Saving lives, one bunny at a time
September 21, 2023 at 3:15 a.m.
When a person gets hurt, they go to a doctor. If their pet is hurt, they call a vet. But what does someone do if they find a wild animal that’s hurt?
If they live in the Port Chester and Rye Brook area, they can call or text the Cottontail Cottage Wildlife Rehabilitation Center hotline at 914-933-7559.
A completely volunteer-run and donation funded organization, the center works to rehabilitate wounded wildlife in need of a lifeline. Its founder, Briggitte Dix, has been fueled by a lifetime passion for animals to create the program.
Originally from the Lake Tahoe area of northern California, Dix had always been surrounded by nature.
“I was always exposed to animals and wildlife,” she recalled of her upbringing, “but I learned that people are afraid of what they don’t know.” Although she studied art, Dix spent time in Texas assisting with sea turtle conservation before moving to Rye Brook. There, she continued her advocacy, most recently by creating a rehab center.
She took the exam for the New York State Wildlife Rehabilitator License through the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) in 2021 and completely renovated her basement in the winter of 2022 to have a suitable workspace to take in and treat critters.
In March of 2023, Cottontail Cottage officially launched.
Though equipped to handle many types of animals, the rehabilitation center specializes in rabbits, particularly the Eastern Cottontail, as it’s the most common species in North America. Due to their prevalence, the center receives many of them, especially during their mating season.
“Their mating season usually goes from April to September, but that can change depending on the weather,” Dix explained. “Even though it should have quieted down a bit by now, we’re still getting calls this late into the season.”
In their first season of operation, the volunteers at Cottontail Cottage have already seen over 100 rabbits. At one point they had 27 babies in their center at once. “Each feeding took three hours,” Dix recalled. “We feed them twice a day, had three people, and it took three hours.”
Dix and her team receive rabbits in any condition, from broken legs to partial paralysis, and do their best to get them back into a condition to be released.
Partnering with the nearby North Regent Animal Clinic, they triage, diagnose, and treat them to the best of their ability.
“We’ll keep trying as long as they want to try,” Dix said on how they make every effort to ensure a restoration back to health. But recovering isn’t the end goal for the animals that enter her renovated basement.
After having two broken bones treated by the veterinarians at the North Regent Animal Clinic, this bunny was rehabilitated for several months before being released into the wild.Courtesy of Cottontail Cottage
After animals are nursed back to care, Dix and her team of licensed rehabilitators work on returning that animal into the wild. To ensure that rabbits are in the best condition to survive, Dix makes certain that they weigh at least 150 grams and are released near to where they were originally found.
“We also want to do it as soon as possible so that they have the strength and time to establish themselves,” she said. Aside from rescuing fauna in need, Cottontail Cottage has other long-term goals as well.
One such goal is to become a non-profit organization. Dix has already begun working towards attaining the status, but she hasn’t had the time to finish the follow through with how busy she is caring for an unexpected volume of animals.
“We’re pending right now, but hopefully by next month we’ll be a 501(c)3,” she said. On top of that, they’re moving to expand on the variety of animals they can treat.
“The next step is to get the Rabies Vector Species (RVS) license,” she said, outlining the near future of the center. “That would make us the first in the county to have that.” The RVS license would allow for even more animals to be treated, permitting them to accept bats, raccoons and skunks.
Additionally, the class two RVS license would allow them to take on assistants, who don’t need to be certified. Assistants would allow their team to grow and relieve them from some of the work.
“We need more people,” Dix said, “we’re tired, everybody’s tired.” But the fatigue hasn’t hindered their dedication to help the local animals.
Stephanie Gomez, one of the other licensed rehabilitators volunteering with the center, has certainly proven her passion.
Receiving a call about cat cries at the Rye Metro-North station at 11:30 p.m. on an August night, Gomez worked with police to maneuver into a crawlspace to secure the six-week-old kitten. “We never know what kind of calls we’re going to get,” Gomez stated, describing how she had to perform the rescue in a dress.
Happy with how far they’ve come in only one year, she does have a wish list for where they can be.
“I wish that we didn’t have to worry about where they’re going,” Gomez said, as the DEC only allows them to release animals in state owned parks or on private property with permission. “We wouldn’t have to worry about availability.”
Having a larger space would allow them to perform soft releases, where an animal is introduced gradually back to the wild over time. However, Dix doesn’t need that to consider her center a success.
“If this is as big as it gets, that’d be great,” she said.
For now, Cottontail Cottage is doing the most with what they have. Though they specialize in rabbits, they are equipped to, and have, rescued a variety of other animals.
From red foxes to red tail hawks, Dix, Gomez and the rest of the licensed rehabilitators are doing what they can for the sake of the critters.
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