Visitor from Wildlife Hospital

04/06/15

I am finally home from university so I can go to Brownies again!

This week we had a visitor from Vale Wildlife Hospital & Rehabilitation Centre come and speak to the girls as part of the Friends to Animals badge which they started before half term. I was 15 minutes late as I got stuck in traffic on the way home from work and when I got there, the girls were all sat around the woman, who was talking through the different animals they see come through the hospital at this time of year and what is usually wrong with them. She was very good at engaging the girls by asking them little questions as she went, such as 'what kind of bird is this a picture of' (owl), 'what do you think happens to deer if they walk on a road' (they get run over), and 'what animal do you think laid this egg' (one girl answered dragon!).

When she was done talking about the animals, she got them to sit in a circle and then brought out a hedgehog that they've been looking after. He has just reached what they call release weight which means they are going to release him back into the wild in the next few days so he was a pretty chunky fellow! She carried him round the circle while he was curled up and let all the girls get a glimpse of his little nose poking out and then she put him down in the middle of the circle to let him run around a bit. He spent a bit of time sniffing the air to make sure it was safe and then walked towards one of the girls (coincidentally a girl who is leaving tonight!). Our visitor scooped him back up before he reached her and put him back in the box before letting the girls have a look at her table of things which included some skulls, a snake skin, a dissected owl pellet, and a tarantula skin.

She then packed up and left and we played a game of Fishes before finishing the meeting and sending the girls home.

It was a good meeting to come back to, but it feels odd to be back as there's a lot of new girls who I don't recognise. It's going to take some time for me to get my head round all their names!