WILSON'S WILDLIFE SOLUTIONS RESCUE TEAM
What you are about to read is one of our rescue mission records, where our best caregivers and veterinarians rush to the rescue of critters who need a home, who are lost and lack a friend to give them direction, or who have been injured and need our attention urgently. It is because of the latter that you may see some critters in rather pitiful conditions, and some images may be too much for some. Proceed with caution.
— Tim Wilson
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Rescue Mission: The Spooky Well!
Data!
Location: Suburbs of Pastos Blancos, Chubut, Argentina
Date: Saturday, July 5, 2008
Time of the Call: 01:03 hrs
Caller: Miss Juliana Ignacia Acosta de Montealba
Rescue Team: Radioactive Ninja Gummi Bears
Team Leader: Tim Wilson
Team Members:
Sonia Torres, Veterinarian
Juan Sánchez, Sedator
León Pierce, Rescuer
Mauricio Sosa, Rescuer
Afra Romero, Photographer
Summary!
Our brand new rescue team received one of their first calls on the night of the first Saturday in July. It was a lady with a very sweet voice who mentioned to us that every night she could hear a very strange cry, like that of a cat, wolf, and human at the same time, coming from the old abandoned well a few meters away from her house. She told us that she had called the police many times before, but when they finally came, they didn't dare go near the well, and neither did she. She was desperate for help, so she decided to call us!
"Miss, don't despair any longer. You called the right people! We'll be there before you can say Stagnum atalata!" I said, hanging up. After getting the boys together and getting some cookies out of the kitchen, we started to call the lady again; I forgot to ask her for the number! Tricks of the trade, right? Haha!
The guys and I were laughing about it the whole way, but the laughs stopped when we got there. As soon as we got out of the truck we could hear the screams the lady was talking about. As usual, they were cries like I had never heard before, like a baby monkey fighting a holo-panther while a little girl shouted at them to stop!
We didn't waste any time. We met the lady and immediately headed for the well. It was very dark at that time, so we turned on our flashlights and, being careful not to scare the baby, peered down the well and finally saw her.
The Critter!
The critter at the bottom of the well.
I know what you must be thinking; it doesn't look good, and you're right. When we finally got a look at the creature, we thought it might actually be its corpse and what we heard was some sort of post-mortem crying. But no, after a while of pointing the flashlights at it, it started to move its head towards the light. It tried to stretch out one of his arms so that the light wouldn't hit his eyes, but he had so much damage to his arms that it was impossible to move them too much.
This animal was breathing in a state we had never seen before, and it was a species we were unable to recognize. We could see a skull like that of a common elephant, but the torso was like that of a big cat, while the arms were longer than those of an orangutan, and ended in a double claw, like a sloth, and those teeth… human teeth, but bigger and sharper. A carnivore. Along with how hard it seems to be to survive in those conditions, it became an extremely frightening creature.
We knew that dealing with this issue could be a risk for us and the people around us because of the lack of information, and our friends at The Foundation were just a phone call away. We decided that we would call them, but… I felt something. A hunch, you know? I looked at the specimen at the bottom of the well one last time before I did anything, and I saw her eyes. It may have looked scary in more ways than one, but its eyes… its eyes were like a scaredy-cat. One that didn't want to close them because it knew that if it did, it might never open them again.
It was going to die soon, and we had to make a decision.
I took a deep breath, looked up at the sky, and remembered all that we are; Wilson's Wildlife Solutions, where All Critters are Welcome.
Even the scary ones, because deep down, they are only scary to protect the ones they love the most.
Okay, let's do this.
The Rescue!
"Juan, Leon, Mauricio! Secure the ropes! I want five ropes two meters from the well, star deployment! Sonia, go to the truck and bring a net, no, two nets! No! All the nets! Bring them all! And some meat! We're going to need everything we've got to save this creature's life. Did you hear us down there, friend? We're going to save you!" I said.
With the speed of a cheetah, the boys followed my instructions. When they were done with the ropes, Juan took care of lighting the well with his flashlight while the boys and I took care of holding the ropes. Sonia was the lightest of us all, so it was decided that she would be the one to go down the rope to put the animal in the net.
We secured a rope to Sonia's harness, took a couple of pieces of meat in one hand, and the other hand left her free to receive the net. We began to lower her down the well, being very careful not to go so fast as to frighten the creature, and not so slow as to waste valuable time. Sonia threw a piece of meat at the animal, which it ate slowly. As it ate it, we could see a small piece around one of its eyes regenerating. She could see us much better now than before, and she seemed happy to see us.
We gave Sonia the biggest net we had in the truck, put the other piece of meat inside, and then left it in the well. The creature, without hesitation, went into the net to eat the other piece. Now it regenerated a little bit of its arm. Everything was going well, but the net was too small compared to the specimen, so we had to use a little of our imagination.
We put three other nets around the animal, tied the handles of all of them with a strong rope, and started pulling. The creature, almost as if it knew what we were trying to do for it, made an effort to keep the "cage" of nets that we improvised closed. After pulling and resisting the weight of the animal, we finally managed to pull it out of the pit together with Sonia.
In the beginning, the creature sat on two legs and stared at us. It was as tall as a tree and as wide as our truck. It was imposing and did nothing but stare at us for several seconds. I wasn't sure what the boys were feeling at the time, but I don't think any of them thought moving around too much would be a good idea. It was a few seconds too long until finally, it did something.
She "removed" her eyes, not with her claws, but somehow made them disappear, and the flesh that formed them became a tongue with which she licked us repeatedly. The creature was very happy and grateful to us. We wiped it clean with towels, gave it many caresses, and took it to the truck to give it a little more food, with which it was able to regenerate a heart that glowed pink and beat strongly, and a tail like that of a dog that moved from side to side happily.
It was too big to fit in the back of the truck, so we asked headquarters to bring us the truck we have to transport the food.
As we waited for the truck to arrive, I started to watch the boys play with the animal. Despite her appearance, she seemed to be able to move much better now, and she liked to run and bring things. Watching them I could tell we did the right thing. It could have been very dangerous, but we did the right thing. And seeing the creature so happy and recovering so quickly was all the reward my heart needed.
Welcome to the family, Esperanza.
For more information or complaints:
Address: Esquel, Chubut, Argentina
Phone: +54 9977-3020
Email: matal.nosliwedsenoiculos|ofni#matal.nosliwedsenoiculos|ofni
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