Julie P-W.

Julie's brother accidently hit a cottontail nest one year while weed eating and the babies and nest went all over. She contacted a rehabber who was full but told Julie to bring the babies and taught her how to feed and care for them. That rehabber mentored Julie that year as she attended training classes on rabbits and squirrels. Later, Julie trained to rehab raccoons and skunks, obtained the pre-exposure rabies vaccines, learned basic triage care, emergency care -- all classes offered by rehabbers who have lots of experiences with wildlife as most vets are not experienced in care of wildlife. Julie's goal with the wildlife animals is to give them what they need to thrive and be able to be released back into the wild. She says that there is nothing more precious than releasing cottontails and they go off in zigzag patterns into the underbrush, never stopping until they are out of sight. It is also very heartwarming to go back the following year to do another release, seeing an adult rabbit and hoping that it is one of the ones that you released. Cottontails have babies every 32 days so you can be very busy when nest are destroyed. Babies have to be kept warm and having an incubator will greatly increase the survival when they come in just a few days old.