Wildlife adventures are one of the greatest joys of my life. I was raised on them. My parents would take us 5 children every summer to Yosemite National Park. We were so thrilled to see the deer, the bears, birds, and squirrels. We lived in Long Beach, CA and that limited the wildlife.
One summer, my brother Tracy had received his first camera. It was dark in Yosemite National Park. We heard someone cry out, “Bear!” and there it was running through our camp. Did we run to our tents terrified? Oh, no! Tracy, with camera in hand, and I took out after the bear. My mother, aware that bears could be dangerous, was yelling for us to not chase the bear.
We heard her, but it was too exciting to obey. I am not sure if any of my younger siblings were as brave. We were probably around 8 and 7 years old. When we caught up to the bear, he was dumpster diving. My brother took pictures, but it was too dark and they were no good. But we had chased down a bear. My mom caught up and hurried us back to our campsite lecturing us on the dangers of bears.
Yosemite with Halfdome in the background with Tracy, Trina, Tricia, my Mom, Trent and me (Tammy back then).
Camp Cedar Falls in southern California was another influence to put a love for wildlife in my heart. They had a camp bear and often had other animals like raccoons for us to see. While attending regular summer camps, my parents also introduced me to the wildlife stories written by Sam Campbell. If you have never seen these books, I highly recommend them. They are stories about various orphan animals that he raised or just animal friends that came around his home. Here is a link where you can order them. https://samcampbell.com/sams-books/buy-the-books/
I wanted to be a veterinarian and to work in a zoo. The closest I got to the first was to be a vet assistant and then a Vet Tech. In pursuit of the second wish, I took an animal keeper course at a place called the Wild Animal Training Center. That was a dream come true! I got to care for and feed the raptors, large snakes, foxes, an otter, tigers, lions, monkeys, chimpanzees, camels, ostriches, and rheas. I even learned to give tours and show off the tarantula in my hand. I can tell you some stories later from that adventure in my life.
Even while living in Long Beach, California I had adventures with wildlife. This was city-living with a community college down the street. I ended up raising baby birds, a baby opossum and we saw opossums and raccoons come to eat cat food left out in the backyard. I always considered it a blessing from God to be allowed to interact with any of the creatures that He has made. I feel somewhat inspired by Sam Campbell to go ahead and share with you in the coming posts what adventures that I have had with wildlife.