Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Help Wildlife Rehab This Holiday Season




I've been involved with a wildlife rehabilitation facility for about 2 years now. Animals, whether domesticated or wild, are very close to my heart. I started volunteering cleaning out a raccoon enclosure and feeding them. It was by far the most hands-on I've ever been with an animal of that kind. Everyone is afraid of raccoons, and reasonably so when you consider the risks, but it didn't matter to me. These little guys needed help and that's what I was there for. For lack of an effective way to put it any nicer, I was picking up poop, being bitten by bugs, and feeding them all kinds of things from apple sauce to frozen pinky mice and chicken bones, all while stuck inside a backyard gazebo sized structure. There was nothing between their teeth and my flesh other than a pair of jeans, but not once did they bite or scratch at me, they were just grateful that someone was caring for them.

I also got to prepare meals for opossums and bottle feed infant squirrels, as well as help out on the eventual release back into the wild of a baby bunny and 3 raccoons.

It's not some people's idea of a fun and leisurely time, but for me it meant something much greater. I will be honest and tell you that I haven't been back into the raccoon cage since that first season, but I've been helping out behind the scenes in other ways when possible.



Right now you can help dozens of needy raccoons, rabbits, skunks, squirrels, chipmunks, bats, opossums and groundhogs. All you have to do is purchase any print from any of my Online Store galleries and use checkout coupon code "SMWRC" and 30% of the profits from that order will go directly to the shelter.

You can order from any of these galleries:
Nature
Architecture
Conceptual
Fine Art

You can also order photos of cute cats from this gallery:
PATCH Cats
365 Project

This rehab shelter is independently owned (not a government facility) and runs completely off of grants and donations, and the hard work of its volunteers.I will run this promotion until the end of the year and then in January I will donate any applicable proceeds to the South Mountain Wildlife Rehab Center.

Please consider buying some prints for yourself or as holiday gifts this year. Your friends and family will thank you for the gift, and the animals you help will thank you for the second chance they get at life.



More soon.
Rob