One of the best stories that poign-
antly conveys the sacred animal/hu- Debbe Magnusen, Activist
man interaction experienced at Earth-
for Abandoned Babies
fire involves Thunder, a 17-year-old
Debbe Magnusen felt bereft after
wolf that laid for several days uncon-
hearing about an abandoned baby
scious in the wildlife garden, beyond
found suffocated in a trash bag close
the sight of other wolves, ready to slip
to her Costa Mesa home in Califor-
away to the spirit world. The vet knelt
nia. As a compassionate woman who
beside Thunder and stroked his fur as
had already fostered more than 30
he gave a merciful injection. In the
drug-exposed babies while raising two
second that the once strong and regal
biological children, Magnusen chose to
wolf died, as his soul passed from his
Debbe Magnusen
channel her anger and frustration into
body, all 30 wolves at Earthfire gave
constructive action.
up their grieving howl.
own species share in the indescribable
“As a foster mother, I had always
“The vet was shocked to feel
beauty of the human/animal eye-to-
hoped that unwanted babies would
the sound resonate within his body,”
eye and heart-to-heart connection that
be brought to me,” she recalls. “But it
recalls Eirich. “Even though Thunder’s
she and her small staff experience. A
didn’t occur to me until that moment
pack was nowhere near the garden,
moment-to-moment spiritual prac-
that no one knew where I was or that I
they felt his passing and wanted to
tice of communing with nature and
wanted to rescue their newborn.”
say goodbye and wish him well on
listening in the silence for something
The insight led her to create
his passage. This is what it’s like for
larger gifts Eirich with an ability to
a 24/7 crisis hotline in her Orange
humans and animals to live in a quiet,
give words to thoughts and ideas that
County living room in 1996. Within
meditative space where, undisturbed,
come from a deep inner place. “The
12 hours, she received her first call,
we can feel their essence and they can
directive that comes from the silence
from a frantic, frightened woman
feel ours.”
within is different and evolves in a
who had hidden her pregnancy from
way that I wouldn’t plan for if I was
everyone she knew. To date, Proj-
Contact Susan Eirich, Earthfire Insti-
only working from the intellect,” she
ect Cuddle has helped rescue 663
tute, P.O. Box 368, Driggs, ID; 208-
explains.
unwanted babies. “No baby deserves
456-0926;
EarthfireInstitute.org.
to die before having a chance to live,”
says Magnusen, who understands the
desperation of girls and women who
can be in labor while still denying that
they are pregnant.
This tireless activist imagines her-
self in the place of every abandoned
child and is inspirationally refueled
each time she sees a newborn baby
crying safely in a hospital. “For me,
God is in every person,” says Magnus-
en, whose biggest lesson from Project
Cuddle, now operating nationally, is
the grace to be nonjudgmental. “I’m
alive,” she maintains, “so that I can
unconditionally love every scared girl
or woman [who comes to me] through
her ordeal.”
Contact Debbe Magnusen, Project
Cuddle, non-crisis 714-432-9681 or
info@ProductCuddle.org; crisis hotline
888-628-3353.
Troy Von Otnott, Political Activist
for Sustainable Business
As a child growing up in New Or-
leans, Troy Von Otnott recalls mem-
bers of his family embracing politics,
26 Phoenix
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