About Christina & CROC
- crocnhvt
- Aug 9
- 7 min read
A lifelong commitment to exotic animal welfare, education, and responsible stewardship
My work with animals began long before CROC existed - before the outreach programs, rescue work, nonprofit filings, or newspaper articles. It began with Levi, my Burmese python, while I was living in a tiny apartment in Vermont. Levi came into my life as a young, misunderstood giant-in-the-making, and caring for him taught me the foundation of responsible exotic-animal husbandry.
When Vermont changed its regulations and made Burmese pythons illegal to possess, I faced a difficult reality. I had to relocate, and I also had to confront a larger truth: many exotic-animal keepers were being left without resources, guidance, or support. That moment became the spark that shaped the rest of my life’s work.
Upper Valley Reptile Group: Filling a Gap No One Else Was Addressing
After moving to New Hampshire, I founded Upper Valley Reptile Group (UVRG), a small reptile rescue and resource center. UVRG was formed to meet an immediate need and fill a gap for reptile owners, animal officials, and concerned community members who often had nowhere else to turn. What began as a way to solve one personal crisis caused by changing regulations quickly became something larger than I expected.
Growing UVRG came with constant challenges. I was learning how to build an organization while also caring for animals with complex needs, answering calls for help, coordinating with officials, and trying to fund the work largely on my own. Space, money, time, and public understanding were always limited. Many people still saw reptiles with fear or misunderstanding, which meant that part of the work was not only rescue, but advocacy - helping people see these animals as living beings deserving of proper care, respect, and compassion.
UVRG operated out of my home - first in a one-stall garage packed with turtles, snakes, lizards, and tortoises, and later in an 800-square-foot indoor space with outdoor enclosures. I worked full-time in IT while funding most of the rescue myself, collaborating with wildlife officials and humane societies to take in abandoned reptiles, provide veterinary care, and place them in better homes. As the number of animals and calls for help increased, the demands became harder to balance, but the work also began to gain more public attention.
During this time, my work began receiving more recognition through local news outlets and
published articles. That visibility helped legitimize the need for reptile rescue and education in the region, while also showing the public how many exotic animals were being abandoned, neglected, or misunderstood. It marked a turning point: the work was no longer only happening case by case behind the scenes, but was beginning to shape broader community awareness about reptile welfare.
A Valley News article published in 2016 became one of the clearest examples of that growing public recognition. The article captured both the difficult reality of reptile rescue and the compassion behind the work, including the story of an Argentine boa constrictor found abandoned in an apartment, starved, dehydrated, and covered in mites. It also highlighted my biggest challenge: appealing to the public to support my work in a region where fear of reptiles made building compassion for them a near-impossible task.
Growing Beyond the Upper Valley: Northeastern Reptile Welfare League
As UVRG grew, so did its reach. Partnerships, referrals, and an adoption office hosted at a local pet store helped the work expand beyond the Upper Valley and across New England. To reflect that broader collaboration and outreach, UVRG evolved into the Northeastern Reptile Welfare League (NRWL).
This wasn’t a separate organization - it was the natural next step in UVRG’s growth. The mission stayed the same: improving reptile welfare through rescue, education, and support for keepers. But even as the organization grew, one truth became impossible to ignore:
The problem with operating as a rescue organization is that we are only helping to save animals from an already bad situation.
Rescue alone wasn’t enough. Education had to become the heart of the work.
The Golden Age of Rescue and Outreach
The Northeastern Reptile Welfare League became the busiest and most impactful period of my career in animal rescue and outreach. In many ways, I consider it the golden age of my work in animal care - a time when the rescue, education, public recognition, and community partnerships were all growing at once. The organization had grown from a small, home-based rescue into a recognized nonprofit with a reach that extended far beyond the Upper Valley.
At that time, NRWL stood out as one of the only nonprofit organizations of its kind in the state of New Hampshire. That visibility brought a level of notoriety and responsibility. People contacted us because they had nowhere else to turn - families overwhelmed by animals they could no longer care for, officials trying to respond to abandoned or neglected reptiles, and members of the public who simply wanted to understand these animals better.
Educational outreach became the engine that allowed the organization to keep going. Program fees from schools, libraries, camps, community events, and public presentations helped support the work in a practical and sustainable way. Those programs did more than fund operations - they brought reptiles into classrooms and public spaces, gave people direct experiences with misunderstood animals, and helped replace fear with knowledge.
