The Rural We: Cara Petricca

Born in Pittsfield and now living in Cheshire, Massachusetts, Cara Petricca has been an art and animal lover as long as she can remember. She owned a gallery in New Mexico and later the former Twin Hearts Handworks in Pittsfield. Her art, which includes fiber art, jewelry, painting and ceramic sculpture, is in both national and international collections. She most recently painted a mural in downtown Pittsfield as part of the “Let It Shine!” Public Art Partnership, all the while caring for the animals at her Bluebird Farm Sanctuary and Wildlife Rehab.

I like to describe my art as a “love letter to nature.” I started off as a painter and moved to sculptural art in the last four to five years. I like to try everything: jewelry making, stone sculpting, fiber arts, glasswork.

I did a lot of mural work in California and used to have a business there and in New Mexico doing interior painted murals for homeowners. I applied to do a mural for the “Let It Shine!” program, and the owner of the building was interested in a design with a pig or rooster, which suited my technique and the themes I like.

I started the Bluebird Farm Sanctuary and Wildlife Rehab when I moved to Cheshire 15 years ago. I always wanted to have farm animals and had a few hobby animals. People have always brought injured or abandoned animals to me, but the wildlife rehab really started when one day I was driving in Lanesborough and had a feeling there was an animal that needed my help. I got out of the car and started walking, heard a little cry, and ended up finding a baby raccoon that had maybe been blown out of tree and was on top of a wood pile. I attempted to reunite it with its mother, but she didn’t come back. I didn’t know about wildlife rehabilitators at the time. I got tips on what to do and raised the little guy for a couple of months. Someone suggested that I take it to a wildlife rehabber, and I ended up getting my own wildlife rehabilitator license.

I started getting calls from people, and I had all this farm space. I ended up taking in farm animals, and it grew from there. We also took in domestic animals that were in real crisis with nowhere to go, although I’m trying to get out of that kind of rescue.

All of the wildlife is eventually released. For the farm animals I sometimes find them adoptive homes. A lot have come from really tough situations, so this is their forever home. The majority of the animals are really elderly — my chickens are 17 years old! Right now I have around 40 or 50 animals on the farm, including pigs, woodchucks, raccoons, geese, chickens, an alpaca, donkeys, horses, an African tortoise, a quail, plus dogs and cats. I fully support the Bluebird Farm Sanctuary and Wildlife Rehab on my own and have sold art to support my rescue habit.