Long-Distance Volunteer
Holly Duvall - NBCR’s volunteer from afar
Two years ago, NBCR had a bubbly, 18 year-old volunteer who did cage cleaning, fostering, worked adoptions, and created the Petfinder site for NBCR. She took pictures for the adoptions site and created all three of our adoption sites, including Petfinder, Pets911, and 1-800-Save-a-Pet.com. Holly’s father took a job in Alberta, Canada, so the family moved there, but that didn’t 
stop Holly from volunteering for NBCR! Holly, who is originally from England, took the job to Canada of doing the Petfinder bios and pictures for our adoptable kitties and keeping our other sites current.
Holly says she always wanted to work with animals and being a big-cat lover, NBCR was the ideal place to start volunteering. Holly’s parents had researched rescue groups in the Dallas area and would often go to PetSmart and talk with Stacy Bauer, Board member, and other volunteers working adoptions. When they were trying to trap an injured feral cat in their neighborhood, Stacy provided advice that helped them trap the cat. So when Holly decided she wanted to volunteer her parents approved of her working with NBCR.
While in Dallas, she also volunteered with In-Sync Exotics a big cat rescue in Wylie. Holly worked there twice a week where she cleaned the enclosures of Raja and Jasmine, two beautiful Bengal Tigers and two Black Mane Lions called Malikai and Dinari. Holly says, “I loved working at In-Sync and miss it and NBCR a lot.”
Holly is staying busy with other volunteer work in Canada. She volunteers for the Wildlife Rehabilitation Society of Edmonton and for the Edmonton Valley Zoo. Holly says “At the Wildlife Rehabilitation Society I have worked with a really diverse range of creatures from Bald Eagles to squirrels. This past summer I had the chance to take three baby squirrels home so they could be fed until 12am and then again at 6am. The squirrels were released back out into the wild.”
At the Edmonton Valley Zoo she volunteers on the elephant and sea lion shifts. She works with a female Asian Elephant, Arctic Foxes, South American Sea Lions, Harbor Seals, Cabybaras, and Red-Necked Wallabys to name a few. “I’ve also been very fortunate to spend time with Penelope, a hand-raised baby White-handed Gibbon.” Holly says.
Holly and her family adopted a cat they named Indigo. He had terrible
diarrhea along with several other illnesses. Over time, he got over the other illnesses but the diarrhea didn’t stop. It took them 18 months and $5000 for tests and treatments to get him well. When they finally got a diagnosis, they discovered he had the rare parasite, Tritrichomonas foetus. Because Holly and her Mother didn’t want other people’s cats to be ill as long as Indigo was and also didn’t want their owners to go through the stress of worrying about their cats like they did, they gathered all the information they could find about Tritrichomonas foetus, and Holly built a TF Felines website to tell people about it. They get 
emails from people all over the world and some share their stories contributing to the knowledge base of treatment.
Four cats live with Holly and her family: Violet who is the only female and is four years old. She is the half-sister to Indigo (also known as Boo-Boo); Anubis (also known as Nubi) is two years old and they adopted him from NBCR. Anubis was found at Garland Animal Services and brought to NBCR when he was only 8-9 weeks old. Holly says they fell in love 
with him instantly and they couldn’t bear to let him go. And last but not least is the baby of the family, Asriel (also known as Stinks) who is two years old.
Holly says she misses NBCR, In-Sync, and the friends she made in Dallas. “I’ve yet to find a better group of people to work with.” But she says, ”Where I live now has many beautiful ravines and walking trails, and I probably like walking through them the most. I also like how there is a definite change in seasons here. Currently it is -25 C (-13 F) and there is a lot of snow on the ground.”
When asked if she would be moving back to the Dallas area, Holly said she probably would not be moving back anytime soon. She is enjoying living in Canada for now.
The people of NBCR miss Holly and wish her well in her endeavors. 