Bonnie, this was exactly why I chose the field I did. My first instinct was to follow my love of photography and wildlife, but it just didn't work out. People want realism, and realism isn't me wandering the savannah with a rolled up newspaper going 'BAD LION! SHAME ON YOU!!' ya know?

I am certified as a wildlife rehabilitator, but you can take all the certification in the world and stick it in your ear when it comes to dealing with animals. I get the wounded and orphaned of every imaginable species dropped at my door, some make it very well, and some just don't.

The greatest victories come in the smallest places. Bunny managed to drink from a dropper, Eglet likes his mice warmed in the microwave first, racoons like to ride in your shirt, and Lyle and Julia (latest members of chez Jen) produce more excrement than I ever thought possible from two diminutive quail.

The resident animals, a dog and a cat, manage to behave themselves with the 'transients'. Dog is ever faithful protector of all, and wakes me should anything be out of order. Cat is a cat, and I've traded the rolled up newspaper for a squirt gun and threats of "if you do, so help me, you'll wish you hadn't" and he leaves with evident disgust.

The transients that survive never stay. As attached as I get, I can't bear to keep them in captivity. I try and make every effort to make them ready for the wild again. Every so often I get visits. One fall I had a young doe whose mother had been hit by a car. I ended up having to make her a little orange vest that said "PET" on it so no one would shoot her. She jumped the fence when it pleased her, and she brought her fawns back to raid my garden every so often. And the eagle who took a chunk out of my left butt cheek, whenever I see him circling the farm, I imagine him waiting for me to go sunbathe or something!

The idea is to put things right, not to just save lives. 9 times out of 10, the animals were meant to die anyway. It's incredibly ugly, but it happens. If you save everything, then no one on the food chain gets dinner, simple as that. It is also incredibly difficult to know the particulars about each individual species, I can imagine people doing more harm than good in the guise of 'help'.

I have to say I applaud the ingenious ways of deterring animals I've read here. Greasing the pole! I've used the plastic cone things, but a greased squirrel might be more fun to watch than the birds....

~JenEllen