During this period, I also collaborated with several animal shelters and rescue organizations throughout New England. Those relationships mattered because reptile rescue could not happen in isolation. By working with other groups, we were able to share resources, respond to difficult cases, and help more animals than any one person or organization could have helped alone.
Stepping Back: Motherhood, Burnout, and a Changing World
As NRWL gained more public support, stronger collaboration, and steadier income through its own outreach programs, the organization no longer depended on me in the same all-consuming way it once had. That growth made it possible for me to begin paying closer attention to my own needs, my career in IT, and my family.
In 2017, when I became a mother, my energy and focus shifted even more significantly toward home. I began stepping back from day-to-day nonprofit leadership and allowed others who shared a similar passion for exotic animals to take on more responsibility. I remained connected as a board member for a time, but I no longer had the capacity to lead the organization or drive its vision in the way I once had. Running a reptile-specific nonprofit required enormous time, energy, and financial resources, and motherhood made it clear that my role needed to change.
Then, in 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic forced the closure of the adoption center and halted public outreach programs. Schools, libraries, and businesses shifted to remote models, and in-person education - the heart of the mission - became impossible. Like many small organizations, NRWL could not sustain operations under those conditions and my involvement in the organization ultimately ceased altogether.
During this period, I narrowed my focus back to the animals who had remained long-term residents and personal companions. I continued caring for them, but I could no longer sustain or finance a public rescue facility. That pause gave me the space to reassess what was sustainable and begin shaping the next chapter of my work.
CROC: A New Chapter with the Same Mission
Out of that period of reflection, Christina’s Reptiles & Other Critters - CROC - was born and officially registered in 2022. CROC is not a public rescue and does not accept privately surrendered pets. Instead, it represents the part of my mission that has remained constant through every name change, move, and evolution:
Helping exotic animal keepers provide the best care they can.
Today, CROC focuses on:
· Educational outreach programs for schools, libraries, camps, and community events
· Consultations and resources for exotic-animal keepers
· Support for wildlife officials handling abandoned or neglected exotics
· Long-term sanctuary care for animals who remain with me permanently
Many of the animals in my care - including Levi - continue to serve as ambassadors, helping people replace fear with curiosity and compassion. As CROC developed, my work also expanded to include poultry such as turkeys, chickens, and waterfowl. Becoming NPIP-certified helped me maintain strong biosecurity and flock-health standards while keeping the focus where it has always been: education, responsible care, and practical support for animal keepers. That part of my animal care journey fits naturally within CROC’s larger purpose of encouraging humane, informed stewardship across species.
Balancing Family, Career, and Advocacy
Today, I continue to run CROC while:
· raising my daughter,
· maintaining a full-time career,
· caring for a diverse group of long-term animal residents,
· supporting wildlife officials,
· and navigating ongoing changes in laws and regulations around exotic-animal welfare and outreach services
It isn’t easy - but it is meaningful. Every program, every rescued animal, and every keeper who learns something new reinforces why I began this work in the first place.
One Mission, Many Names
If you have followed my work over the years, you have seen it take many names:
Upper Valley Reptile Group → Northeastern Reptile Welfare League → Christina’s Reptiles & Other Critters (CROC)
On the surface, it looks like constant change. But underneath, the mission has never shifted.
From the moment Levi came into my life, through the garage full of rescues, through motherhood and a global pandemic, through every outreach program and every animal saved, my purpose has remained the same:
To advocate for reptiles and other animals, and to help the people who care for them.
CROC is simply the newest chapter in that lifelong story - one built on experience, compassion, and the belief that every keeper deserves support, and every animal deserves humane, informed care.
A Legacy That Continues
Supporting my efforts through Christina’s Reptiles & Other Critters allows me to continue providing outreach and education for pet owners, families, and communities, but it also supports something much deeper than any single program or organization. Life has brought many changes, challenges, setbacks, and seasons where I had to step back, rebuild, or find a new way forward. But no matter what life throws at me, my heart and passion continue to live in this work and in the animals who have shaped my path. Through CROC, I am able to carry forward a legacy of responsible animal care, compassion, and respect for the natural world - not only for the animals in my care today, but through the example I share with my daughter and the future generations who will learn from the work we continue to do.
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