Val Heart And Friends LLC: My Adventures with Wildlife Rescue

“Spring is nature’s way of saying, ‘Let’s party!'” ~ Robin Williams

Many years ago, I was on staff for Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation. Our job was to take in injured, orphaned and displaced wildlife and help them recover or relocate.

It was as fascinating and heartbreakingly difficult as it was rewarding and fulfilling.

I loved all the critters… (well, maybe not the crocodile so much… he wasn’t very friendly). But the raccoons, foxes, possums, leopards, bears, monkeys, lemurs, snakes, owls, macaws and parrots, bobcats, birds, bats… you name it!

Working in wildlife rescue, we just never knew what kind of animal would need our help next. It was scary at times but never dull, that’s for sure.

For instance, Scarlet, the enormous macaw, almost took off my thumb with one swift bite through a heavy leather glove! (We got to be good friends later…)

And I single handedly saved 17 of the enormous boa snakes and pythons from freezing to death one winter in the dead of night… although at times I wasn’t sure I was going to survive, honestly. But that’s a story for another day…

The thing is, I made a habit of communicating with all our animals because it helped their rehabilitation and healing, eased their stress and suffering so dramatically.

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I developed a very special relationship with the fawns. When they suffered an outbreak of an especially virulent disease, I was the one they told first.

I went to their enclosure one day and all 50 fawns crowded around me, excitedly clamoring for my attention. They wanted me to know one of their companions felt bad and they were worried.

They knew that I could help, because I could hear them and they knew I loved them.

No one else had noticed anything wrong… yet.

Surrounded by a sea of leaping and dancing fawns, I asked the sick little guy to come to me so I could help. They quickly reformed to let him come through the crowd and he stood quietly before me.

Listening carefully and with great compassion, I asked him a series of questions so I could understand what was wrong… and it was very serious indeed.

Then I thanked him, and promised to do my very best to help him feel better.

I immediately took off running to find our Wildlife Rescue Director, Tim Ajax, so I could alert him to the pending epidemic. Fortunately, Tim believed me and took immediate action.

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During that time, I acted as the fawns’ mediator. Continuing to offer support and love for the fawns, I told them what was going on, what we were going to do to help them. And they continued to help me identify any new fawns who weren’t feeling well so they could get help too

Because of that, we were able to catch the problem in time and were able to save most of the herd.

Speaking of communicating with wildlife, you are going to love my podcast guest, Mingo Morvin, the Bear Whisperer! His fabulous, furry and famous polar bear pal, Attu, has the most wonderful adventures. And Mingo is pretty awesome himself!

Animals have voices, feelings, wisdom and Spirits just like we do – and they need us to be able to hear them, to honor and respect them, and to learn from them.

“When it comes to life the critical thing is whether you take things for granted or take them with gratitude.” ~ K. Chesterton