It’s time to look back on 2025! Check our blog between Christmas and New Year’s for a variety of stories and memories of 2025 from the staff of the Wildlife Center of Virginia.
Oh, hey, uhm … you’re still here? At the Wildlife Center, I mean. I thought you had retired?
I get that a lot.
I’ve been on the Wildlife Center staff for more than two decades now, and it’s been some of the most fulfilling, interesting, challenging, and meaningful work of my career. For the past few years, I have been dialing back my involvement at the Center. I’m now “semi-sorta-retired”.
That means that I’m working way less than a full schedule – almost exclusively from home. During the pandemic, we as a country learned how to work remotely, and I’ve continued with that work pattern. I only go over the mountain to the Center once or twice a month.
That means that I follow the Center’s activities like most of you do – through the Center’s website, through social media, through email newsletters.
I was not physically at the Center when this year’s bear cubs arrived – but I’ve learned all about them … and have watched them grow … and tussle together … and explore too-tall trees and buried treasures.
I did not attend a single Bald Eagle release in 2025 – but I’ve watched online as Dr. Meg opened the door of the crate. I waited, with heart-stopping anticipation, for the eagle to emerge. And I cheered and rooted for that eagle to soar … without leaving my house.
Even back when I was at the Center almost every day, I never experienced our hospital clinic’s morning treatments. Now I get a special over-the-shoulder look, with well-informed play-by-play commentary, during Hospital Cam.
I haven’t had many occasions to check in on the Center’s education ambassadors in person … but I’ve seen them and heard updates about them from Connor’s frequent appearances on the news broadcast of our local CBS TV affiliate. [In our household, the “C” in CBS stands for Connor.]
The Center has made a significant investment – in people and in technology – to make it possible for the Center’s work to be shared broadly. I know, I know. Sometimes the cams aren’t working or they are positioned just slightly to the right of where the bears might be. Sometimes patient updates aren’t available as quickly as I might like them to be. It can get frustrating. But at the end of the day, technology and staff make the Wildlife Center come alive for those of us not in the building.
Technology, and the skilled staff who use them, make it possible for ALL of us to see the life-saving work that our contributions make possible. The Center is able to take on this work, and the Center is able to share this work, only through the financial partnership and support of thousands of individuals, most of whom don’t get to visit the Center in person.
Thank you for that support. And, speaking of support …
Back in April, Pippa, a young girl from Crozet, heard that Buddy, the Center’s Bald Eagle education ambassador, was about to celebrate his 17th Hatchday. “I love baking, and I love animals”, Pippa reported, so she set up a cookie stand during her mom and her sister’s horse show and raised $194 for the Wildlife Center.
“I hope Buddy had a good birthday and that you put the money to good use.” Pippa wrote.
In June, she held another bake sale. By mid-summer, Pippa’s baking project had raised $1,000.
But she wasn’t done yet. Pippa baked a fresh patch of cookies for the Center’s Annual Gala, held in August.
Her cookies sold for $550.
And speaking of treats …
Just in case you haven’t seen her yet, we online Critter Cam watchers just received our own special treat.
Patient #25-3628, an orphaned Bobcat kitten, was admitted to the Center in mid-September. She was recently moved to a newly redecorated Large Mammal Isolation enclosure:
There are native greens, places to climb and hide and explore, even a rock den (similar dens are a favorite sheltering place for bobcats in the wild)!
The bobcat’s winter wonderland is now online for all of us to check out.
Special thanks to talented and creative colleagues who have gone above-and-beyond to create this holiday masterpiece.
Check out the Bobcat … and two Black Bear cubs in their separate half-acre yard … at https://wildlifecenter.org/critter-corner/critter-cams. Please know that the cams can be finicky … and the cubs and the bobcat can be elusive. But your patience will be rewarded.
Okay, there are no twinkling colored lights in the Bobcat home – or the bear yard. But there are infrared lights, providing nighttime illumination for Critter Cam watchers.
While Santa can be as elusive as the wildlife who share our world as he flies through the night sky, may you catch sight of the sometimes elusive bobcat and bear cubs on your critter cam this holiday!
Thank you always for the support that saves wild lives every day.
--Randy Huwa, Senior Advisor