Barking up the Right Tree

Well my friends, it finally seems as if a good change of events is taking place. And I'm quite tickled about it. And no, it wasn't another random call from New York telling me I'm pregnant (that poor Lindsay somewhere).

There's a wolf sanctuary in FL that we've been planning on visiting since last summer. The only problem is, its in Naples, so Dad's been putting it off. Naples is a good 240 miles and a 4 hour drive from our house.

Now occasionally I visit their website and wish that I lived closer by so I could volunteer. During one of these moments, I was hit on the head with a meteor. Well, maybe it wasn't a flaming rock, but it was an Irwin.

I've read Terri's book several times now and in fact own a copy, and one of the parts that really stuck with me was that when she was vacationing in Australia and met Steve, she ended up spending the rest of her trip helping out at the zoo. So she basically showed up out of the blue, and volunteered for a week. See where I'm going with this?

So I emailed down there the other day saying that I was a wildlife student and I wanted to specialize in wolves and blah-de-blah-de-blah. I informed them that I'd love to volunteer and learn more about working with wolves, but I lived 4 hours away, and therefore couldn't come down daily.

I did mention that I'd be able to rent a room in a hotel for several days leaning on a week, and would they have an issue if I volunteered for only a shot while.

I really didn't think they'd be able to say no. That's like being told you can't shadow to learn more about the profession you want to go into. Only ass holes say no to that.

And, I was right. In fact, they seemed more than happy to let me come down and get "down and dirty" with the wolves.

My dad found me a hotel tonight, and as soon as we find out their address, I'll be in contact letting them know the exact date. Don't worry, there will be lots of pictures. And they've more than just wolves; big cats, foxes, coyotes, and gopher tortoises too!

So, I'm beginning to think that between that, volunteering in sea turtles and education at the marine science center, auburn's raptor center, the few vet clinics, and the zoo internship (if I get it) I'm going to have one kick ass resume.

Now all I need to do is land an internship with WERC (and these folks pay, unlike the zoo) and I'll be the happiest person ever. Though that's not even a possibility until Summer 2011. And I graduate that december, so I could always go after college.

And eventually I'd like to go to grad school, but as they say, Rome wasn't built in a day.

Ta,
Twitch

Links:

http://www.shywolfsanctuary.com/index.php
http://wolfcenter.org/default.asp