Terri Coppersmith didn't think twice when she saw the injured pigeon lying in an alley.
She picked it up and ran several blocks and across a highway to the local veterinarian.
"The pigeon had to be put to sleep, it couldn't be saved," said Coppersmith, a Westminster resident. "My parents weren't too thrilled with what I had done, but it didn't matter. Rescuing animals followed me most of my life."
Forty-five years later, Coppersmith is still saving animals. Only now she is doing it through a Westminster-based animal-rescue organization that she and her husband, David, 60, started about seven years ago.
The couple started Diamonds in the Rough after volunteering at a similar animal-rehabilitation program, Coppersmith said. But her desire to help animals started well before that.
After the pigeon incident, she rescued numerous injured and abandoned cats and dogs. When they became healthy, she went around the neighborhood and pounded on doors looking for homes for the animals.
"People would say, `Oh, no, here she comes again,' " said Terri Coppersmith, 53, who is retired from the Department of Defense, as is her husband. "But I didn't let that discourage me. I rescued animals as a child because I saw something that needed help. It was never something my family supported."
To start an animal rehabilitation program, the Coppersmiths had to obtain state and federal permits, issued by the Department of Natural Resources.
For a state permit, they had to volunteer for at least 200 hours at an established program and complete a two-day wildlife rehabilitation course offered by the International Wildlife Rehabilitation Council. They had to build the caging and proper housing structures before the federal permit was issued, she said.
Today, the Coppersmiths say, they rescue about 850 sick, injured or orphaned animals a year. The peak season is May to September, though they say they keep busy year round.
Since the start of their program, the Coppersmiths have rescued birds, nonpoisonous snakes, turtles and small mammals such as possum and squirrels. The only animals they don't rehabilitate are ones that are susceptible to rabies, including bats, raccoons, foxes and skunks, she said.
The animals the Coppersmiths care for might have fallen from nests, been hit by cars, been poisoned or shot, or have broken bones. They are kept in cages in several outbuildings and habitats, or in a room on the side of their house. The cost of caring for the animals is about $8,000 per year, said Coppersmith.
