I'm a licensed wildlife rehabiltator, educator, and lifelong animal lover. Completely unexpectedly, reptiles were the animals that changed everything.
Hi, I'm Kathleen.
I Was Terrified of Snakes
For most of my life, snakes absolutely terrified me. In fact, they didn't just terrify me; mine was the kind of fear that made me once "gently" move my pregnant friend in front of me on a trail when a garter snake slithered by. I never would have imagined that one day I’d be holding them, teaching people about them, and advocating for the animals I once feared.
Then something changed.
I grew up an animal lover, but my love was always very specific to mammals. Snakes were another story. I absolutely hated them. I couldn’t even look at a picture of one without feeling uncomfortable. My second grade students knew this, of course, and loved coming up to show me pictures of snakes just to see how I would react.
Fast-forward to the spring of 2020. My daughter, who was elementary-school-aged at the time, was obsessed with snakes. We were all home during COVID, and I wanted to find a way for us to do some good in the world, so we began volunteering at a local reptile sanctuary.
Why reptiles, you may ask?
We had been lucky enough to get to know the sanctuary’s founder, and my daughter had learned so much from him. I decided it was time for me to be brave, too, and to show my kids that curiosity could be more powerful than fear.
Of course, the first few times we volunteered, I stayed far away from the snakes.
But something unexpected happened. I discovered that I was fascinated by large lizards. Even more surprising, I seemed to have a natural ability to read their body language. I never would have guessed it.
And then came Noodles.
A few months into volunteering, my daughter asked if she could adopt a ball python. My immediate thought was absolutely not. But when I really thought about why I was saying no, I realized I had only one reason:
I was afraid.
So that spring, Noodles came home with us.
Whenever I was home alone, I practiced taking him out and holding him. At first, I wore gloves because I was terrified of being bitten. There are even a few videos of me literally screaming while trying to pick him up.
But I had never seen my daughter so passionate about anything. I knew I had to keep going.
As we became more involved in the reptile world, I decided to challenge myself even further. I brought home a baby Burmese python who was probably every bit as terrified of me as I was of him. I decided I was going to raise him to become an educational ambassador for his species.
That snake is Biggie Smalls, pictured with me above.
Through Biggie, I learned how to read snake body language. I learned that snakes aren't aggressive; they're defensive. I learned that a snake usually has a very good reason for what it's doing. And yes, I learned that getting bitten by a snake really isn't that bad.
Most importantly, the more I learned, the less afraid I became.
And then I began learning something that bothered me far more than snakes ever had: these beautiful animals are feared, harmed, and killed simply for existing. So much of that fear comes from misinformation and from beliefs about snakes that have been passed from one generation to the next.
The animal I spent my life avoiding became the animal I wanted to advocate for.
And That's How The Gentle Wild Began.
What started as a personal journey through fear grew into something much bigger. The more I learned about reptiles, the more I wanted to help other people understand them, too. That passion eventually led me to wildlife rehabilitation, conservation, and creating The Gentle Wild: a place where education and compassion can help people see wildlife a little differently.
A Little More About Me
When I’m not talking about reptiles or advocating for wildlife, I’m a second grade special education teacher, wife, and mom to two animal-loving teenagers. Our home is also shared with our rescue dog, Bowie, and an ever-growing assortment of rescued exotic reptiles, so “calm” isn’t usually the word I’d use to describe life around here.
By Day, I'm a Teacher
I’ve spent my career teaching young children, and that educator part of me follows me everywhere. Whether I’m helping a second grader understand something new or helping someone feel a little less afraid of the snake in their backyard, I believe curiosity is one of the best ways to replace fear with understanding.
Wildlife Rehabilitation
What began with learning to understand reptiles eventually grew into wanting to help protect them, too. I became a licensed Massachusetts wildlife rehabilitator, with a special interest in native reptiles and amphibians. I provide care to injured and displaced wildlife with the goal of returning healthy animals to the wild where they belong.
Rehabilitation isn’t about making wildlife comfortable around people; it’s about giving them the chance to be wild again.
Banana Split is my ball python and one of The Gentle Wild’s educational ambassadors. He helps people meet a snake up close in a safe, positive way, and discover for themselves that the animal they were nervous about might not be so scary after all.
In fact, people who were initially scared to hold him often come back and ask to hold him again!