Wildlife rehabilitator nurtures injured squirrels and rabbits back to health

[playful marimba music] – Angela Fitzgerald: It’s not every day someone gets to feed a baby squirrel.
– Holly Hill Putnam: They’re pretty awesome.
– Angela: But in Holly Hill Putnam’s world, it happens six to seven times every day.
– Holly: I’m a volunteer for Wisconsin WildCare.
– Holly is a home-based wildlife rehabber.
– Holly: My particular specialty is squirrels and bunnies.
I do both.
But I do a lot of chipmunks.
It’s absolutely a labor of love.
[bouncy synthesizer pop music] Right now, I have 36.
I have a lot of rabbits.
I don’t know my exact count.
I think I have 19 rabbits.
These are two little guys that were just brought to me yesterday.
They were found on a sidewalk.
They’re only about two days old.
They’re doing really well.
– Angela: It takes a special person to volunteer as a wildlife rehabber.
You have to be incredibly dedicated.
– Holly: I’ve had to turn down lunch dates.
I’ve had to not take vacations.
I’ve had to, you know, make personal sacrifices because I need to take care of my guys.
– Angela: The feeding schedule for these little critters keeps Holly hopping.
– Holly: Your day starts very early.
[microwave beeping] And our job is to stabilize them and get them trained, so that they will eat from a syringe.
Yeah, so he’s scheduled to get 11.6 CCs of formula.
If you have 30 animals and they each take 10 minutes, I mean, that’s a lot of time that you’re spending on one feeding.
And you have to do up to six or seven a day.
– Angela: When she’s not actually feeding animals, Holly is restocking and preparing their food.
[food hitting metal pail] – Holly: This is our sunflower seeds.
We like to use the striped sunflower seeds, which are much better nutritionally for the animals.
– Angela: They eat a buffet of greens, veggies, fruits, and nuts.
[food pinging bowl] – Holly: All the chopped-up fruits and vegetables are stored in here.
Watermelon, celery, and apples.
Carrots for the bunnies.
They’ll eat pretty much anything.
We have some greens to top it off.
Okay, well, let’s take the food out for the chipmunks.
[light-hearted guitar] I just released a bunch of chipmunks last week.
I love to watch the chipmunks pack their little cheeks.
– Angela: Step into Holly’s backyard and step into a wildlife sanctuary.
– Holly: This is our pre-release pen.
We want them to get used to the sights and sounds of being outside.
[aircraft rumbles] We put them out here to basically “wild” them up.
They live in a nest box.
Just take that box out of their cage and move it out here so they’re living in the same box.
They live in the box as long as they’d like to until they build their own nest.
So many things to admire about the animals.
Besides being incredibly cute, they just have such great personalities.
They’re fun to work with.
They’re really fun.
I feel like we owe it to the animals to help them.
I mean, we keep encroaching on their space, you know, every time we build a new mini-mall or a condo.
– Angela: So, day after day and night after night, Holly volunteers to take care of these little ones.
– Holly: It’s always hard to let them go.
I can’t help it.
[with emotion] I always get teary when I let them go.
It’s much harder on the mom than it is on the baby… [laughs] so… [bright plucked guitar] I’m running on very little sleep.
I’m looking for some clothespins to hold my eyes open lately.
– Angela: And Holly wouldn’t have it any other way.
– Holly: Incredible satisfaction.
I mean, it’s just… it’s just a joy.
[overcome with emotion] And it just makes my spirit soar.
I feel like I’m so blessed that I found something that I love so much and that I feel like I’m doing something so worthwhile.
You’ve gotta do what makes you happy.
That’s how I spend my money.
You’ve got to spend it on things that make you happy.
So, I spend a lot of it on squirrel food.
[laughs] So… [squirrel sucking on syringe]