Marianne’s Volunteer Job: Cape Wildlife Center

The stories below were written by Marianne, an adult resident at Latham Centers who volunteers regularly at the Cape Wildlife Center. Below are just a couple experiences from her perspective.

My favorite passion is animals of any kind. I have lived at an adult residential home at Latham Centers specifically for people with PWS [Prader-Willi Syndrome] for 13 years and am 35 years old. I work with animals at the Cape Wildlife Center in Barnstable. The Center takes in different kinds of wild animals that are injured or sick, treats them, and rehabilitates them to go back into the wild where they belong. We interact as little as possible with them while they are in the clinic. I clean their cages and pens outside and feed them.

I’ve done a couple of releases. The first release I did with the director, Robbie, was with an opossum [you may have read my story about Princess already posted on the blog]. She came to us as an orphan and I used to snuggle with her to nurture her. Her favorite place was to go under my chin. I was one of her primary caregivers. She always would greet me when she was in her outdoor cage. I was proud to know I helped her grow. She would put her paws up the front of the cage and smell me. Read the story HERE.

My second release was a swan release. An injured female with a mate and babies was at the back of a pond in Plymouth. She had a wing injury; she was friendly because she was with us at the beginning of my time at the Center and was used to the caregivers. She would go waddle around to the aviary room into her pool – a large basin sink. Her mate was waiting and remembered her when she returned and didn’t chase her off. First, he charged towards her, defending his pond where some of her babies were. Swans will do that with other swans. As soon as her mate got close enough, however, he recognized her and put up a tremendous fuss as if announcing, “my mate has come back!” When she was released she instantly knew she was home and swam around the pond and took off in a short but full flight. She looked like an angel flying! We were all happy to see her go home where she belonged.

Didn’t read enough? We’ll post more of Marianne’s experiences at a later date!