Wild Things Rescue Ranch

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Johnson City, TX
Wild Things Rescue Ranch

Wild Things Rescue Ranch Follow our journey as a 501(c)3 non-profit rescue and rehabilitation ranch for native and exotic wil

06/01/2023

This sweet girl is looking for a new forever home!

5 yr old (6 in August)
Boxer/Rhodesian Ridgeback mix
Very playful and energetic, loves to run outside.
Considers herself a lapdog☺️
House and kennel trained
Has been around other dogs.

04/13/2023

If you absolutely have to move them you may, but please resist the urge to save them.….this is their best defense as babies!

Do not disturb 🤫

Please don't try to "rescue" baby wildlife. In most cases, mom or dad are nearby.

Here's what to do instead--> https://bit.ly/LeaveWildlifeBe

10/05/2022

From our friends in Amarillo!

12/01/2021

🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻

Exciting news about endangered ocelots:

We're collaborating with partners to study the potential for reintroducing wild ocelot populations to areas of Texas where the native cat once roamed. Here's more about the project: https://bit.ly/RecoverOcelots

📷 © Fin and Fur Films

11/12/2021

11/03/2021

Come play Bingo, drink the best craft beer, enjoy great pub food, and raise money for Wild Things!! Every Wednesday in November, half the pot winnings will be donated to our rescue group! ❤️ Share away and come see us in JC!!!

11/02/2021

Wondering what to do with your leftover pumpkins? We’ll take them! We have lots of hungry animals that LOVE pumpkins.

If you aren’t local to us, consider putting clean, unpainted and not rotten pumpkins out for the deer!

10/08/2021

Happy ending!

The other day we put a call out to the falconry community about a young passage Cooper’s Hawk stuck in a Home Depot store. It wound up being there about a week - starving, frantic, and flying into objects and windows before finally being captured. Dedicated falconer Steven Araguz went out multiple times and eventually captured the young hawk.

Up to 90% of passage hawks do not survive their first year due to poor hunting skills that lead to starvation. ☹️ Thats likely how this bird ended up where it did. This is where falconers come in.

Falconers will typically capture and keep young hawks for a year or two, teaching them how to be skilled, successful hunters before ultimately releasing them back to the wild. Ocassionally, a falconer will decide to keep their bird long term for myriad reasons. The relationship between a falconer and their bird is incredibly special, and Texas Parks and Wildlife fosters this by being a wonderful supporter of the falconry community!

We can’t wait to watch this falconer and his bird train, fly, and capture their first game together this year! We wish them a most successful hunting season!

-Lacey

09/17/2021

🎶“Soft kitty, warm kitty
Little ball of fur
Happy kitty, sleepy kitty
Purr purr purr” 🎶

Gassing under a sick but feisty kitten so we can work on her, and couldn’t resist sharing as the Soft Kitty song came to mind! 😂

05/18/2021

Big thanks to Rita Maberry Branch and Jill Stephens Hernandez for sending over some goodies! We burn through supplies fast this time of year, as we share between lots of rehabbers on our team!

If you’d like to spoil some wildlife babies too, here are the best ways to do it:

Amazon Wishlist -
https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/3EU0W539LBLC5?ref_=wl_share

Gift cards to squirrelsandmore.com (exclusive sellers of specialized ni***es and syringes we feed all species with)

Hosting a birthday fundraiser on Facebook!

Donate directly to PayPal.me/wildthingsrescue

05/18/2021

Friendly reminder not to trap and relocate wildlife this time of year, during baby season!

These two little girls went 4.5 days without mom after she was trapped and relocated to the river, after sharing in some of the fresh eggs from the property owners’ chicken coop. The finders heard babies crying days later and were able to save two of them. It was a very intense, sleepless 48 hours to get them stabilized, but a week later we’re glad to say that both are strong and healthy! They did the right thing by immediately getting them into care, and felt terrible once they realized there were orphans created in the relocating process. We appreciate their efforts to save them. This same story happens hundreds of times each season.

If you are having an issue with wildlife denning on your property, we recommend filing an eviction notice! We’ve had many, many success stories with these methods: —Our personal favorite is to step back into the 80’s and 90’s with some headbanger metal music blaring for a day or two, strategically placed as close as possible to the den. Invite some neighbors with mullets over, and have yourself a good time and good laugh while blasting back to memory lane a few decades ago! The adults will have time to scout a new location and will move their babies one by one until everyone is safe and together.
—Another option is to soak a tennis ball, cotton balls, rags, etc. in vinegar or a small amount of ammonia and toss it in. It won’t take much, but they sure don’t like it and will relocate their offspring somewhere else.

