Welcome to a day in the life of Edith Shapiro: Wake up early to bottle-feed a few squirrels. Next it’s down to the Wildlife Center where you spend the next few hours attending to the animals in the outside enclosures. Cut up vegetables (lettuce, yams, winter squash) and gather them up along with assorted nuts and dry cat food, and it’s off first to the squirrels where you begin cleaning cages and distributing food. Now on to the possums, raccoons, hawks, and anyone else in need of care. Finally, head back to the main building and take a minute for a cup of coffee before leaving for your full-time job. Over the next nine hours you work, taking pauses every two hours to attend to the baby squirrels you take everywhere with you. Finally, it’s 9 p.m. and time to head home where a variety of cats are waiting to greet you.
How did this all begin? Five years ago, a friend asked Edith to accompany her to an open house for the Wildlife Center, and the rest was history as she immediately became a Center volunteer. That first year, while conducting her weekly shift responsibilities, she fell in love with squirrels (their long, delicate fingers won her over) and expanded her duties to include home care for them. Currently, besides remaining on the squirrel team, she arrives at the Center bright and early five mornings a week before her job at IBM and spends several hours assisting Carmel de Bertaut with feeding mammals and birds of prey. The first words out of her mouth upon arrival are “What needs to be done?” This means her collective work day (animal care provider and software engineer) typically runs to twelve hours and longer.
“She is a lifesaver”, says Carmel of Edith’s efforts. Others who have seen her work with animals are equally quick with the compliments.“When she starts talking about the squirrels and the birds her love for animals shines through her,” a fellow volunteer explains. Although Edith is not shy about admitting squirrels to be her favorites, she does allow that every species has something that makes it special. In her words, “Holding a baby bird is a magical, mystical experience.”
Home for Edith is shared with a roommate, four cats, and anywhere from four to ten squirrels. She provides home care for squirrels through the entire stages of dependency: from pinkie till release. As young pinkies they live in her spare bathroom “Squirrel Central” and when older they get moved to an aviary on her patio (out of view of her cats).
Edith does not only donate her care-giving skills to the Center, she is a multi-talented individual who spent countless hours knitting an afghan blanket for a fund-raising event at this year’s Open House. The blanket was truly a testament to her love. Alternate squares of the blanket were embellished with the likeness of an animal, including a crow whose wings shimmered with black beads and a squirrel (what else!) with a wonderfully fluffy tail.
The Wildlife Center could not survive without the whole-hearted support of volunteers like Edith Shapiro.