By Sarah Felumb
Manager of Education Programs
Wildlife Rescue Center
While walking my dogs under an early evening moon on one of our recently warmer nights, I saw my first glimpse of an opossum for the season. Her silent and twitching nose, unblinking eyes, and pale fur showed brightly in the streetlight, and she paused while we walked by. I grew excited when just a few steps further down the block, another opossum emerged from a darkened corner beneath a house porch. Two opossums milling about on a seemingly spring-like evening made one thing come to my mind: babies! With the last few inches of ice melting from under the eaves at the Wildlife Rescue Center, we begin our slow, yet determined process of preparing for baby season. Repairs to our incubators, a rearranging of the squirrel porch, the sweeping out of dust bunnies in the opossum room, and welcoming more squirrel boxes recently made by a local group of school kids, are all on our list of recent tasks at the clinic. A quiet hum of excitement is growing as the weather begins to warm up. Everyone can feel it: spring is just around the corner.
A spring day conjures up many images in one’s mind. Baby birds feebly craning their necks towards their mother’s food, tiny incandescent turtle eggs popping open to reveal a shell no larger than a quarter, and the soft cloud of fur which is the cottontail nest tucked back into the lowest corner of the yard. After these recent brutally icy weeks, we welcome the rush of warm air with such embracing arms, that even the surliest of curmudgeons cannot help but to grin and hold their face into the sunshine. Our own celebration of spring at the Wildlife Rescue Center always begins with our annual Wildlife Baby Shower, held this year on May 14th. Our Wildlife Baby Shower is a family-fun event, and open house which draws over 20 different animal welfare and environmental organizations. The event also includes creative activities for kids, and tours of the wildlife clinic. Our celebration continues into the summer as we introduce new camp programs for youth from ages 5-15. We are particularly excited this year for our Wildlife Career camp. Held at the end of June, this is a unique opportunity for teenagers to gain hands-on knowledge and inspiration in many fields pertaining to environmental and animal welfare work. Through such activities like working with a professional nature artist, uncovering the mysteries behind political work and environmental policy activism, and using outdoor field equipment to sample and test water quality, burgeoning nature enthusiasts will learn the paths which could someday become their future. As this spring arrives, and many more winters melt into the springs to come, we hope to help these young generations of earth workers find their roads and dreams. The Wildlife Career camp is just one step in the great work that we all do for the health and well-being of our planet. We all can do our part to turn our faces into the sunshine and grin.
For more information on our Wildlife Baby Shower, upcoming camps, and all events, please visit our website at: www.mowildlife.org.
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