ESPANOLA, N.M. — Kathleen Ramsay doesn't scare easily.
Two years ago, the wildlife veterinarian climbed a 100-foot tree to rescue a bobcat cub, and almost made it down with the wriggling baby before a branch snapped and she fell to the ground, breaking her back.
"Cowabunga!" she said, describing the sickening splat that led to a two-year recovery. The paramedics "were just scared to death of that bobcat," Ramsay said, her face crinkling in a smile.
So went another evening at work for Ramsay, who has devoted her life to saving New Mexico's wild creatures one turkey vulture and black bear at a time. The Los Alamos native founded the Wildlife Center in 1986 in the 500-square-foot home she lived in then. About 20,000 rehabilitated animals later, Ramsay's passion has turned her fledgling clinic into New Mexico's only treatment facility for all species of injured or abandoned wildlife, which in December expanded into a 5,000-square-foot building on 20 acres with a mountain view.
Ramsay does veterinary duty at the center free while maintaining her own domestic animal private practice. She sets aside every other afternoon and weekend plus numerous evenings to tend to her wild charges.
To cram it all in, the 5-foot-3 animal doctor works 80-hour weeks and sleeps little. Her precise age, probably about 50, she keeps a mystery: "That's a secret of life," she said. "I'm a young whippersnapper."
Ramsay is one link in a network of nearly 12,000 wildlife rehabilitators nationwide, according to estimates by the nonprofit organization WildAgain Wildlife Rehabilitation, which tracks the field. The bulk of the rehabilitators -- up to 90% -- care for animals on their own time at home. To obtain a rehab license, states have differing requirements, which sometimes include apprenticeships with veterinarians.
"We're going through a great growth period right now," said Lee Hiestand, public relations chairwoman for the National Wildlife Rehabilitators Assn. in Minnesota. "We're maturing into a real profession."
Many veterinary schools now teach wildlife care, classes that weren't offered decades ago, said Erica Miller, staff veterinarian for the Tri-State Bird Rescue & Research Inc., a rehabilitation center in Delaware.
Although some states such as California, New York and Ohio have extensive networks for wildlife care, New Mexico -- the nation's second-poorest state -- has fewer resources at its disposal.
