Patricia S.

A baby squirrel was put in Patricia's hands. She called every local rehab group she could find and nobody could help. They were all full. She was NOT going to let a tiny baby die just because there wasn’t anybody to care for it. Patricia knows that she made mistakes at first but that baby grew up and left for the trees a happy healthy squirrel. Over the next year she was blessed with two more babies who also grew up and headed out to the trees. Patricia says that she felt like the “Grinch” whose heart grew three sizes. She had found her passion and has learned a lot since that first baby. There have been a lot of “firsts" -- first tiny possum, first car hit squirrel, first loss, first euthanization, first released squirrel to come back for a visit, first possum follow her around the yard. Patricia has found that she's good with neonates, broken babies that need extra help and time, and head trauma. Now retired, she has traded in her public relations desk job for a desk with bins on heating pads and cages with little critters in them growing and getting strong. Her public relations now involves dealing with kind people who find a baby or an injured animal. Patricia wants them to have a place for their baby—unlike her first contact with a wild one. Now she “designs” physical therapy for injured squirrels or possums and think her next effort will be with education animals. She has found if you teach a child, that child teaches the family, the family teaches friends, and so it grows. Patricia is living her dream.