Many years ago when I was the only wild bird rehabilitator in my county, I struggled to provide for the hundreds of orphaned & injured birds that were brought to me. Most rescuers do not think about the expense involved in wildlife rehabilitation. There are special formulas to be purchased for each species, monthly shipments of mealworms for the birds, and other nutritious foods they must have.
While my husband built an incredible song bird aviary with funds out of our family budget. I knew we just could not afford to build the outdoor enclosures we would need to fulfill our goal of helping orphaned mammals as well. We had begun taking in orphaned squirrels, opossums, and rabbits but had to transfer them to another rehabber to prepare them for a life in the wild.
But then my brother Jim, an Amazon.com book-seller donated 4,000 books. When my husband Jesse came home with a pickup and trailer full of books we began the process of starting our Fund4Wildlife bookstore on Amazon.com and more recently on Bonanzle.com
Since that time, Jesse & I go to book sales all over the state to keep our inventory high. We frequent estate sales, garage sales and anywhere we may find books! Oh, how I would love to be like Better World Books and have books donated in Kiosks.
But, I recently received a portable heated pet bed that stays warm for 16 hours so taking our babies will be much less of on ordeal.
The photos above show the squirrel enclosure we were able to have built using our Amazon bookselling funds. There are three large enclosures in the door going into the main enclosure and exceed state requirements. Now, we are fundraising for a room to house our infants, since human children now occupy the space that I had my four legged babies in.
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