PAWS: A Personal Reflection and Profile

By: Lyndsay Gordon, FBCB Member #684

PAWS is an organization about giving animals second chances, domestic or wild. For cats and dogs they have provided needed care, treatment, temporary housing and ultimately found them another home, another chance. Over 117,000 cats and dogs have been placed in loving homes, giving them a new and better life. And that’s only part of what they do.

Since PAWS Wildlife Center opened in 1981, PAWS has cared for more than 10,000 wildlife patients for rehabilitation back to the wild. These patients include everything from the Eastern Gray Squirrels to Harbor Seals and Bald Eagles. The Wildlife Center is the only wildlife center in Washington State equipped with immediate and continual veterinary expertise and services on site. Their constant staffing and expertise provide care at critical times for animals that otherwise wouldn’t stand a chance.

I was really excited when the membership nominated PAWS as one of the organizations to support in 2016, because like many of you they are a cause I too believe in. For two years I volunteered at PAWS and can testify the great care that was taken with all the patients and to the diversity of wildlife patients. As one of the volunteers caring for the animal patients one of the most gratifying moments was finding out that a long term patient was returned to the wild. A whiteboard in the volunteer area kept us up to date on releases that happened between our shifts, but as senior volunteer I was once lucky enough to actually participate in the release of one of the more sensitive species.

A Barred Owl came into PAWS after being struck by a car as it flew over the road on Whidbey Island. It was in the shelter rehabilitating for several months as it gradually regained its ability to fly, and then in time to catch live prey. As a Senior Volunteer I was offered the opportunity to tag along on the release.

photo credit: Foxleigh Photos

I quite literally experienced watching success take flight, and it was incredible. PAW’s numbers are impressive by themselves and speak to their success for finding homes for domestic animals and returning the wild animals back to their home. But there is also something to be said for each individual life that’s touched and made not just longer, but better, by an organization like PAWS.

Thousands of wild animals are given a second chance and hundreds of thousands of cats and dogs are given a better home. For both groups it was a second chance when the odds were stacked against them.

This Thursday Flying Bike Cooperative Brewery is featuring PAWS for our Member Driven Community series, where we donate $1 per beer for sales that day to the feature nonprofit. Our membership nominated PAWS and as a Board Member and a former volunteer of the nonprofit I am excited to be able to support this great cause. So come out and raise a beer for giving animals of all kinds a second chance at life!

This event is open to the Public.