Bruiser's Buddies Wildlife Rehabilitation

28/07/2025

I always debate what to share, what to keep to myself, what's most valuable for education. People ask why I do this and while pulling off a difficult save gives me a definite dopamine boost, I also love teaching people about animals, about nature, about this work. I try not to over post, I'm not a monetized page, I'm not plastering my donation info on three posts a day, that's not the page I want to run.
The reality is, half of this work is watching animals die, finding them dead, or helping them die. Half is not an exaggeration and because I take more difficult patients I have a higher loss rate.
I don't want to be doom and gloom, and a downer, not too much because there's enough of that everywhere all of the time.
But it's about balance, so I'm going to share this part with you.
I got Big Mama on Friday, apparently hit by a car, her recently weaned 14 week old babies kept hopping in and out of the box the finders contained her in. On intake (there's a video) she had a palpable pelvic fracture BUT no other presenting injuries and was alert and so forth. She seemed better yesterday and I planned to work with her until her function recovered enough to go back to her babies.
I had also traded three baby reds to Paige for three pinky greys.
Yesterday, two of the pinky greys died, unexpectedly, within three hours of each other.
Today, Big Mama began to decline, slowly but surely. About two hours ago I euthanized her, and after she was gone I did a more thorough exam to see if there were notable internal injuries. I didn't feel anything else injured....but I did feel babies.
She was pregnant. She lost her weaned babies, her unborn babies, and her life, all in a split second of being in the wrong part of the road at the wrong moment.
So tonight I buried her, with the two pinkies. Forever a Mama. 💗🐿️💔🐿️

25/07/2025

UPDATE 11:00pm
He passed. As he warmed up, many more bruises became visible, which happens sometimes. He was warm, he had pain meds and electrolytes so he wasn't hurting or hungry. Sometimes that's the best we can do.

Critical intake time.
SOOOO I wasn't planning on taking anything else until the second week in August, to reset the room and myself. Somehow I ended up with the injured mama yesterday, and today I swapped three reds for three greys with LittleFoot Wildlife Rehab ...and then this critical guy just got dropped off. It's a very deep injury, exposed tendons but I don't think any broken bones. The finder's dog grabbed him before she even knew he was there. But she did everything right. She called for help, she kept him contained and dry and didn't try to give him food or water. She brought him here quickly. Every minute matters and she wasted no time.
He's cold.
He's in shock.
He's badly injured and with animal bites we always do antibiotics, which is tricky because it also interferes with their digestive system which we're ALREADY tampering with by introducing formula..but we'll follow our protocol and we'll warm and hydrate and clean and gradually feed and medicate. It's a process. Slow and steady. I'll update later today.

It's been a while since I mentioned and I'm not big on this part but, if you want to support this little guy and all the others that come and go here, I've got Venmo
And an Amazon wishlist, updated to reflect our needs for the second wave of babies. Thanks as always for your support, I'd do this work no matter what but with donations, I can do more 💗🐿️


https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/381N8GTAQESE?ref_=list_d_wl_ys_list_1

25/07/2025

21/07/2025

Update, he did not make it. He was too cold and too skinny, and there's a point at which the body is so cold and weak that organs start to shut down. Once this happens, it's rarely reversible, and we'll usually see a period of brief improvement before they crash, so you think maybe there's hope...but almost every time this happens we lose them. He was warm and clean and dry when he went, and he'd just raised his arm for an armpit scratch less than two minutes earlier, so hopefully it wasn't bad for him. He died in my hands, one tiny cry and then an exhale, and that was it.
We tried. 💗🐿️💔

Late night triage. This little guy was found in the road. He's got scuffs, he's emaciated, has fly strike and he's ice cold. Fingers crossed we can save him but I'm not feeling very optimistic. Going to start warming and hydrating now....

18/07/2025

Mikey and Mercury successfully moved into pre release, and the room is so quiet now. Pickle is moving to Albany this weekend and then it'll just be Juni and Alice....I don't know what fall babies I'll be doing, if any, as I find out next week if/when I'm having foot surgery, yay 😭
But I'll keep everyone posted! Thanks as always for following along 💗🐿️

15/07/2025

All right Buddies, second attempt! Our first ride to Albany fell through, so we're asking again. Is anyone going from the Rochester area out to Albany soon? The sooner the better!

11/07/2025

Attention Bruiser's Buddies! If anyone happens to be going from the Rochester area to Albany in the near future and wouldn't mind doing us a small favor, send me a message! Pickle says pretty please!

06/07/2025

As the last of my first wave of baby squirrels are about to go into pre release in the coming week, I wanted to take a minute to recognize the efforts of all of our Buddies that make this possible. Many of you are finders, you found an animal, you got it contained (some of you overcame a lot of nervousness about handling a wild animal, but you did it to save a life and I'm proud of you!) you got it help. Sometimes help meant a second chance, and sometimes it meant a quiet, peaceful and painless passing. Either way, you all made a difference. Some of you followed here after bringing me an animal, some after seeing my posts in the community pages to increase visibility and make it easier to contact someone when the need arises. Some of you I don't even know how you found me, but I'm grateful you're here. I did this for years without a page or a wishlist or a donation link, but it was also a lot more lonely. Having people out there, watching the 3am live streams, commenting so supportively when the losses pile on, sending us food and toys and blankets....every one of you helps, and I'm able to save more animals because of it I appreciate you more than I can say. So here's the last seven squirrels from spring 2025. Mikey, found and kept for three weeks, joining us for squirrel boot camp (who gave me the worst squirrel bite I've had to date!) Mercury and Saturn (both absolute sweethearts), Copper (so cute but so spicy, although he's chilled out a little this week), Comet (my beauty pageant winner this year), and Nebula (my first black squirrel, she taught me a lot!), found after storms or caught by cats or dogs, or after a nest tree was cut down. They all come here for different reasons, from different towns and counties, and they accept each other immediately and unconditionally as family. They'll likely hang out together for at least the first year after release, and now we know some of them stay friends even beyond that. They're intelligent, social, communicative, and completely individual in their personalities. After this week I'll just have Juni and Alice, I still have Pickle but I'm needing to find him some siblings to place him with...and then it will be more or less quiet until the second week in August when I'll start taking babies again. It got so busy there for a bit that I'll probably do some posts to mention interesting things that came up this season, but otherwise I'll be cleaning the squirrel room, and rearranging some stuff in there. I'm also working on some merch for fund raising, because a lot of people have asked and because it sounds cute. So stay tuned for that and for future intakes! Bruiser's Buddies are the best buddies💗🐿️

02/07/2025

Now I know you all know I don't do bunnies, but somehow I DID end up with two bunnies! Mr Bruiser (my incredibly tolerant and supportive husband) actually handled most of their care, which included moving them in and out of the house everyday to avoid being weasel food overnight, and feeding them approximately 75% of our 1.5acre lawn. They are now living their best lives in our way out back yard, and I've gotten more bunny calls since, but have been able to pass them off to other rehabbers. I've got seven squirrels going into pre release in the next week and I'm looking forward to a little break before fall babies start coming in...

26/06/2025

We had two more unusual visitors yesterday, but unfortunately they didn't make it through the night. They were both dehydrated and emaciated, and when you're this small just a few missed meals can be fatal. Goodbye little ones, I hope your journey is peaceful. 💗🐭