Wild Things Rescue Ranch, Inc. is a 501(c)3 state permitted wildlife rescue and rehabilitation facility nestled in the heart of the Texas Hill Country, regularly serving about 25 counties. We’re a veteran family, organized with a group of rehabbers and volunteers that work hard for our wildlife! We live in such a rich, beautiful, ecologically sensitive area, with an abundance of native and exotic species living in the wild who need our help every day. Our mission is to meet the needs of local wildlife that are in trouble due to human impact, injury, abandonment, or other situations. We’re currently creating youth and disabled veterans educational outreach programs that you can read about on our Programs page. There is no state funding available for wildlife rescue work, so we operate off of volunteers, donations, and mostly out of our own pocket. We are so blessed to have a community that supports our efforts, but as we grow, we’ll need more support now than ever! Please see our contribution page to find out how you can help us.
Our humble beginning: Our lives took an “about-face” in 2016 after Zeb medically retired from civilian law enforcement due to disabling combat war injuries received in Iraq, during his fifth tour to the middle east. We relocated onto a family ranch in search of healing, but we got far more than we bargained for! Service runs thick in our blood, and we soon developed a way to contribute meaningful work that could still somehow serve our community, since military and civilian law enforcement was no longer an option. Through this work, an incredibly beautiful and healing experience started to unfold; what began as an initial effort to “just” rescue wildlife in need, quickly turned into a vision to be able to share this experience with other veterans and local community members through outreach programs and education presentations. Due to the high volume of orphaned and injured animals in need, we very quickly outgrew our humble beginning. We host volunteers, community service hour requirements, as well as youth earning volunteer service hour credits for local high schools. We’ve also been happy to have current veterinary students out from Texas A&M, who’ve come to learn about wildlife care and medicine.
Moving forward, one of our biggest motivators is the desire to reach other veterans and touch their lives in the way ours has been. We’ve had exciting and encouraging conversations with organizations, politicians, and the National Park Service about what type of veterans programming needs are out there. There are several great success stories with disabled veterans and equine therapy, but nothing with wildlife rehabilitation so far. We know first hand that there’s a special peace and understanding of value for life that takes place when you get involved with the care of amputation, abandonment, blindness and injury cases, and experience how your love can affect them. There are no words to describe how the unconditional love of an animal can affect our hearts, especially when you’ve been through similar trauma. Our long term goal is to build a couple of ADA compliant cottages located in our serene wild setting, where veterans and their family members can come be apart of our future program.
Our Green Promise: We personally believe that every project we do should have “green” engineering when possible, so we continue to make decisions about construction and projects based on that belief, by employing things like grey water reuse, water catchment, wind power, and other considerations. We have a sharp focus on environmental responsibility, conservation of resources, and reducing our carbon footprint. What good does it do to work so hard for our local wildlife, if we don’t also take into consideration the natural resources relied upon by both humans and animals? It’s all fundamentally and inextricably connected. Work together with us by making your own small changes at home!