Welcome back to Animal Wonders!! It is officially winter. Of the eighty-one animals we have at Animal Wonders, only two of them I could really say enjoy winter. Hint hint. More on that later.

There months ago I gave you some updates, and now I'd like to give you some new ones.

Kemosabe had a respiratory infection, and it was being treated, and back in August it was actually getting better, but then we stopped the antibiotics and the boogers came back, so we had to re-look at it, and try some other options. Our veterinarian, Doctor Shoni Card, she made a special order and she contacted our local compounding pharmacy and we created an antibiotic that we hadn't used before on him and after a three week dose he was snot-free. Boogers were gone. Happy, healthy porcupine. YAY!

Rook the Raven continues his training being comfortable being handled and on the glove. He was offered a role in a commercial film shoot, but due to the legalities of having a native bird in a for- profit commercial we had to decline the offer, but pretty flattering, huh buddy?

We also had two animals leave us forever and we had two new faces that joined the ranks of animal ambassador.

Patches the guinea pig and Slither the Sonoran gopher snake both passed away in the last few months. It's really difficult when we lose an animal. Each one of them is so unique and they hold a really important place in this world. Patches' absence left a lonely and confused Chili Pepper. He's a really social species, so he needed a companion. Now guinea pigs are pretty prolific in the rescue world, so we quickly found a buddy for him. Welcome Pickles!! Pickles took immediately to Chili Pepper, and after a few weeks Chili Pepper reciprocated the affection.

We had a big hole left behind when Slither left us. Literally the empty enclosure that we looked at every single day when we walked into the reptile room, but also she left a big gap in our educational programs. She was perfect for talking about native animals and why they're important in their environments and how an ecosystem works together. She was also the perfect snake to introduce young people to the wonderful world of snakes. She was incredibly calm and docile. She was also a really impressive size, so they could really get the appreciation for snakes. I miss Slither every day. A couple months when by and we still had an empty enclosure. We went into our local pet shop to buy some animal supplies and we stumbled upon this little gal. She had been dropped off with just a whole bunch of other, like a dozen other, snakes. A guy had been "collecting" them, and um just dropped them off at the pet store, and so we said we could rescue one because we had one open enclosure, and so we got her and the guy didn't know what he had. The pet shop owner, she didn't really know what they all were either. She had been trying to figure it out, and so we said we would take her in, and after some research we are pretty confident that she is a northern pine snake. We can tell because her physical characteristics match the species, but her behavior is even more convincing. She's a really big hisser and striker. She's very, very vocal.

And to follow up on the other updates, we did make some progress. We got all of our paperwork under control. That's all squared away. We launched a new fundraising platform, Subbable, which helps support our online content, if you'd like to support, hmm, hmm. 

And the cavy expansion. We dug a massive hole to prepare for the foundation unfortunately we had to put it on hold while we dealt with some family emergencies, but we're back on focus now. We're hoping to get the walls up and the roof up before a really heavy snow falls, otherwise things like this are going to start happening a lot more and we'll be in real trouble when spring rolls around and moisture really starts filling this area up. If you would like to help us hurry this project along and get it done before it's too late, you can help us reach our goal of $7,000 to complete the project and we'll have a happy cavy, and it'll all be great. The link is below.

And the last thing I want to check in on are the foxes. In August we took a look at Cas the Arctic fox and how his winter coat had just started to grow in. Now look at him. Fully furred and ready for a romp in the snow. Seraphina, our red fox also has a spectacular fur coat ready for winter. She's a native animal so she feels right at home no matter what the season is. For the rest of us who don't have a thick luxurious fur coat we're going to stay inside where it's nice and warm and cozy.

Thank you guys for for joining us on this month's update and a special thanks to our Subbable subscribers and also our other donors for helping us create this content and also for providing continuing care for our animals. If you would like to support us and get some awesome perks in return, go to our Subbable page and subscribe, and if you would like to ask me any questions or leave any comments you can leave your comments below or you can find me on Twitter, Tumblr, and Facebook. If you would like to go on an adventure with us every week, subscribe to our YouTube channel youtube.com/animalwondersmontana.

Hi, I'm Claire Grosvenor. Welcome to Animal Wonders. I'm filling in for Jessi today because I'm the intern.

Hi, buddy. You guys! I need to show off Pickles, not you buddy.