Peace River Wildlife Center

Sometimes I get feedback from one of my many faithful readers when I write a particularly educational article. This past week’s article on baby raccoons seems to have hit upon a topic near and dear to all (both!) of my fans. Instead of appreciation for the amount of time it takes a rehabber to care for a neonatal raccoon, it seems that most of the comments called into question the veracity of the story. I can assure you that our meticulous editor, Lee Anderson, spends countless hours each week fact checking my musings. I happen to know he recently watched an entire documentary to ascertain the air-speed velocity of an unladen swallow, but we’re still not sure if the bird was of African or European descent. Will have to do some follow-up with Drs. Chapman and Cleese.

The question on everyone’s’ minds was concerning the superficial hematoma I had suffered in the mid-region of the lateral aspect of my sternomastoideus. Okay, it’s called a hicky and no one believes that it is, as claimed, my first. Who do you all think I am, Mindy Bly, a high school friend of mine who was known to wear turtlenecks well into the summer? I want to assure everyone that I spent my formative high school years in a very religious area of Pennsylvania. This town was well north of the Bible belt and had little patience for those “new-fangled” religions. Belts have shiny buckles and these people do not believe in that sort of worldly nonsense. But while they might not believe in sex ed or being born again, the one thing I did learn there was frugality.

The Pennsylvania Dutch were doing farmers’ markets long before farmer markets were cool. There was Roots (pronounced rutz) and The Green Dragon (not to be confused with the tincture of cannabis green dragon—not a popular substance in Amish country.) And like all good farmers’ markets, a large portion of the kiosks held not only fresh fruits and vegetables, but assorted other crap (err, treasures). From étagères to elephant ears to espadrilles, you could furnish your home, stuff your face, and pick up an outfit for the disco later that night. If there were any discos in the area. Which there were not.

All of this brings me to the point—finally!—of this article. The Sun Flea Market at 18505 Paulson Drive, Port Charlotte, across the street from Target, has a Charity Thrift Store that they allow local non-profits to benefit from for six months at a time. Peace River Wildlife Center will be in residence there from July through December of this year. Sun Flea Market is open Friday, Saturday, and Sunday from 9a.m. to 4p.m. All proceeds from our sales of the treasures(!) there will go towards food, housing, and medication for the injured and orphaned wildlife at PRWC. It takes us approximately $20,000 a month to take care of the patients and residents at PRWC and with no federal or state funding, we rely on the support of the local community to help us carry out our mission.

You can drop off items you would like to donate in the drop-off booth there or call PRWC if you would like to drop donations off at the Center. We could also use some help to set up and man the thrift store, so anyone with retail experience or just a strong will to help me neurotically rearrange the random inventory constantly flowing in and out, please call PRWC at 941-637-3830 to volunteer. Or maybe shopping is more your speed? Stop by PRWC’s Charity Thrift Store at Sun Flea Market and browse our selection of fine curios, used books, tools, electronics, clothing, and accessories. You might even find a vintage Monty Python video and you can do a little “research” of your own.

– By Robin Jenkins, DVM