It's Like WonderPets...Only They're People!

Arguably some of the creepiest kids-show characters out there.

A Quick Intro
For those of you who aren't inundated in modern children's television, the Wonder Pets are the three animals pictured above. By day, they're an odd set of classroom creatures. But when the kids empty out for the day (or for recess) and the hotline goes off, they begin to sing: "The phone...the phone is ringing. There's an animal in trouble!..." blah blah blah, annoying tune. Once I watched an episode where they were saving some sort of animal that was stuck in something, and they sang "Pushy pushy pushy on your tushy tushy tushy" and Elise and I thoroughly disapproved of the gratuitous bum-talk. That's beside the point. Turns out...there's a real life equivalent of an emergency animal hotline right here in K-Town. I'm sad to say that I found out about this place because of a poor turtle in pain. Maybe he was running from loansharks. Maybe he saved an entire village of ladybugs. We didn't know, but we were ready to help our sluggish friend in any way possible.

Creature-Feature: A Surprise Rescue

The Who:

"Wildcard" Whitteny Stinnett, protector of creatures big and small.

The Aiding and Abetting Author (AKA me)

 

The Illustrious Mr. Shell Turtlestein, on the run from his attacker.

The fine folks here, who I neglected to photograph amidst all the excitement/dying camera battery-ness.

 The What: A daring midnight rescue! Well...almost.
The Where: This journey went from the side of a road, to Starbucks, to Wal Mart, to my apartment, and finally ended at the Small Animal Teaching Hospital on the UT campus.
The When: Last night and the prior, just normal summer evenings.
The Why: When there's an animal in peril, it is time to jump into action!
The How: Well, we just did it. You see...

It all started on a rainy night at Starbucks. We were dead, I was way too caffeined-up, and Whitteny was on her way to come see me. I got a text from said beloved best friend which said "I'm so excited!" I asked why, of course, and she replied: "You'll see!" Now, when Whitteny is being cryptically enthusiastic about something, I begin to worry. There's always that fear in the back of my mind that she's kidnapped a small child ("He was so cute, and his parents looked like bad people!") or maybe adopted a puppy ("He jumped a fence and landed in my lap! That means we're supposed to keep him!"). When she arrived, I could see that she was clutching something wrapped in a shirt. It could've been anything. Maybe a gun...you never know. She's a wild card, that Whitteny. On this occasion, it happened to be a turtle with a gimp leg.

Shell Turtlestein, as we began to affectionately call him, had been limping by the road. Some sort of animal had gotten a hold of him and his leg was severely injured (and, disgustingly enough, being devoured by maggots). She scooped him up, created a makeshift habitat in the back of her Ford Escape, Freddy, and brought him into Starbucks...where we then proceeded to say "Oh my gosh, you cannot have a turtle in here!" After catching quite a bit of flack from my very cynical coworker about how we were probably going to do Shell more harm than good, we took him home. We had very little idea what to do with him, as we are not veterinarians. After a little research, Whitteny discovered that maggots can actually do injuries good, as they feed on necrotic tissue. So for the night, we bought him a big tupperware tub, gave him some water/spinach, and went to sleep. The next night, we were discussing the turtle situation with our college group leader Synda Lopez. Whitteny was afraid that Shell would die before we could afford to take him to the vet. Whitteny tried to clean out the wound, but it was difficult. That's where the human WonderPets come in!

Synda informed us that the University of Tennessee Veterinary Hospital has a 24-hour emergency vet clinic (along with a plain ol' animal hospital for paying customers). If you find an injured wild animal, you can call 865-947-8387 and inform them of the situation. You can then take the animal to 9407 River Drive, in the Agricultural Center of the UT campus, and drop it off. Not only will they care for the injuries, they will get the animal back to a proper habitat and even call you to tell you how the creature is doing if you so please. I had no idea that such a thing existed, but thanks to them, we got the satisfaction of knowing for sure that we saved Mr. Turtlestein's life and limb!

Signs tell you where to go. I know, they're thinkers!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One perk of living in a college town is that there are so many services you can find for free if you really look, because every teacher wants to show their student hands-on demonstrations of their future career. In this case, the meek and kindly animal heroes at the UT College of Veterinary Medicine provides a service for critter-loving good Samaritans like my best friend. Check it out if you come across an animal in need--or if you want to, you know, become a veterinarian.