Another baby at Amicus! 

 On 3 October 2008 a new member joined the Amicus family when nurse Annette Pullan gave birth to a baby girl, Megan. Our congatulations to Annette and Ian with the new baby and good luck with the sleepless nights!

A new vet, Kelly Osborne has been appointed at Amicus and will be taking up her position in July 2008. Kelly is well known to regular visitors to the Centre as she has spend many weeks over the past few years at Amicus as part of her final training as a veterinary surgeon. We are all looking forward to welcoming her to Amicus in a few months time and wish her all the best with the final exams.

On 12 April 2008 we again open opened our doors at Amicus for a fun day. The main aim this year was to strengthen the Amicus Rescue Team (ART) fund which we use to care for and treat young and injured wildlife and other animals without owners.

To help us with the day, Fred Adams of Proteus Reptile Rescue was once again a major attraction exhibiting various rescued snakes and lizards. This gave several people their first chance to touch some of these animals and to glean valuable information about how to care for reptiles as pets.

The very friendly and delightful ferrets of Peter Hillman performed well being stroked and fed by many of the visitors. Peter is very enthusiastic about his ferrets which were all rescued after being kept under unsatisfactory situations by their original owners.  He is a wealth of information on these animals.

The Midlands Bird of Prey Rescue occupied the front car park with several of their well known owls in attendance.

The opportunity to look behind the scenes in the operating theater, the kennels and the laboratory lead to interesting discussions with the staff about our day to day work at the Centre. The resident Giant African Land Snails at Amicus also attracted a lot of attention and touching these animals was uniquely experienced by many of the visitors.

One of the major attractions this year was the opportunity to WET THE VET. For a small donation to ART visitors could throw wet sponges at the Vet which turned out to be great fun!!

We would like to thank everyone that attended our open day this year for their support and especially to Karine Riddington and Donna Foxworthy for supplying the lovely cakes that was enjoyed by everyone.

(If anyone has any photos from the open day that they would like to add to these, please let us know)

In the reception area is a small colony of Giant African Land Snails. There are 16 young snails in the snailarium but they are all growing fast on their diet of cabbage, apple and other greens. The shells of these snails can grow to a length of 20-25 cm and the body can be 30-35 cm long! We will all keep a close eye on the growth of these giants over the next few months and years. If you would like to set up a snailarium yourself with some of these snails, there are large numbers of young and small snails available. Please talk to one of the personnel at Amicus if you want more information. Come and see. 

During the spring and summer months gardening is one of the most popular activities around the house. At Amicus we receive young or injured wild birds, rabbits, mice and frogs on a daily basis to treat or rear by people finding them in their garden.

The Amicus Rescue Team (ART) has been looking after these animals handed in at the Centre for the past 18 months due to the generous donations received in our collections box in the reception area. These donations help partly to fund the medicines and food bought to treat and feed the patients until they can be released or placed in a secure environment such a collection or rescue centres. The staff at Amicus willingly give their time free of charge to look after these patients despite a full day of other work but the medicines and food are not free and has to paid for. To nurse and feed a single Blackbird chick (eg. brought in by the cat) to health for 4 weeks will cost up to £12 in medicine and food.  Please help us to care for these wildlife by donating to the ART fund. Thank you to all the clients that have helped us in this way and the may that does that on a regular basis.

To make your garden attractive and a nice place for birds and other wildlife the Oaktree Nursery Home and Garden Centre in Hockley Heath offers you not only a wide variety of plants for your garden, but also advice on how to attract wildlife and keep them happy. You can visit their website at www.oaktreehomeandgarden.co.uk

On Saturday 24th February 2007 we opened our doors again for anybody to visit Amicus and see how we do what we do here. The emphasis this year was on birds and the few large parrots that mingled with the visitors was an attraction as was the Midlands Bird of Prey Rescue crew that entertained us to no end. 

The stalls for the Guide Dogs for the Blind and the Blue Cross did brisk business and a good amount of funds were generated for these organisations. The Amicus Rescue Team  also benefited a little and a few more orphaned birds will be reared this summer with the extra funds available now.

Many visitors we fascinated by the snakes and other reptiles on show handled by Mr Adams of the Proteus Reptile Trust.

As the tour leader Roy has for the past two years now taken small parties of people on two-week safari trips to Namibia in southern Africa.

Namibia is Stunning! Very little can prepare one for the grandeur of the Namib desert scenery, the sheer numbers and variety of birds and animals or the amazing rock formations of this country.

The 14-day safari visit the Namib desert in the south of the country where the red sand dunes at Sossusvlei is a sight to remember for ever and the thousands of flamingos and fur seals on the coast is a sight and smell never to be forgotten! The rock formations in Damaraland and the sight of the desert elephants at Twyfelfontein is only a taster of the amazing array of wildlife and birds to be seen in the Etosha game reserve.

If you are interested in going on such a safari speak to Roy. He can also put you into contact with people that have been on the safari if you want to get first hand information about it.