.
Our rescuer slipped out the door, scooped up the little ones and brought them in to stay on a warming pad for the night. The next morning, the dogs went out, came in, and she put the babies back. The mother returned and fed them again. The rescuer brought them in for the day.
This cycle went on for nearly two weeks. The babies got bigger, their eyes opened, they thrived. She began leaving them outside overnight, and then one morning, they were gone. Graduated to full bun-hood.
But what about other warm-blooded animals? What about our feathered friends? Recently, Wing It got a call from a distraught rescuer when an enormous hawk had flown into a fishing line blind set up in her yard to
protect chickens. He’d exhausted himself in the binding as it dug into muscle tissue and twisted around wings; after hours fighting, the bird was ready to give up when the rescuer found him.
Through the efforts of Dr. Beka Heinz of Woodland West Animal Hospital, the hawk was anesthetized, rehydrated and given pain meds; the line was carefully unwound, restoring function to wings and legs. Within a day, he was fierce and ready to be reunited with his own turf. When birds flee their constraints, it usually happens so fast that a photo is impossible, but if you look closely, you’ll see wings unfurled as he lowers himself to the phone line, lording over the skies again.
Sienna Leach is the youngest member of the Wing It network. She and her parents, Matt and Christy, are songbird rehabilitators. Some of the most difficult baby birds to save are killdeer. They hatch and are up and running, but people often mistake them as orphans; the babies are kidnapped and passed to a rehabber where they frequently starve themselves to death. Last summer, Sienna and her family were called to take one, and for a full 24 hours, she managed to feed the little one through rehabber skills she’d acquired. Luckily, the finders had left their phone number at drop-off. After a visit, the Leaches drove to the location in Owasso from which the baby was taken. They searched and waited, finally hearing a familiar call that caused the listless baby to perk up. Sienna stood the baby on the ground, and in seconds, the tiny creature had raced over to the nearby adult, joining its mom and heading for freedom.
But sometimes humans aren’t the reason for animal families to be separated. When nature and coincidence occur, we can still help. Linda Callery got the call: baby barred owlets in danger, on the ground but far too young to stay there. The homeowner had placed a protective umbrella over them as their parents came and went for feedings, but they were too little to climb anywhere for safety.
With a basket, a rope and some ingenuity, Linda and the homeowner created a nest for the babies, hoisting and securing them to the tree they’d come from as Mama owl watched. In no time, she had adopted the new home for the family for a “happily-ever-owlfter.”
I know the realities of most separations in the animal world; they’re usually grim, and most of us are quite familiar with those heartbreaking stories. We wildlife rehabbers know we’re a distant second to true parenting when it comes to “critters,” but these positives keep us going. With such reminders, inspiration reappears because, as we all know, reuniting … Well, it just feels so good.
