NANNY STORY
Wildlife Nannies Series II - Behind the Scenes
Gibsons Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre
After Victoria we now made our way back through to Nanaimo to catch a ferry to the mainland. This was quite the travel day – off one ferry and right onto another so that we would end up on the beautiful sunshine coast in Gibsons. It's a small town that became famous for the TV series THE BEACHCOMBERS, which was shot there for over 15 seasons and the start to Michael J.Fox's career. Molly's Reach, the restaurant that was the focal point of the series, still serves breakfast, lunch and dinner to patrons visiting the town. Clint and Irene Davy have been running the Gibsons Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre out of their home for over 20 years now – and have a huge heart for all hurt and injured animals. Their three bedroom house was converted into a haven for all sorts of birds and other smaller critters – the two „guest“ bedrooms now house cages for all their little fledgelings – sometimes there is even a seal, otter or beaver in their bathtub until a suitable home can be found for it. In his spare time (hard to believe he has any...but he does!!!) Clint also paints and sculpts animals beautifully. He and Irene have been doing this for such a long time – with no time for vacations or the many other activities so many of us take for granted. It's all about cleaning the cages, feeding the tiny little birds, and taking care of anything else that people drop off to them here along the sunshine coast. It was a joy to film them for a day. At first Irene and the volunteers were worried that they wouldn't be able to get all their work with the animals done in time, but by the end, they actually managed to be done earlier than usual!!!
Clint and Irene had a special visitor that day – Lu, who is starting to take care of the racoons in the area. She just stopped by to show them the latest racoon feeding techniques that she learned from the rehaber that stopped caring for racoons a while back – and it looks like Lu is a worthy replacement nanny for these pesky little critters.
Towards the end of the day we went on a fawn emergency with Clint – a local garden store had repeatedly sighted a deer fawn wandering about alone in the woods behind the store. But by the time we got there, the fawn was nowhere to be found, even though all four of us looked everywhere. Even though the endof the day turned out to be a bit of a wild goose chase, we still managed to catch the next to last ferry and head back to the mainland. On the way we enjoyed a typical Vancouver sunset – clear skies and a bright red sun that went down behind beautiful Vancouver Island. We are now definitely ready for one whole day of rest!!!
Text/Pictures: Christian Raupach
, Contact this Wildlife Nanny
Gibsons Wildlife
Rehabilitation Centre
RR4 1211 Carmen Road
Gibsons, BC V0N 1V4
» www.gibsonswildliferehabcentre.org
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