Attend Veg Ball and Say “Yes” to Wildlife in Need

Some passengers waiting at an O-Train stop noticed that an adult skunk had been hit, and rescued two orphaned babies who were huddled close by.

In my last post, I mentioned that I’d share some more info with y’all on the recipients of the proceeds from Veg Ball’s ticket sales. Today I am going to talk about the Rideau Valley Wildlife Sanctuary (RVWS).

In a nutshell, the Rideau Valley Wildlife Sanctuary rehabilitates injured, sick or orphaned wild mammals and turtles, and returns them to the wild.

Now, I know all you out there in blog land aren’t so much with the attention span, so I won’t go too much into the details of what goes on there. A lot of laundry. A lot of little fingers grasping little syringes full of squirrel/groundhog/skunk/deer/raccoon formula. A lot of volunteers gazing into pair after pair of small bright eyes and hoping they’ll all get the chance to shine on.

Instead, I’m going to tell you about what supporting the RVWS can do for you: It will give you the chance to say “yes” to wild animals in need.

Three raccoons were left abandoned in a cardboard box near the parking lot at Old Quarry Trail in Kanata. Although they were severely dehydrated and emaciated, they recovered and were successfully released.

I know most of us have been there: looking at a nest of newborn squirrels that has fallen from a tree, a fox with a broken leg, a bunch of baby raccoons hovering by the side of a highway, trying to return to their mother who was hit by a car.

And most of us probably did nothing. Not because we’re bad people – were it a dog or a box of abandoned kittens, no problem! We’d grab them, take them to the vet, whatever. But we don’t have the knowledge, authority or resources to deal with wild animals. So we say no.

But with places like the RVWS around, we don’t have to say no. There’s a place for that nest of squirrels. There’s someone fix that fox’s leg. There’s help to get those baby raccoons away from the highway before the inevitable happens.

And the more support the RVWS gets, the more resources it can devote to outreach, and the more people will know that they have that option of saying “yes” to wildlife in need.

So say “yes” to wildlife this Christmas. Of course, we recommend that you do so by buying your Veg Ball ticket. But if you’ll be out of town or are committed to attending a far more boring event with crappier food, then do consider donating to the RVWS directly, or perhaps volunteer!