Wildlife Ninja
aka Dr. Diana Huang, DVM
Originally a future online persona for Diana, now the home of her story.
Some of Diana’s (many) contributions:
Veterinarian
When you have a gift, share it with the world.
In 1997, Diana earned her Doctorate of Veterinary Medicine. Diana was invested in the well-being of the family members of her cherished veterinary clients.
Practices
Pampered Paws Veterinary Services, Westerville
Olentangy Animal Hospital, Lewis Center
For All Species, LLC, Westerville
Affordable Veterinary Services for all
Diana was the consummate veterinarian. Her goal was the focused care of the patients she cared for. Her priority was patient over profit. She delivered compassion and expertise to anyone who needed her, even if at personal cost. Exotics were not an issue, and in fact were her specialty, as she believed that all species were entitled to the same expert care.
Applied Veterinary Expertise across many beneficiaries
In addition to the long term well being of cherished pets of clients, Diana also donated her expertise to various organizations, such as Cat Welfare, the International Wildlife Rehabilitation Council, Ohio Wildlife Center, and more. Her tireless research and work saved thousands of animals.
Wildlife Rehabilitator
Raising the bar in wildlife rehabilitation
Wildlife Fosters
Year after year, Diana took on unprecedented numbers of fosters as a volunteer for Ohio Wildlife Center. The young ages of these delicate orphans sometimes required care around the clock, every two hours. With a heart of gold, Diana never wanted to say no when she was needed. Sleep came at a premium in Diana’s rehabilitation space.
Changing the mindset
Diana challenged those in the field to do better and better. Through tireless research and experimentation, Diana refined her techniques and built an unparalleled expertise, pushing the survival rates up, and the viability ages younger. Teaching at several conferences, Diana was generous with sharing her expertise to enable others to raise the bar.
Educator
One of Diana’s true callings was education.
For All Species Education
For All Species Education was Diana’s proudest achievement, a 501(c)(3) non-profit celebrating Ohio by delivering wildlife education and encounters to all. For All Species Education included dozens of wildlife ambassadors and tailored wildlife programming to appear at schools, festivals, summer camps, holiday events, and more. Audiences included people of all ages, from girl scout troops to retirement communities, and the ambassadors were always well received. Diana’s volunteers loved to learn from Diana, and assist with caring for the extremely diverse “zoo” of wildlife she cared for. For All Species Education strived to deliver quality wildlife education programs to all, regardless of financial means.
Mentoring
Diana mentored countless volunteers, pre veterinary students, and technicians with patience and expertise.
Friends and Family
Diana was the go-to call for wildlife encounters for so many.
Entrepreneur
Organizations created and founded by Diana in her lifetime.
1998: Pampered Paws Veterinary Services
After her graduation from Ohio State University’s Veterinary Medicine program, Dr. Diana Huang created her first veterinary practice, focusing on small animal pet care, such as cats and dogs.
Diana developed her skills on animal behavior, pet ownership counseling, and various veterinary needs for her clients.
1998: Paw Prints Cross Stitch
https://pawprintscrossstitch.com/
Not to be limited by her veterinary practice, Diana also created a business around one of her crafting passions – counted cross stitch. She researched supplies, learned website creation skills from scratch, shipping and payment options, and Paw Prints Cross Stitch was born. Paw Prints was a groundbreaking Internet based business before such things were popular. Amazon was rather new at the time, for reference.
Paw Prints Cross Stitch turned a profit in year one, and amassed a loyal customer base and independent design line, Paw Printings. The design line’s first nationally distributed design is shown here, with Diana surrounded by all the copies needed to fill the order.
2000: Paw Prints Cross Stitch Store
In August 2000, Diana expanded her online business to a brick and mortar store in Worthington, Ohio. Founded on the same principles as her Internet business, it was a place for people passionate about cross stitch to obtain supplies and discover new projects.
Diana’s physical and online stores created a fantastic and loyal community of stitchers in the central Ohio area.
2015: For All Species Vet
Diana launched her permanent veterinary practice in 2015, combining her new found passion in wildlife and “all species” with her popular mobile veterinarian concept to create For All Species Veterinary Services.
Through For All Species, Diana’s mission was to bring affordable veterinary care to any and all animal lovers, with no limitation on exotic species.
For All Species’ diverse and expansive client list was grown primarily through word-of-mouth, as positive client experiences led to recommendations and referrals from all of her clients.
