Dear Friends and Supporters,
For this post, I’d like to take a more personal approach so that we can acknowledge, thank and just generally celebrate the incredible staff of Humboldt Wildlife Care Center/bax. So while our staff is definitely a part of the neighborhood – everyday people, you might say, they are anything but ordinary people. Our staff are everyday heroes.
Many of you may already know that I was diagnosed with a cancerous tumor in the middle of May, right at the start of our busy wild baby season. Every year we know that our lives will turn hectic and overworked in the middle of Spring when the season fully arrives in our area. But this year my health really complicated matters. On reduced staffing for over a year, and with our volunteer program only restarted at the end of April after 13 months in suspension, all due to COVID-19, my diagnosis couldn’t have come at a worse time.
Already overworked and underpaid, our staff would be even more burdened by my treatment and hospitalization, which would keep me out of the clinic.
If there ever was an ocassion to rise to, this was it and did they ever rise. The last patient I rescued before my treatment began was a baby Barn Owl, case #21-438, stranded alone on the Hammond Bridge over the Mad River. Since then, our staff has cared for nearly one thousand more patients and prevented harm from coming to hundreds of wild babies through our humane solutions program, which focuses on peaceful co-existence with our wild neighbors, as well as the important work of keeping wild families together.
In keeping with a ten-year trend, 2021 is shaping up to be our busiest year in the 42-year history of HWCC, with a 3% increase over last year’s record setting caseload to date.
Each year our work becomes more vital to our region’s injured and orphaned wild neighbors, and each year our young staff grows in skills and experience. My pride and pleasure in their accomplishments is overwhelming, especially as I’m able to gradually return to a full time schedule and I see what an excellent crew has been forged by their successful navigation of another Spring and Summer, – a time filled with the intense, difficult and emotionally challenging work of wildlife rehabilitation.
It was ten years ago that I became the director of HWCC, when Bird Ally X took on the Care Center with the goal of making it into a top notch wildlife care facility that also trained the wildlife rehabilitators of the future. Watching our staff in action from my sick bed and through my radiation and chemotherapy and through my recovery has been one of the most profound things I’ve ever seen.
The daily phone calls with staff I had while I was in the hospital in June and July were a joy to participate in, as we discussed the caseload. I dont know if they’ll ever know how critical their excellent handling of the season was to my recovery. By competently taking care of business, our staff not only met our mission in difficult times but, on a personal note, they’ve made my recovery possible, sustaining our life-saving work while I could only get on with the business of healing.
Please enjoy these photographs of our dedicated staff in action and join me in thanking them each for their service to our community, a community that is both human and wild.
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Thank you, too!! Your donations at a time when I was unable to ask for them as often as I should made a huge difference. Keeping a wildlife care center afloat is a problem that “throwing money at” really does help! Thank you! And if you’d like to express your gratitude for our excellent staff with a donation today, just click here!
