NASHVILLE – Who wants a job that keeps you on call 24/7, hasn’t allowed a vacation in more than eight years and makes you responsible for creatures who can’t tell you what they need? Lisa Stewart would have none other.
Stewart is curator of Appalachian Bear Rescue, the only place in the Southeast where orphaned black bears get a shot at survival.
“I took the job on April 1, 2003.” Stewart said. “That’s the last time I had a day off.”
Stewart was a paralegal in Mississippi when she volunteered with a wildlife rehabilitation organization, taking care of squirrels, rabbits and other small animals.
“I never dreamed I’d be a bear mama,” said Stewart, 53.