Sebastian Elsenbroek - USA

I interned with Critter Care from September 23 to December 20, 2018. During that time, I got to work with some amazing animals and people.

When I first arrived at Critter Care, I didn’t know what to expect. What I found at Critter Care was something completely different and better than what I was hoping to find. When I got there, I was expecting to find mostly American and Canadian interns. Instead I found people from all over the world - Brazil, UK, Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, France, Germany, Belgium, Spain. This was a bit of a culture shock to me at first.

The first couple weeks I mostly kept to myself as I tried to adjust. However, eventually I got to know people better and was able to learn a lot about the different cultures at Critter Care. As I look back at my time at Critter Care, learning about everyone’s culture and interacting with people of different cultures was one of my favorite parts. It showed me that although we can be very different, there are many similarities between every person. You can be a friend with anyone.

The supervisors were a big help too. They were willing to spend time outside of work with the interns which made the team feel that much more like a family. The real reason I came to Critter Care was to get some animal experience. I knew that I would be coming at the end of baby season and wasn’t expecting to see that many new animals during my time there. Unfortunately for the animals, there were a lot of late admissions and Critter Care was more full than normal during the fall. Fortunately for me, this meant that I was able to do a lot more than I was expecting.

During my time there, I was able to care for grey squirrels, beavers, black bears, raccoons, a coyote, a rabbit, and an opossum. I also got to handle a skunk and mink. Getting to interact and form a relationship with these animals was incredible. I really appreciated how much independence and responsibility I was given in taking care of my animals. It gave me a lot of valuable experience and taught me a lot about animal care. I was able to participate in rescues and releases, giving treatments (vaccinations, oral medications, etc.), necropsies, stitching lessons, and some animal handling and restraint.

I loved my time at Critter Care. It was definitely hard at times and it wasn’t always fun. However, I will always remember my time there. I made some lifelong friends and memories. I would definitely do it again and would recommend it to others.