Lisa Hywood has spent more than thirty years caring for animals most people never see. She is the founder of the Tikki Hywood Foundation and has formed a deep, quiet bond with pangolins, the world’s most trafficked mammal.

Her first pangolin changed everything.

It was 1994. Lisa was twenty-three when she received a call about a rescued animal. She drove for hours and found it in a sack by the side of the road. She didn’t know how to pick it up or what to do first. The pangolin stayed calm, watching her. 

That moment stayed with her. It was the beginning of something she could not walk away from.

Since then, Lisa has learned how to care for pangolins in ways few people understand. Pups need to be fed every four hours and slowly taught how to forage for ants and termites. Adults often arrive weak or injured, sometimes requiring more than a year of quiet, consistent care before they are ready to return to the wild.

Each one is different.

Lisa watches closely. She has learned to read what cannot be spoken. She says you cannot hide your mood from a pangolin. They feel it. They respond to it.

Watching her work, you begin to understand that this is not just about rehabilitation. It is about relationship.

She is practical and grounded, yet gentle in the way she moves. Her hands carry years of work, but there is a softness in how she holds each animal. Nothing is rushed. Nothing is forced.

Over time, the pangolins have shaped her as much as she has cared for them. They have taught her patience. Resilience. A quieter way of being.

Her story is not loud.

It lives in small moments. In the way she holds an animal. In the way she waits. In the way she lets go when it is time for them to return to the wild.