He was hit on I-5 on a Sunday morning; the State Patrol called at 8:30 a.m. I rushed to the scene only to run into backed-up traffic. Seeing all the State Patrol cars ahead, I made assumptions and hit the shoulder, driving past the idling cars. Roaring up to the scene, I jumped out of my Sarvey Wildlife Center truck and said, "I believe you have a Bald Eagle," noticing too late the real reason for the back-up. The officer gave me a deadpan look and said, "No, I have a three-car accident. The eagle is two miles up the road. I'll stop traffic so you can get out."

Feeling rather foolish, I jumped in my truck, drove two miles to the next traffic jam, and again hit the shoulder. There were two patrol cars with one lane closed. Sharon Vernon, a Sarvey board member as well as a volunteer, had seen the Eagle and stopped, asking the Patrolman if she could at least move it off the road. Even though she had our permit with her, they wouldn't let her touch it until the wildlife agent arrived. They finally agreed to let her at least cover him with a blanket because he was absolutely freaking out. By the time I got there, Rich Phillips, the wildlife agent, was standing beside the eagle.

I stabilized the wing, gave him a shot of Dexi SP, Sharon went on her way, I put the eagle in the truck, took him to the Center, where I redid the wing (the wing has since been pinned, and he's now eating on his own).

In the few days following the Bald Eagle, we received an American Kestrel (hit by a car, fractured wing), a Saw-whet Owl (caught in a fireplace for several days; it eventually died), a Sharpshin Hawk (after going on a two-hour foray at night into the netherlands to get it, it will probably have to be euthanized), four baby Raccoons (eyes closed, about three days old; mom had been livetrapped and relocated, leaving the babies behind), two adult Raccoons (with either distemper or chlamydia), an adult Raccoon (attacked by dogs), ten baby Squirrels, three baby Pigeons, a baby Opossum, two cat-attack Robins, an Evening Grosbeak, and a Partridge in a Pear Tree. Just kidding about the Partridge...

This list does not count the ones that were dead on arrival or just immediately after arrival. The week before, some of the animals we picked up included an 11 lb., 8 oz. female Bald Eagle shot in Granite Falls, a Peales Peregrine Falcon hit by a car north of Arlington, and a Great Blue Heron that had been hanging from a pier by two fish hooks in its mouth. All of the above animals are recovering and will be released this year.

During those same few days, we released fifteen Raccoons, a Great Horn Owl, three Coyotes, and two Beaver who had been living in our new pool pen after we released our last Harbor Seal.

Maybe there is a light at the end of the tunnel, but I probably won't see it until October. I just got a call from The Wolf Hollow Rehabilitation Center asking if we would be willing to take some of the Harbor Seal pups they receive in the summer because they were swamped the last two summers and don't believe they will have room for all of them this summer. And the babies have only begun to arrive.

Sometimes I've just got to ask myself: What was I thinking? Why did I ever start this place, anyway...