The many different species of local wildlife each have their babies in waves during the spring, but all collectively have babies from late winter/early spring to early summer - it’s the busiest time of year, which we refer to as “baby season”. Squirrels and racoons both have a second season that starts late summer and lasts through early to mid fall.

If you have questions or need help, we’re always just a phone call away! Please be patient with us during baby season if we don’t return calls right away. We promise we’re doing the best we can! We’re located in the fastest growing region in the NATION and the demand for our help is increasing faster than we can keep up with!

05/13/2021

It’s been a while since we’ve had little red foxes (vulpes vulpes) in! The northern Texas hill country counties we serve have a population of them, while the southern part only has gray foxes (urocyon cinereoargenteus). The red foxes account for maybe 5-10% of the fox calls and intakes we receive.

While gray foxes stay smaller in stature and love to climb high in the trees, red foxes grow larger and aren’t very good climbers so they typically stay low. Grays will den high or low, whereas reds typically den ground level or dug in.

This is a brother sister combo started very young by another rehabber, and transferred into us until release - and they are WILD! Just as they should be. Sadly, we live in an area where most humans have the mindset that all predator species should be shot on sight because they’re “varmints”. We have a major deer overpopulation in the hill country, and part of the cause for that is the rate at which mankind is destroying native predator species (remember coyotes are a critical keystone species), thus damaging the balance of nature. We need that circle of life, y’all! It’s vital. They all matter; all species!

05/06/2021

Tex and Pecos Bill — new axis fawn brothers, meeting for the first time in the big yard!

03/29/2021

Johnson City/Blanco County friends: a local falconer has a red tail Hawk missing in the area. Info below. She’s wearing anklets and jesses (the leather straps pictured) with bells on them. If she flies near you, you will hear the bells and know it’s her. She’s likely to hang around people if she gets hungry enough. Please do not attempt to call, catch, or handle her. Please immediately contact us if you think you see her!

Please SHARE and let’s get her home!

325-829-2298

03/13/2021

Crawfest Fundraiser @ Reck ‘Em Right Brewing Company in Johnson City!

03/09/2021

Good morning, Texas Hill Country! ❤️ Don’t forget to come out for our big fundraising event this weekend, in Johnson City, 3/13! Crawfish boil, beer mile race event, kid’s face painting and activities, SILENT AUCTION, live music and more!

https://fb.me/e/1iJ05sf1S

03/03/2021

We’re hard at work trying to recover from storm damage over here! Trees down on pens and all over our new high fence handicapped pasture, and our well pump blew. We’ll be a little limited on intakes at our main facility for a while, but we still have a large network of rehabbers and satellite facilities to house animals as we usher in our busiest time of year!

Address

Johnson City, TX
78636

Website

http://WildThingsRescueRanch.org/

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Videos

🎶“Soft kitty, warm kitty Little ball of fur Happy kitty, sleepy kitty Purr purr purr” 🎶 Gassing under a sick but feisty kitten so we can work on her, and couldn’t resist sharing as the Soft Kitty song came to mind! 😂 #sleepybox #SoftKittysong #BigBangTheory #IYKYK

New brothers!

Tex and Pecos Bill — new axis fawn brothers, meeting for the first time in the big yard!

Crawfest Fundraiser @ Reck ‘Em Right Brewing Company in Johnson City!

Tex doing snow zoomies

There’s been so much loss over the last week, so I thought I’d share a happy story! Meet Tex! This little axis fawn (exotic species, native to India) came in before the winter/ice/snow/ice/snowpocalypse. In the midst of non-stop calls, a critical buck who was snake-bit days before, hypothermic babies, and keeping our wildlife residents alive through water and power losses, we had him and he gave us a run for our money! This little dude played musical ailment roulette and I thought he was a goner more than once. We capped off 18-20hr winterpocalypse workdays by pushing fluid bags at 3:00am, where I slept by the limp, feverish, fawn and monitored him as closely as I could. At one point, his neurological problems had him falling and stumbling, twisting his head around like a contortionist while he tried to eat, and then one morning he decided he didn’t know how to take a bottle anymore. The vets were stumped and so were we. 20 hrs later he was licking the walls and chewing the carpet...trying to eat everything but the bottle. He seemed very brain damaged to us. As a last ditch effort before tube feeding him, we tried cow milk and he took it! Relief flooded through me because I did not want to lose this sweetie - we needed a win! Stores were totally out, but our sweet community came through for us and shared a couple of gallons of fresh milk. That night, he had an allergic reaction to it and swelled up so badly his eyes were swelled shut. He now has a rash breaking out on his face and ears, but it will heal. Fortunately, he began taking his regular milk replacer. Unfortunately, we’re still getting his upset tummy situation sorted out thanks to playing musical milks during his musical ailments. 🤢 He’s finally regained his strength and his neurological problems are now much quieter. As he got some energy back, he was trying to do zoomies in an 8ft space. It warms my heart so much to get him outside where he could do big boy zoomies for the first time!