2016: For All Species Education
Diana’s Education nonprofit launched in 2016. For All Species Education was created to bring enriching animal programs and education to any audience, regardless of financial means. Through grants, donations, and a full investment of herself, Diana brought the joy of wildlife knowledge and encounters to tens of thousands of Ohioans.
Diana’s thorough work proved that a small organization could make a huge impact. Diana brought her programs to young and mature audiences alike, from Girl Scout troops to summer camps, YMCA, retail store holiday offerings, fairs and festivals, and even Groundhog Day marathons!
Philanthropist
Diana donated more than just funds to the organizations she believed in – she poured her heart and time into them. Just some of the wonderful organizations Diana cared deeply for.
Ohio Wildlife Center
Diana caught the passion for wildlife welfare from Dr. Burton’s amazing organization. Certain seasons, Diana easily worked around the clock caring for her fosters.
ShadowboxLive
Diana and George love theater, and Diana loved volunteering and providing veterinary services for ShadowboxLive’s extremely talented metaperformers.
The International Wildlife Rehabilitation Council
Diana served as membership chair for the IWRC, assisted with website administration, and was project coordinator for IWRC’s disaster preparedness handbook.
Cat Welfare
Diana served many roles for CWA over the years, including providing low cost veterinary services such as vaccinations. Cat Welfare was special to Diana, as one of her beloved orange tabbies Brandon came from there.
Diana’s Values
Things we learned from Diana.
Whenever we lost someone important, part of Diana’s process of preserving their legacy and memory was creating a list of things we learned from them. Friends, family members, or even cherished pets, there was always something to learn. This is Diana’s list.
Keep Learning
Any new city we visited, Diana would find a rehabilitation or animal care center nearby and arrange a tour of their facilities. These visits have two-way benefits, where she could gather new ideas and learn new techniques while reciprocating with unique knowledge and suggestions as well.
Treat every new acquaintance as your friend/ally
For Diana, every person she met was a new opportunity. Someone to teach. Someone to learn from. Someone to play board games with. Someone to go to a concert with. No early judgements were ever made, and as a result, she had fantastic friends, allies, and volunteers from all walks of life.
Find the potential in people, even when others have failed
Diana had a knack for finding people’s hidden talents, and providing them the motivation and purpose to succeed. Many she worked with came from various backgrounds and work histories – this did not matter to Diana. She was able to get them excited about the cause and flourish under her leadership and inspiration.
Challenge the normal
Due to her tireless research, networking, and experimentation (which was sometimes heartbreaking), Ohio Wildlife Center and other organizations Diana influenced were able to save animals of a weight or age never saved before. She was proud of her unmatched survival rate, even when she was purposely given fosters that were most unlikely to survive. Wildlife rehabilitators are many times forced to play the odds – set minimum weights for viability and make the best effort. Diana’s message was to challenge the norms. Research, collaborate, get smarter, persevere, and don’t let anyone tell you what you cannot do.
Be a friend of the Earth
Diana and I are pile people. We have a piles of paper all over the house that somehow makes sense in our head, and that’s our to do list. They can be bills, coupons, Christmas cards, it didn’t matter. But Diana always had a separate pile of plain paper. That pile usually came from a printer error – you know when the driver isn’t quite right and ends up wasting a bunch of paper by printing one line on each page, and you quickly have to cancel the job? Diana would NOT allow that paper pile to go to waste – it was her note paper pile. We had more than she would ever need. But she was determined to at least put it to use.
If you ever were the passenger in her car and were paying attention, you may have noticed some of her hair in the cupholder. This is because she had a lot of hair, and some would brush out. I was always tempted to throw that hair out the window, but I wasn’t allowed. Why? Dangerous to birds. Diana was one person. Could she make a difference? Yes. And so can all of us. The welfare of birds far outweighed someone seeing some hair in her cupholder. That’s just an example of the depth of her values.
When grocery donations were part of Diana’s responsibility, she created a complicated network hierarchy to distribute it. “Normal” people pick up the boxes, pluck out a few things of use, and throw out the rest. Not Diana. She would extract anything and everything that could be used by current OR future ambassadors and fosters, bag and freeze for the future, including steaming some vegetables so they could be frozen, and then find others with larger properties and wildlife to take more. And those people gave to others, too. When only all those options had been exhausted, was disposal okay. And it wasn’t in the trash – we had to box it all and ran it to our compost stations. It was hard to keep up. But Diana did.
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