Reach Out Rescue, NFP Alumni

06/20/2026

Please share.

05/27/2026

Please keep your eyes open for any species of animals on the road when you’re driving.

Honoring Sarge

Last night, my heart broke. We lost a true ancient giant of our local waters.

Yesterday, I received a call from the Rensselaer County Sheriff's Office about a massive, 28.5-pound Common Snapping Turtle who had been struck by a car. The injuries were severe—a bridge fracture, several carapace fractures, and a shearing injury across the top of his shell. We estimate this big old man was around 70 years old.

In an incredible act of compassion, the officers drove all the way to my workplace to hand him over to my care. The department asked if we could name him Sarge (short for Sergeant), a fittingly strong name for such a resilient survivor. I brought him straight home to stabilize him, starting him immediately on pain medications and IV fluids to combat severe dehydration from the mid-May heat. I promised him I would introduce him to all of you last night, but instead, I chose to step away from my phone to spend every moment focused on keeping him comfortable and fighting for him.

Sadly, Sarge passed away last night.
I am devastated, but I am infinitely grateful to the Rensselaer County Sheriff's Office. To see law enforcement go so far out of their way to protect and care for our native wildlife means the world. It takes a community to protect these animals, and their kindness is something I won't forget.

This photo is of me holding Sarge's giant hand, Look at the scale of him. He survived seven decades of changes in this world, only to be taken out by a car.

We are officially entering nesting season. Female turtles are on the move to lay their eggs. Just yesterday, I transferred another gravid female to my wonderful friend Melissa at My Little Turtle Rescue, and right as I was leaving work, I got a call about another female snapping turtle on Lebanon Ave in Pittsfield. She was completely destroyed in a school zone, all of her precious egg squashed, it's a small neighborhood where people simply fly down the road.

It is heartbreaking. The loss we are seeing already this season—and every year prior—is completely preventable.

Please, please be aware of the roads. Turtles are slow-moving. Snapping turtles can look like debris or a large stone from a distance. If you wouldn't intentionally hit a giant rock in the road, why would you hit a giant turtle?

Rest easy, Sarge. You were deeply loved in your final hours, and we will keep fighting to protect the rest of your kind. 🐢💚

05/05/2026

Humans really need to DO BETTER.

Imagine that you were working hard but struggling to feed your children. Imagine that you and your children received an invitation for an incredible banquet… for free. Imagine you accepted the invitation, showed up for the meal… and were shot and killed right in front of your children.

That’s what happened to the mother of Rose (left) and her brother Briar (right). It’s also what happened to the mother of Marie and Archimedes, two other kits in our care. Every single year, we take in orphans whose mothers and fathers accepted invitations for free meals in the form of free-roaming chickens.

If you choose to keep small livestock, it is your responsibility to protect them by keeping them in secure runs and coops. Wild animals have no way to know that the easy prey you’re leaving out isn’t meant for them! Killing wild animals for accepting the free, easy meal is cruel and also does nothing to protect livestock. As long as the chickens are running loose unsupervised, they’ll get killed by cats, dogs, raccoons, hawks, skunks, and traffic, so the death of a mother fox didn’t help anyone.

When Rose and Briar got desperately hungry and went to look for their mother, they wandered into the road, where their only surviving sibling was hit by a car. Kind people who lived nearby saw them with their dead sibling and got them help. They are malnourished and anemic, especially Rose, but we expect them to be okay.

These two babies will be quarantined for a few weeks, vaccinated, and treated for parasites, and will then join their future foster siblings Marie, Archimedes, and Naomi before ultimately going home to the wild.

Thank you for making it all possible! Please see the Linktree in our bio for ways to support these beautiful animals. We are currently most in need of RodentPro donations!

[Description: two small red foxes inside a carrier with a brown and white blanket. They are pale orange in color and the photo is taken in dim lighting.]

04/06/2026

This is so very important! Please read the entire, attached post.
And I just have to add to this post: PLEASE make sure that there is access for the mother to actually leave your property. Once all of the babies have been removed by Mom and she’s been given enough time to collect all of her babies, board up that entrance hole(s) to keep this raccoon family and others from taking residence over and over again.

At just two weeks old, this tiny raccoon kit was separated from his family after his mother and siblings were removed from an attic by a nuisance removal company and reunited outside of the attic space. This kit was unknowingly away from the rest of its siblings and was left behind. Once the kit started crying it was recovered and brought to our center for care due to the likelihood that it was dehydrated.

Trapping and relocating raccoon families is inhumane, often illegal, and largely ineffective, acting as a death sentence for the animals. It frequently orphans babies, causes high mortality rates in adults from stress or fighting, and fails to stop new raccoons from moving in.

Why You Should Avoid Trapping and Relocating Raccoons:
🦝Orphaning Young: Raccoons breed between January and June, often using attics/chimneys. Trapping a mother removes her from her babies, leaving the young to starve slowly in your home.
🦝Low Survival Rates: Over 70% of relocated adult animals die from stress, starvation, dehydration, or conflict with other raccoons in the new territory.
🦝Fatal Injuries: Animals often panic in traps, causing severe injuries to themselves, including broken teeth and broken claws.
🦝Illegal Activity: In many places, relocating wild animals is illegal, and releasing them on someone else’s property is unlawful.
🦝It Doesn't Fix the Problem: Removing one raccoon creates a vacuum, prompting new animals to occupy the now-vacant territory.

Instead of trapping, use deterrents to make the den site uncomfortable so the mother relocates her babies naturally:
🦝Light: Place a bright, strobe-like, or LED light in the dark attic or crawlspace.
🦝Sound: Place a radio tuned to a talk radio station in the area.
🦝Scent: Place rags soaked in cider vinegar or peppermint oil near the nesting site.