Bolduc's Wildlife Rescue

Bolduc's Wildlife Rescue Contact information, map and directions, contact form, opening hours, services, ratings, photos, videos and announcements from Bolduc's Wildlife Rescue, Photographer, 2020 Albemarle Road, Boiling Spring Lakes, NC.
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We take in injured and orphaned wildlife and rehabilitate them. 501c3 nonprofit EIN: 88-2423745

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Alrighty, folks, here comes a long overdue update!After a very hectic several of months, we have finally begun to settle...
07/20/2026

Alrighty, folks, here comes a long overdue update!

After a very hectic several of months, we have finally begun to settle into our new home. We were between places for a period of time( and for a while it looked like everything would fall through), and let me tell you: it is not fun at ALL to have to go through that with 2 wild human children, 5 cats, and two rabbits. But we're here now, and we finally brought up our last u-haul of belongings last weekend.

All that chaos and uncertainty was well worth it in the end, because we ended up on a property more perfect than we could have ever hoped for.

We have some beautiful acreage made up of several distinct habitats. Rolling native grass meadows give way to lush hardwood forests filled with mountain laurel, maples, and black walnut trees, all leading down to a spring-fed creek that winds through the property. Another section is drier and rockier, dotted with towering white pines and beautiful quartz boulders, with ferns and native common milkweed carpeting the forest floor.

Here's the kicker: we ended up in Virginia instead of North Carolina. We just couldn't find the combination of the land we needed for the animals and a home that we needed for my family in NC within our budget. Believe me, when I tell you that we looked at EVERYTHING trying to make it work.

We are literally only 25 minutes from the North Carolina border, but crossing that state line means I have to start over from square one when it comes to becoming a licensed wildlife rehabilitator. Virginia's process is very different from North Carolina's.

Before I'm eligible for my own permit, I'll need to complete a two-year apprenticeship as a Category l permittee, build all of the required rehabilitation enclosures to Virginia's specifications, and pass a state inspection. The minimum enclosure standards here are considerably larger than what I was accustomed to in North Carolina, which I actually think is a positive thing for the animals.

The downside, of course, is that larger enclosures require a lot more lumber, fencing, roofing, hardware, and time to build. It's been a much bigger investment than I anticipated, but one that will benefit countless animals for years to come.

I've been racking my brain trying to figure out a way to build the enclosures without having to ask for help, but the costs are just adding up too much and too quickly.

My goal is to get the enclosures built as soon as possible so that I can pass inspection and start the next chapter of Bolduc's Wildlife Rescue by becoming a much needed release site for our native wildlife.

If you have it in your heart and your budget to donate towards my enclosure fund, I would be extremely grateful. Other great ways to help would be commenting on and sharing this post (along with previous and future ones), as that helps boost visibilty.

As always, we here at Bolduc's Wildlife Rescue truly couldn't do this without you. Thank you for being part of our little army of kindness and for caring about our native wildlife.💕

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Buddy the Cat Update 💔After weeks of consultations, bloodwork, and discussions with multiple veterinarians, we finally h...
07/13/2026

Buddy the Cat Update 💔

After weeks of consultations, bloodwork, and discussions with multiple veterinarians, we finally had an action plan.

For weeks, we had been asking Buddy's exhausted little body to do one thing: just hang on a little longer.

We needed time for him to rebuild the red blood cells lost to anemia. Time for the antibiotics to get ahead of the severe infection that had taken hold in his mouth and eye. Time for his body to become strong enough to withstand the anesthesia he so desperately needed.

And sure enough, with time, good nutrition, antibiotics, and the unwavering dedication of his Guardian Angels, Buddy slowly began turning the corner. His anemia was improving as his body replenished the red blood cells it had been missing. His kidney values, which had initially been concerning, had returned to almost normal. The infection was finally under control well enough that multiple veterinarians agreed he was ready for surgery.

Tuesday was supposed to be the day we removed the source of his pain. His infected teeth, and his chronically diseased eye, would finally be addressed, giving his body the opportunity to heal instead of constantly fighting infection.

For the first time in weeks, it felt like we were moving forward.

But sometimes life has other plans.

Tonight, Buddy suddenly suffered what appears to have been an ischemic event. He was rushed to the vet, where the heartbreaking decision was made to let him go peacefully.

As devastating as this is, I find comfort in knowing we left no stone unturned. Buddy had the benefit of multiple veterinary opinions, countless conversations behind the scenes, diagnostics, and a team of people who truly wanted what was best for him. Every decision was made with one goal in mind: giving him the best possible quality of life.

