CREATURE COMFORT
WildCare of Noble sees more than 7,000 sick, injured wild animals a year
The opossum had found a cozy spot to live in the rafters of a new home under construction this fall in Norman.
It wasn’t a bad spot to get out of the cold, until the workers came in with foam insulation to spray. The opossum took a face full of it, said Rondi Large, director at WildCare in Noble, a wildlife animal hospital.
His eyes were closed as the foam hardened.
He scratched it away from his face to breathe. A worker saw what had happened and called the Norman Animal Welfare office, and soon the opossum, dehydrated and disoriented, was referred to Large.
WildCare has been trying to save injured and sick wildlife since 1984, and Large and her staff are taking in more than 7,000 animals a year these days on their 7-acre center in a rural part of Noble, Large said.
In the early 1980s, Large, originally from Maine, married husband O.T. Large, and the couple lived in Noble. In 1984, Large decided she wanted to start a nonprofit effort to help save injured and sick wild animals.
"I've always been drawn to wildlife," Large said. "They pull at my heartstrings. And when things happen to them in the wild, if someone doesn't help them then all of those animals would not make it."
Large said she can't recall the details of the first animal she saved. She recalls trying to save a few animals a year and other people volunteered to help her at her home.
"We started with one animal and it grew to more animals and more people found out about it," Large said.
WildCare now employs a paid staff of six and a full-time veterinarian, the entire operation paid with donations from the public.
As the number of people living in central Oklahoma grows, there are more conflicts with wildlife, Large said. Traffic and construction take a toll on wildlife, she said. Animals hit by vehicles are frequent patients.
"It is the same conflict that we still have. There are more people and less habitat," Large said.
She said her most unusual patient over the years was a rare wood stork that had escaped a zoo in Topeka, Kansas, one winter. The endangered stork was found eating fish out of a woman's koi pond. The stork had some frostbite to its feet, but it had bands around its legs that helped Large locate the zoo owner, and someone from the zoo drove to pick it up in Noble.
Large sees a number of cases of wildlife abuse at WildCare.
On a recent day at WildCare, an opossum was recovering from being attacked by a person with a hammer in Oklahoma City. A skunk deliberately set on fire by someone was also taken to WildCare last summer. The skunk did not survive the burns.
In a recovery room, WildCare staff veterinarian Faye Lorenzsonn pulled blankets off the opossum to check on his head wounds from the hammer.
"It looks already a lot better than it did yesterday," Lorenzsonn said.
She also had a screech owl to check on. The owl had been hit by a car in Wetumka and had a broken wing. As Lorenzsonn held the owl in her work gloves, Large used a syringe to give it a dose of antibiotics and pain reliever.
All wild animals that recover are released in the areas where someone found them, Large said.
"Our goal is to get these animals back out to the wild where the belong," Large said.
WildCare volunteers pick up animals dropped off at the Oklahoma City Animal Welfare shelter, 2811 SE 29.
Anyone who finds a wild animal needing medical attention can call WildCare at 405872-9338. For more information about how to donate go online to www.wildcareoklahoma.org.