We were on our way down south, next stop Tallahassee! It would only be for a night but unfortunately that is just the way things worked out. On our way down the GPS apparently took us through sunflower city as we passed quite a few fields of sunflowers. It was beautiful! As we approached the first field I freaked out, "Stop, stop!". We got out of the car so that I could have my mini photo shoot. It was wonderful.
If I do become a farmer I think one of my crops will be sunflowers... I believe it has to be this way.
To fill in the unaware, there was a tropical storm that came across the northern part of Florida. To be more specific the storm decided it would sit just inland of the coast over Wakulla County and dumped over 30 inches of rain in some areas. This was bad news bears as rivers flooded, nothing drained, and the water levels everywhere rose. Sinkholes began to fill and not drain, houses were flooded, and the dirt roads were washed away trapping some residents in their homes.
We were worried that we would not be able to get all the way to the Beatty's house. Their dirt road luckily was only flooded on one side by the time we rolled into town. We took a back highway because the front of their road was under four feet of water... Yikes!
The massive flooding in the area had stranded a lot animals. The Beatty's run Florida Wild Mammal Association. FWMA is the supporting facility for four rural counties and receives limited funding from their community. Check out their website for more information and if you would like to help them out!
http://www.wakullawildlife.org/becomememberdonate.html
These are some of the animals they had when we came through.
A lot of the animals are birds, baby birds! The flooding ransacked the rookeries in the area and washed a lot of the little guys away from their nesting grounds. If they were lucky enough to be found fast and brought in they can most definitely be helped.
A few members went out on the first day of the storm and collected the animals they could find that had been washed up. Among them were over twenty baby pelicans. They are awfully cute but they pack a punch. Not only are they quick with their sharp little beaks, they eat an amazing amount of food every day.
By the time we had made it to their house the pelicans that remained at their facility had been split up into pairs and were residing in playpens. They made an awful racket when anyone came through the room, they always thought it was feeding time!
Not only were there baby birds but a few raccoons had been rescued and were living at FWMA until they grow up.
These little guys are so cute! I really wanted one until I found out they finger paint with poop... Now I just kind of want one ;)
But my favorite little critter (if I chose one) was the adorable little armadillo =] He was so cute! He had trouble keeping warm and was not eating on his own. Holding him just makes you happy.
He had odd little claw feet with tons of little furies on his underside. He was so prehistoric looking.
But I mean really, how could you not love this face!!!
There were a few owls in although they did not really appreciate the pictures. All of them have this very shocked big eyed face. I love the way they look in their mini photo shoot I had with them.
The Beatty's are my home away from home. They always made me feel at home and they invited me into their lives. It is a sad moment to be leaving them for a year after having them right around the corner for so long.
Coming over to their place to eat Chinese food on my side of the couch watching absurd movies no one has heard of really made my night. A part of me can hardly believe it won't happen again on a regular basis. I can't wait for my next visit, I miss you so much already. Thank you for everything and I wish you the best of luck with FWMA. And as always I send you my love.
P.S. Tell Carlie (spelling?) I say hey =]
No comments:
Post a Comment