I want to extend my deepest thanks to his incredible Guardian Angels, who poured so much love into his daily care, transportation, medications, appointments, and every step of this journey.

Thank you to the veterinarians who gave Buddy their time, expertise, and compassion.

And thank you to every one of you who donated, shared his story, and rooted for this sweet old man. Because of your generosity, every decision could be based on what Buddy needed, not on what we could afford.

Your donations will remain dedicated to helping those in need. They will help provide emergency veterinary care, diagnostics, medications, and, when there is no kinder option, humane euthanasia for future cats who have nowhere else to turn.

I don't often share the stories from these kinds of cases. Many involve heartbreaking circumstances or belong to someone else's grief, and I choose to respect that privacy. But they happen far more often than most people realize. Please know that every dollar entrusted to Buddy will continue helping the next stray, the next forgotten senior, or the next injured cat that crosses our path...Even if it all happens behind the scenes.

Buddy may not have lived long enough to receive his surgery, but because of all of you, his story won't end with him. His kindness will continue to ripple outward into lives he'll never meet.

Run free, sweet Buddy. You were deeply loved, and you will be dearly missed. 🥺

07/08/2026

Poor little mama was nearly non-responsive when we found her outside our home. As if that wasn't enough, she's also very, very pregnant.

After some subcutaneous fluids, electrolytes, and a little time, she is almost back to her energetic little mouse self.

It's easy to overlook animals this small, but every one of them has a story and intrinsic value. To her unborn babies, she's their entire world.

From an ecological standpoint, these tiny mice help disperse seeds, consume a wide variety of insects and other invertebrates, and in turn help sustain owls, hawks, foxes, snakes, bobcats, and countless other native species.

Her life matters not because of what she can do for us, but because she is an irreplaceable part of the world we all share.

We don't have to love every species equally to recognize that every species has value. Nature isn't divided into "important" animals and "unimportant" ones. It's a beautifully connected web, and every thread matters.

Isn't she gorgeous? 😍

07/01/2026

Silly deer!

As much as I admire your dedication as a mother, I simply cannot condone feeding your baby in the middle of the road. That's how orphans are created. 😅

Thankfully, these two moved along safely a few moments later.

This cracked me up. I hope it brings some laughter to your day as well.
06/29/2026

This cracked me up. I hope it brings some laughter to your day as well.

Today's Forgotten Footage Friday! One of my favorite photos I've ever taken."Tiny, but mighty."This little joey's story ...
06/27/2026

Today's Forgotten Footage Friday!

One of my favorite photos I've ever taken.

"Tiny, but mighty."

This little joey's story was a lot like Reepicheep's. She was barely a fifth the size of her siblings, had the beginnings of a nasty systemic infection, and was chronically dehydrated. If I'm being honest, I didn't think she was going to make it.

But she had other plans, and did not take my doubt into account for a single second.

She fought for every ounce, every feeding, every day. Against all odds, this tiny little soul pulled through and grew into exactly what she was meant to be.

And no, before anyone asks, I didn't kill the deer. I just have a habit of coming home from hikes with bones instead of souvenirs.

I spend a lot of time wandering the woods, and whenever I come across naturally shed antlers or the remains of an animal that has already completed its journey, I bring them home. I turn many of those bones into works of art as a way of honoring the life they once belonged to, rather than letting them simply fade back into the forest unnoticed.

Creating art from them is my way of honoring the lives they lived and preserving a small piece of them, rather than letting them be forgotten.

Sometimes nature's greatest beauty isn't just in life, but in remembering it with respect.

06/20/2026

Forgotten Footage Friday!

Some of my favorite clips/pictures never made it to Facebook and have been quietly collecting digital dust ever since, so I figured it was time to start digging through the vault and sharing a few of those forgotten gems with you.

Below is one of my all-time favorite opossums ever: Reepicheep. He was my first true failure to thrive baby and taught me alot about opossum rehab. Andrea Villasenor I know you still think of this boy often. 💕

At one point, he weighed a mere 31g to his siblings' 139g. It didn't just take TLC to get him through that hump; it took adding a specific animo acid to his diet, L-Glutamine.

Think of L-glutamine as a building block and fuel source for the cells that line the digestive tract. When those cells are damaged or struggling, glutamine can help support their repair, giving the body a better chance to absorb the nutrients he desperately needed to grow.

He ended up growing into an absolutely stunning, perfect adult opossum and was eventually released.

I'll link his intro post from way back then in the comments for anyone interested.

For next Friday's Forgotten Footage, what critter would YOU like to see?

Compassion fatigue.It's a phrase that gets tossed around a lot this time of year in the wildlife rehabilitation world, b...
06/18/2026

Compassion fatigue.

