I can now add “mouse hero” to my résumé.
A few months ago, we discovered that a deer mouse had built a nest for her two babies in the grill on our deck. My children were immediately smitten, so we skipped cooking steaks and left the tiny family alone to flourish. But when we checked on our guests a few days later, the babies had fallen into the grill’s grease trap. One was dead and the other, coated in grease, was struggling. The mom was gone.
A couple of frantic calls later (our kids were freaking out), I was on the phone with the Animal Welfare League of Arlington (AWLA). Most know the nonprofit near Four Mile Run as the place to go if you want to adopt a dog or cat, but AWLA also has a contract with Arlington County to provide animal control services. Its officers respond to calls involving animal bites as well as reports of abused, neglected, sick or injured animals that need help. Sometimes they connect callers with volunteer wildlife rehabilitators with the necessary expertise.
Which is how I ended up driving the greasy baby mouse to the home of an Arlington Forest resident who is specially trained in rodent rehab. A few weeks after the grill incident, I asked her for a status check. “Mousie was released in a safe place (not my yard),” she replied.
The mouse specialist—in this case, an angel among us who prefers not to be named—is one of 23 permitted wildlife rehabilitators that AWLA works with through its Wildlife Resource Center. Established in 2021 and tucked into a small room in the nonprofit’s headquarters on Arlington Mill Drive, the center provides community education and outreach in addition to emergency field response to injured, orphaned and sick wildlife. Its services are funded almost entirely by donations.
All kinds of critters have passed through the center since its founding three years ago. Animals are triaged and then transported, often by volunteer drivers, to licensed wildlife rehabbers who care for them until they can be released back into the wild. Animals that are too sick or injured for rehab are humanely euthanized.
Jennifer Toussaint, AWLA’s chief of animal control, loves to share the stories with happy endings. She still remembers the time an owl arrived at the center stuck to a turtle—one that it presumably had been eyeing as a meal. The turtle had clamped its shell shut on the raptor’s talon to defend itself.
“We had to very gently work to separate the two of them, and the owl had a minor injury to one of his toes,” says Toussaint, also senior director of community resources at AWLA. “The turtle, when he finally came out to look at us, was like, Aha! I did it. Both animals went to licensed rehabilitators. The turtle was uninjured, so he was quickly released back into the wild.”
Earlier this year, an abandoned raccoon kit was brought to the center, where it snuggled with a stuffed animal, getting warm and rehydrated, before entering the custody of a rehabber who nursed it until it was old enough to be released.
AWLA has relied on volunteers for all of its 80-year history. Founded in 1944 as one of the first humane organizations in Virginia, it contracted with Arlington County to operate as an animal shelter a few years later. In 1977, AWLA was accredited by the Humane Society of the United States, and in 1983, it assumed animal control responsibilities from the county’s police department.
Today, the organization provides pet adoption, community support, fostering, and spay and neutering services, as well as emergency assistance in Arlington County. “We are in the field, in uniform, from 7 a.m. until 10:30 at night, 365 days a year, and we respond overnight for emergencies,” Toussaint says.
Prior to the creation of the Wildlife Resource Center, AWLA’s collaboration with qualified rehabbers was more haphazard, says senior communications specialist Chelsea Jones. “It would be just like a lot of frantic phone calls to see if there was someone that would take [animals],” she says.
Now, the triage process happens quickly and efficiently, with the center functioning like a hospital emergency room. Animals dropped off by AWLA officers or community residents are evaluated and then transported to the homes of state-permitted rehabilitators. The center is not licensed to provide care for longer than 24 hours.
For field officers responding to calls from concerned citizens, time often is of the essence. “[Those calls] save lives,” Toussaint says. “The fox kit in the backyard with the peanut butter jar stuck on its head—it doesn’t have hours, it has minutes. We can get out there in 10 minutes and get that off and save that life.”
Shirlington resident Kimberly Tower called AWLA in June after happening upon a starling that appeared to be injured while she was out walking her dog. She scooped up the feathered creature and brought it into her apartment building, using a decorative birdcage as a temporary shelter.
“It was maybe an hour from the time that I called to the time that the animal control woman…came and did a medical inspection in the lobby,” Tower says.
After determining that the bird was in shock but not hurt, the officer took it for additional evaluation. “I had a lovely experience with them,” Tower says.
April Snoparsky, who lives in Arlington View, has called AWLA more than once to assist injured birds and rabbits. She once discovered four newborn bunnies so young they didn’t have fur and their eyes were still shut. Rabbit moms often leave the nest during the day, AWLA told her, but when the mother failed to return after a day and a half, AWLA sent an officer to retrieve the babies.
“They are always kind, compassionate and responsive,” Snoparsky says.
Today, the Wildlife Resource Center responds to more than 3,000 calls for assistance annually. In fiscal year 2023, it treated 1,116 animals—down from about 1,500 the year prior. (Fluctuating numbers are typical, Jones says.)
Birds and squirrels are among the most common beneficiaries of rescue operations, but raccoons, foxes, coyotes, ducklings, goslings, frogs, bats, snakes and turtles have also been treated and released.
One recent patient, a terrified beaver, had been chased deep into a Pentagon City parking garage by people who were trying to take a selfie with it. “There was no way for me to lead her out [of the garage],” says Toussaint, who ended up coaxing the animal into a dog crate and then carrying it to safety. “It really upset her.”
What about deer, Arlington’s most ubiquitous hoofed herbivore? “We used to take fawns,” Jones says, “but unfortunately, right now, we can’t” because of an outbreak of chronic wasting disease, a fatal, infectious neurologic disease in the local deer population. To contain the spread, AWLA is legally prohibited from sending any deer to rehab. The illness also affects elk and moose, although research indicates that it’s not a threat to humans.