We’ve kept seed and water out, and the birds have even been flocked around the protein pellets, but they just can’t handle the temps. I collect the frozen ones and nothing goes to waste around here. This guy has a collection of snacks going that he’s buried in a pile of hay. Don’t worry about this guy though, he’s got an industrial heater blowing onto his house! Even if he does pull out his towels and blankets meant for insulation.

Some tips on how to help the wildlife through this winter freeze! 325-829-2298 if you need help or have questions. Texting might be faster. **feeding stations should be away from the house. Kibble can also be put out - forgot to mention that. **continue breaking ice if you can’t provide warm water.

End of summer vibes. Nelson is living his best life in the squirrel mansion for now! Notice how they lay flat to cool off

One of our permitted fosters rehabilitated this sweet girl after being hit by a car. You can see that she’s still very wobbly, but has made a beautiful recovery! We’re so proud to have a great team pouring incredible love, care, and time into our wild things!

Volume up for ringtail kitten nursies! 😍

This is what success looks like! While we try not to move rabies vector species around much, sometimes they must transfer due to caging availability as they grow. One of our fosters had this boy for a couple of months and kept him good and wild, which can sometimes be difficult to do when they are raised as singletons or have ongoing medical issues. Snarling and fearful of humans is a good thing; it protects their lives once they are released. Sometimes, being comfortable around humans can ultimately end in their demise. We had great volunteer help to get this new fox housing ready just in time for his arrival, as he got big enough to need an outdoor pre-release pen. We’ll get him a little fatter and wait for the weather to cool down, then he’ll be free!

Axis fawn release

Graduation day! Kind of an anti-climactic release into the wild this morning because these babies were too busy finding all the snacks!

Shortcuts

About WTRR

Wild Things Rescue Ranch, Inc. is a 501(c)3 state permitted wildlife rescue and rehabilitation facility nestled in the heart of the Texas Hill Country, regularly serving about 25 counties. We’re a veteran family, organized with a group of rehabbers and volunteers that work hard for our wildlife! We live in such a rich, beautiful, ecologically sensitive area, with an abundance of native and exotic species living in the wild who need our help every day. Our mission is to meet the needs of local wildlife that are in trouble due to human impact, injury, abandonment, or other situations. We’re currently creating youth and disabled veterans educational outreach programs that you can read about on our Programs page. We are so blessed to have a community that supports our efforts, but as we grow, we’ll need more support now than ever! Please see our contribution page to find out the different ways you you can help, too!

Infant formula, enclosures, medical supplies, and veterinary care are expensive! Wild Things Rescue Ranch is run solely on donations and the love in our hearts! Rehabilitating wildlife is expensive, there is no state or federal funding available to wildlife rehabilitators, and the job doesn't pay! Please consider donating to help feed babies or sponsor new enclosures so we can grow! We also welcome any donations of building materials. Donate directly to our Paypal link. or purchase Amazon Wishlist items here.

Our humble beginning: Our lives took an “about-face” in 2016 after Zeb medically retired from civilian law enforcement due to disabling combat war injuries received in Iraq, during his fifth tour to the middle east. We relocated onto a family ranch in search of healing, but we got far more than we bargained for! Service runs thick in our blood, and we soon developed a way to contribute meaningful work that could still somehow serve our community, since military and civilian law enforcement was no longer an option. Through this work, an incredibly beautiful and healing experience started to unfold; what began as an initial effort to “just” rescue wildlife in need, quickly turned into a vision to be able to share this experience with other veterans and local community members through outreach programs and education presentations. Due to the high volume of orphaned and injured animals in need, we very quickly outgrew our humble beginning. We host volunteers, community service hour requirements, as well as youth earning volunteer service hour credits for local high schools. We’ve also been happy to have current veterinary students out from Texas A&M, who’ve come to learn about wildlife care and medicine.

Moving forward, one of our biggest motivators is the desire to reach other veterans and touch their lives in the way ours has been. We’ve had exciting and encouraging conversations with organizations, politicians, and the National Park Service about what type of veterans programming needs are out there. There are several great success stories with disabled veterans and equine therapy, but nothing with wildlife rehabilitation so far. We know first hand that there’s a special peace and understanding of value for life that takes place when you get involved with the care of amputation, abandonment, blindness and injury cases, and experience how your love can affect them. There are no words to describe how the unconditional love of an animal can affect our hearts, especially when you’ve been through similar trauma. Our long term goal is to build a couple of ADA compliant cottages located in our serene wild setting, where veterans and their family members can come be apart of our future program.