It's a phrase that gets tossed around a lot this time of year in the wildlife rehabilitation world, but what does it actually mean?

Most people imagine wildlife rehab as the happy videos: The baby opossums smacking adorably on grapes, the teenage squirrels learning to climb, the young deer returning to the woods. And yes, those moments do exist, and they are beautiful.

But behind every success story are dozens of phone calls, messages, and emergencies that never make it to social media. Stories and situations that are just too sad to unnecessarily burden anyone else with.

It's the baby that arrives too late, because the finder "loved them too much" to give them up sooner.

The mother animal hit by a car with babies still clinging to her...while the driver speeds on.

The orphan that fights with everything it has to survive, only to slip away anyway. The haunting look in their eyes when they realized that their body was losing the fight...But their mind wasn't ready to go.

The medical case you spend weeks or even months helping, only to discover it can never be released...and all the USDA permitted facilities are full.

It's making life-and-death decisions when there is no perfect answer.

It's carrying the weight of every animal you couldn't save long after everyone else has forgotten their existence.

And then comes baby season.

The phone rings constantly, and messages pour in, even in the middle of the night. Every caller is facing what feels like an emergency, and they demand help NOW.

The hard reality is that there are only so many licensed rehabilitators, only so many cages, only so many hours in a day, and only so much money in the bank account.

Sometimes we are full.

Sometimes we haven't had a day off in months.

We are ALWAYS exhausted, often surviving on 2 consecutive hours of sleep at a time.

Believe it or not, one of the biggest contributors to compassion fatigue actually isn't the animals.

It's the reaction we sometimes receive from people when we have to say no...and the mental anguish that we face from having to make that decision.

When a rehabilitator says they're full, it truly isn't because they don't care.

It's because they care SO much that they've already stretched themselves beyond what is sustainable.

Yet many rehabbers are met with anger, guilt trips, accusations, or demands to "just take one more." Even the occasional death threat.

The public sees just one animal.

The rehabilitator sees the 50, 100, or 200 animals already depending on them.

Every "just one more" adds weight to an already overloaded system. We swear up and down that this will be the last baby... And if we are not extremely careful, before we know it we are in over our heads.

Compassion fatigue happens when the desire to help NEVER stops, but the emotional, physical, and financial resources eventually run out.

I can't tell you how many times I've laid awake at night and thought about every single animal I've lost, every missed phone call, every unreturned text. It truly does haunt us.

So what can we do about it?

If you're a member of the public, offer grace. If a rehabber says they're full, believe them. I promise you if there was any conceivable way for them to take that animal, they would. Thank them for the animals they're already caring for instead of focusing on the one they cannot take.

Continue to call other rehabbers within whatever radius you are willing to travel to save your animal. And if you can't find anyone to help you, please feel free to send me a message, and I will help you find somebody.

If you're a rehabber, remember that you CANNOT pour from an empty cup. Boundaries are not selfish. Rest is not selfish. Taking care of yourself is a non-negotiable part of taking care of the wildlife.

I know this because I've lived it.

For years, I struggled to set boundaries. I couldn't say no. I couldn't stop worrying about the animals I never heard back about. I carried the ones I lost, the ones I couldn't help, and the ones whose outcomes I'll never know. Every message felt urgent. Every animal felt like my responsibility.

Eventually, I learned the hard way that compassion without boundaries isn't sustainable. If we don't protect our own well-being, we eventually lose the ability to help anyone at all.

The truth is that wildlife rehabilitation is not a sprint; it's a marathon.

The animals need compassionate people willing to do this work not just for one season, but for many years to come.

To all the rehabilitators who are still in the trenches right now, thank you. Thank you for the sleepless nights, the skipped meals, the endless laundry, the bottle feedings around the clock, the difficult decisions, and the emotional weight you carry every single day.

Thank you for answering one more call when you're already exhausted, for celebrating the victories, grieving the losses, and continuing to show up for animals who have no one else. Wildlife rehabilitation is often thankless work, but please know that what you do matters. The lives you save matter...but so do you.

The best way to protect wildlife is to protect the people dedicating their lives to helping it.

A little kindness, patience, and understanding goes a long way...especially towards yourselves. 💕

06/17/2026

I love seeing them with their parents, happy, healthy, and free. I usually meet fawns on one of the worst days of their lives. Seeing one simply being a baby, with Mama close by and no rescue needed, is my favorite kind of wildlife story.💕

Address

2020 Albemarle Road
Boiling Spring Lakes, NC
28461

Telephone

+19105471545

Website

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