Flyaway: How A Wild Bird Rehabber Sought Adventure and Found Her Wings

Ever wonder what happens to birds that get injured? Well this book will tell you about all the people across the country that devout countless hours seeing that these birds are given the chance to survive. Through this very personal account of one persons quest as a bird rehabber you will travel along on that path. Be prepared to learn, in detail what happens to birds of all kinds when they end up at a persons home that cares for them. This book sails along with a style that is hard to describe, one minute you are getting a detailed description on the various chemicals that can kill birds, followed a few pages later with Suzie explaining what life altering experience she had as a 16 year old while in boarding school. I found myself laughing out load one minute and a few minutes later having tears run down my cheeks while reading this book. I guarantee that you will learn something about birds, but this is not a text book, it's a personnel life story that just happens to be associated with birds. Jack Doyle President, Audubon Society of Lincoln City

As soon as I began reading `Flyaway', I got that warm fuzzy feeling signaling that I was in for the kind of read that makes me chomp at the bit to get under the covers with my reading light for an all-nighter. When we read the first few pages of any good book, the mind automatically connects us to similar material that gave us the same pleasurable feeling. To compare Suzie Gilbert's `Flyaway' to James Herriot's `All Creatures Great and Small' is not a stretch. Here, once again, as in Herriot's wonderful peek into the rustic life of an English vet, we are treated to an insider's view of the sacrifices, lessons, and rewards of a family whose life revolves around a parent who is not only caretaker to her children, but to a constant parade of needy beings of other species. In Gilbert's case, the creatures are winged, wild, and ownerless--grackles, crows, robins, owls, hawks, and vultures. They limp through Gilbert's door to be healed and coached back into the wild again. For those of us animal lovers who have the natural sympathies but lack the time, place, patience, and slightly mad passion to engage ourselves this deeply with the natural world, this book is a must-read. In it, I was constantly reminded that the price of love (any kind of love) is steep--and sometimes paradoxically and painfully akin to cruelty. We must learn to let go of what we love the most when it is best to do so for the object of our devotion and for our own sanity.

What a remarkable book! I am a retired teacher and I have spent the last 6 years volunteering at the Stanislaus Wildlife Care Center. It has become my avocation. I have taken a lot of classes to learn about rehabing and I am now the Songbird leader and the person who takes animals out to schools, etc. to do presentations. I could relate to a lot of Suzie's experiences. Her book gave me SO MUCH to think about; a great philosophy and many good reasons to become a rehaber. She makes you cry, laugh and truly feel what she is feeling. She shares her family and all their adventures with wildlife. She shows how important it is to let go once in a while to get some rest and retain your sanity after tending to so many birds in need 24-7. Suzie has a way with words in this very well written book. I did not want it to end. I hope she writes another book soon. Nancy Haydock

I am a wildlife rehabilitator and Suzie's book gives a 'birds eye view' of what rehabilitating wildlife is all about. From the joy to the sadness and isolation, we've all been there at one time or another and her story expresses our work with honesty, humor and passion. Wildlife rehabilitators are unique people and after reading this book, you may still not understand what drives us but you'll see our dedication, commitment and fervent desire to do this work. Anyone who has an interest in wildlife will find this book a good read!

With its intimate descriptions of wild hawks, owls, crows, grackles, herons, geese, ducks, turkeys, pigeons, starlings and vultures (!) nurtured by the author, Flyaway will enthrall lovers of birds and other animals. But the book is also a riveting account of a woman's struggle to balance a grand obsession--fueled by fierce compassion and love--with the needs of her family. The book also addresses a profound question: How can you devote yourself to reducing suffering in the world, one creature at a time, when the suffering is essentially infinite in scope? This is an astonishing, beautifully written book, funny, heart-breaking and ultimately uplifting.