The most high-profile animals rescue crews work with are bears. It’s common for three or four black bears to show up in Arlington each year. While AWLA’s wildlife center is not equipped to handle an injured or sick bear—that work falls under the jurisdiction of the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources (DWR)—officers do help to steer wayward bears to safer habitats by monitoring them and providing location coordinates to DWR. Healthy bears will follow the watershed on their own to find wilderness areas where they can forage in peace.
“We had one here earlier this year that we safely got through the community,” Toussaint says. “He went into Fairfax, and then [toward] Vienna. He went up a tree, and then the word got out on Nextdoor. People came rushing to the area like it was a zoo. That’s the kind of [human] behavior we have to discourage. We have to let bears do their bear thing and continue on their path.”
In June, two other bears were not as lucky. A 100-pound black bear was found dead in a plastic bag on the Custis Trail in Arlington. The animal had apparently been struck by a car on I-66 in Prince William County and then dumped by a Virginia Department of Transportation contractor who had been called to clear the carcass from the road. A few weeks later, another vehicle fatally struck a bear on I-395 near the Pentagon.
“He got off path because people were feeding him and centralizing him into the neighborhood. We were trying to move him back up along the ridgeline toward the water,” Toussaint says, noting that the bear was first seen along the Potomac River near Chain Bridge Road. “He couldn’t figure out which direction he was supposed to go, and he ended up on our highway and was struck and killed.”
For all the times human intervention proves fatal, other stories paint an opposite picture. In the spring of 2023, an Arlington family spotted a baby black vulture in their backyard and called AWLA. Responding officers confirmed that the fledgling was too young to be out of its nest and noticed it was limping, then worked with the homeowners to build a temporary enclosure for the bird in their garage. AWLA representatives stopped by for periodic checkups for several weeks until the bird was ready to fly.
“I would say 99% of the time, when Arlingtonians reach out, they want to help the animal,” Toussaint says. “They want to be part of the plan and are willing to go to extraordinary lengths to work with us toward a humane outcome.”
The same is true of the rehabilitation volunteers who often work round the clock—for instance, feeding baby birds every 20 minutes with an oral syringe or small dropper filled with specialized formula. “They just are the biggest-hearted, kindest people you will ever meet,” Toussaint says.
AWLA supports volunteer wildlife rehabbers by providing supplies (much of them donated) such as blankets, heating pads, syringes, bottles, birdcages and animal baby formula. It also helps cover the cost of continuing education classes and protective health measures, such as rabies vaccinations for rehabilitators that otherwise would cost several hundred dollars out of pocket.
“Tens of thousands of animals would be euthanized across the state every year if it weren’t for licensed rehabilitators and wildlife centers,” Toussaint says, “and we need those animals. They are critical [to the ecosystem].”
Indigenous animals help to spread seeds and eat invasive plants and insects. And though it’s a tough reality for some to swallow, native predators also prevent the overpopulation of certain species in the food chain.
“It is this very foundation that makes our Wildlife Resource Center work so vital,” AWLA president Samuel Wolbert wrote in an email. “Centering the well-being of our native wildlife and our natural spaces will ensure the prosperity of our community for many years to come.”
As in any hospital or urgent care network, the needs are 24/7. On the day I rushed the baby mouse to the rehab specialist, she had just accepted an injured bird (she treats those, too). When I texted her the next day to check on the mouse, she replied that it was eating and seemed fine, albeit still greasy. She then added that she had just successfully extricated a bird from a glue trap.
How to Help Animal Neighbors
A common mistake people make upon finding an injured or orphaned animal is handling it, says AWLA’s Jennifer Toussaint. Here are her tips for safely interacting with a creature that may need help.
Don’t touch it with your bare skin. “This protects both you and the animal,” she says. “If you knowingly expose yourself to that animal, then there are concerns about disease transmission.” Contrary to popular belief, “birds won’t disown their young because you touch them,” she adds. “That’s folklore that was created to prevent small children from picking up fledgling birds. Birds are great parents.”
Monitor the animal from a safe distance. In other words, no cuddling. “These are not companion animals,” she says. “They don’t want to be petted or touched. They don’t find comfort in it.” Human contact may actually scare them and make them feel even more unsafe.
Call the experts. Don’t try to rescue the animal yourself. In Arlington, call AWLA (703-931-9241), or, if you are outside county lines, contact the local animal control. “There are some really amazing wildlife groups all across our region and state, extending into D.C. and Maryland, who do this work,” Toussaint says.
Volunteers Needed
Volunteer wildlife rehabilitation experts play a critical role in nursing sick and injured animals back to health, but their ranks have been declining. “[Most] are older women, and some of them needed to retire from the work because it’s very intense,” says Chelsea Jones at AWLA. “Many of them have tons of animals in their home that need 24-hour care. Some of them just were not able to do the work anymore.”
Interested in becoming a wildlife rehab expert? The Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources (DWR) requires certain credentials for anyone caring for sick, injured, orphaned or debilitated wildlife. To earn a state permit, volunteers must complete a two-year apprenticeship and pay a $10 fee. For details, visit wildlifecenter.org/professional-training/careers-working-wildlife/getting-started-wildlife-rehabilitation.
Rehabbers working with federally protected migratory birds must also have a $50 permit from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Stephanie Kanowitz, a digital editor for Arlington Magazine, is the mother of two children and two rescued cats, and narrowly avoided becoming a mouse mom, too.