CK W.

In April of this year, I lost my soul dog Milly to a quick and aggressive cancer. She was my very first dog, I had her for 11 years- from the turbulent ages of 19 to 30. The monumental grief of her passing came with a small gift of extra time and a desire to introduce something new and fulfilling into my life. Wildlife rehabbing had been on my "retirement dream list" for awhile, and it just so happened that the same month Milly died I stumbled upon a post from Edith Allen Wildlife Sanctuary looking for new volunteers to join their team. It only took about a month of volunteering with those wonderful people and animals to decide I wanted to pursue getting licensed. I now have my apprentice license and will be working with a mentor for a year before applying for a full license. I'd like to have my own incubator so I can help the folks at Edith with some of the smaller mammals (opossums, squirrels, rabbits) while they are busy taking care of 70+ fawns so far this year.
I think it takes a sensitive person to hold so much compassion for animals who cannot speak to you, and as one of those sensitive people I often feel overwhelmed by the state of the world and the daily horrors I see through a phone screen. When everything feels too big and terrible to fix, making a real, tangible difference in even one living being's life has so far been the only cure I've found. I don't believe in disrupting the course of nature, I don't believe in needless suffering, but I do believe in taking accountability for the ways humanity has caused harm to nature. I'm ready to learn as much as I can and help as many creatures as I can, with this incubator being the first step.