Last updated 2 years ago 
SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, CA - The most amazing backyard I've ever seen belongs to Tom and Cheryl Millham. There are bear cubs, eagles, owls, coyotes, raccoons, otters, woodpeckers -- 200 different species, all wild, all native to El Dorado County. All of the orphaned animals are being raised or rehabilitated to live again in the wild.
Some years back, the Millhams went through a volunteer training program where they learned how to care for injured and orphaned wildlife. They returned home to South Lake Tahoe and started Lake Tahoe Wildlife Care, Inc.
In the past 30 years, this all-volunteer, nonprofit organization has taken 20,000 injured or orphaned wild animals into its care. Some 13,000 of them have been successfully rehabilitated and released back into the wild.
The Millhams even taught a river otter how to swim. And despite the otter's close attachment to Tom (it followed him everywhere around the yard), it too was released into an El Dorado County river.
Swimming doesn't come naturally to river otters. They need to be taught, usually by their mothers. In this case, the mother was Tom.
The sign on the front door at Lake Tahoe Wildlife Care shows their hours of operation: 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., seven days a week. Some of the smallest, frail birds need to be fed every few hours. So the Millhams don't get a lot of rest. Each year they rely on the help of about a 100 volunteers.
The Lake Tahoe Wildlife Care Web site is a wealth of information for anyone who needs to know how to handle (or not handle) an orphaned or injured animal in the wild. There is also regular training for volunteers who wish to spend a few hours a week helping care for the animals at the facility. It's where volunteers give nature a helping hand.
News10/KXTV
