Hiya. I'm Libby. And it's my birthday Sept. 24, 2025.

I write and draw and practice Reiki to contribute to collective healing.

I am raising funds to adopt Wamata for the Sheldrake Wildlife Rescue in Kenya for my birthday.

Sheldrake has raised 322 orphans, attended 14,053 vet cases, and has 29 anti-poaching teams, according to their website.

They're best known for rescuing and caring for elephants and rhinos and all kinds of beautiful creatures (did you know rhinos, even grown rhinos, have the most adorable little squeak?!)

They send out medical care to animals they spot who are injured, often in human-animal conflict or farmers trying to erroneously protect their crops by surrounding them with spikes.

Sometimes they can care for the animal in the wild and monitor their health from a distance, but too often they find and take in young orphaned elephants because of such conflicts, like Wamata, who is 2 yrs. old.

Baby elephants need looking after for years, and in general, they are family-oriented creatures, traveling together and caring for one another.

Luckily, elephants make family with newcomers, and at the sanctuaries, elephants from many different families and their human caretakers come together to support one another until they're ready to go out into the wild again.

I've been watching Sheldrake videos for a while, and it's absolutely amazing: elephants who were cared for there often come back to visit, sometimes to show off their newborn babies. Some return to get care if they're injured in the wild. Some come back to hang out like teenagers after a gap year volunteering overseas.

And at least one wild elephant, who was not cared for at Seldrake, came looking for help after an injury. How he knew that he would receive care there is a thing of miracles and however it is elephants communicate, which I suspect is probably similar to how trees communicate.

Sheldrake also makes efforts to educate children to decrease human-animal conflict in future generations, prevent poaching, and do a lot of different things to save wildlife in Kenya.

Wamata is estimated to have been born in September as well, so she's my choice.

I intend to spend this money on adopting her and feeding her.

It costs $50 to adopt her for a year and $450 to feed her for a week!

Let's adopt Wamata together and support this amazing organization.

All photos and video borrowed from Sheldrake Wildlife Trust.