Happinest Wildlife Rehabilitation & Rescue Inc

As a professional biologist, I and my colleagues are devoted to understanding the natural world and have a desire to protect it. We have advanced degrees, have taken specialized classes, conduct research, and publish papers in professional journals. This is our career; it is what we enjoy, and we are fortunate enough to get paid for it. There is another group of individuals, however, who have just as much passion for nature, especially wildlife, but who often don't get paid for what they do, yet they are a key component in protecting our environment. The people to whom I am referring are licensed wildlife rehabilitators. They heal wildlife, which, more often than not, have been injured as a result of human activities. Animals are taken in that have been attacked by cats, hit windows, been caught in sticky traps, or young animals that well-meaning people have mistakenly thought to be orphaned. One such group of rehabbers are the staff of Happinest Wildlife rescue in Chattanooga, TN. I have helped these people, who work tirelessly, paying for so much out of their own pockets, while at the same time holding down full-time jobs. Yet, they tolerate the non-stop pace, because they have a genuine love for helping injured wildlife, and get tremendous satisfaction in releasing rehabbed animals back to the wild. Happinest will often invite people who have helped them to watch as they release an animal back into its environment. This is what is meaningful to me. This is what wildlife rehabilitation is all about. Not every animal they take in has a happy ending, but that makes their successes that much more satisfying. Seeing both the animals returned returned to wild, as well as the joy of the faces of the staff are why I support Happinest Wildlife rescue with my time and money. I just wish I had more of both to give!

This past summer, I took an opportunity to volunteer at Happinest Wildlife rehabilitation & rescue. They are a non-profit collective of licensed wildlife rehabilitators near Chattanooga, TN. Having seen first-hand the dedication and hard work of the women that run this organization, it was an honor and a privilege to lend a hand in their noble quest to help the oft-overlooked residents of Tennessee.
I arrived at 2 O'clock on the dot. I should have come earlier. Linda, who I was relieving, was not expecting a newbie. 'You've done this before?', she said. It wasn't so much a question as a statement she hoped was true. 'Nope', I said with a smile. I had a little experience feeding raptors, but not so much with the songbirds and certainly not this many at once. I glanced around at the 15 cages and carriers on the screened porch, each holding 3-4 birds, and prepared myself for the condensed tutorial on keeping them alive for the next four hours.
The truth was, the birds did most of the work. The babies instinctively gaped when they saw the food coming. One tweezer full of chopped mealworms at a time and the birds were being fed. Most of the birds were on a 15-minute feeding schedule and it took about 13 minutes to make the rounds, so there was about 2 minutes between feedings. Add in the birds on the 45-60-minute schedule and you essentially have a non-stop job feeding these birds.
A knock on the door. Nope. Just one of the juvenile Downy Woodpeckers rapping on the porch railing. Time to feed again. The young Blue jays are among the most assertive about being fed. They are so much larger than the other birds that there's sort of a feeling that they don't so much need be hand fed, but that they just like to be, but their enthusiasm is adorable, so they get fed. At some point, Jeff had brought in two more babies and I had hardly noticed. Just add them to the rotation and keep moving.
My four hours go by quickly, but I'm exhausted. On the drive home, it really began to sink in how much work goes into caring for all these birds. 12 hours a day, seven days a week, its literally two full time jobs and that's just the feeding. I did not even have to concern myself with the medication, leg wraps, cage cleaning and intake. It is a huge undertaking and I was thrilled to have the opportunity to help even if only for a few hours.