Unnamed Cryptozoology WIP

There's something very wrong with the unnamed cryptozoology piece. The fact that it's still unnamed is a big clue to me that there's a problem.

After all this time and research, I still don't have "the hook". I'm pretty sure the character is Rachel Hunter. Why is she looking for cryptids and what is she going to do with them? Who knows. Is she trying to prove they exist? Or hide their existence so they don't become extinct? What will happen if she doesn't find a cryptid? Why do we care? I still don't have any answers.

I still like the idea of a woman that lives in a trailer with her raccoon dog. A research scientist that is looking for answers or has an agenda. I may have to expand the field. Instead of a cryptozoologist, maybe she's a Fortean researcher?

Maybe she's researching anomalies, rather than cryptids? It's a wider field, and allows for more travel and problems with all sorts of people, but I'm still wondering why...why is she doing this? What's in it for her? Knowledge? Love? Carrying on in the footsteps of her father (or mother)?

In X Files, Fox was determined to prove that strange things were out there, because his sister had been taken by "strange things out there" but no one would believe him. In "The Secret Saturdays", they wanted to find cryptids and hide them before the Evil Villain found them and made them extinct. In Supernatural, they're following in their father's footsteps and trying to save the world. Some other show that I don't know the name of, the guy wants to put "the truth" on his website. So, what's in it for Rachel? Why does she do this?

Until I know that, I can't do anything more with the story.

Maybe her father was a discredited scientist that died before he was unable to prove his "crackpot" theories. Rachel wants to prove that her father was right, but discovers that revealing the truth about cryptids is just going to get the cryptids killed. (People will want to put them in zoos and study them, right into extinction. Let's not forget the last passenger pigeon and last Tasmanian wolf both died in zoos.) Now, Rachel is torn. Continue her work and exonerate her father but kill the very things he loved. Or, let her father's memory be laughingstock in the scientific community. However, aren't the cryptids still in danger?

Look at the Hoan Kiem turtle which was discovered in 1998.  It's now on the verge of extinction (only 3 known left) and their habitat is being destroyed by development. Right now, plans are being made to save them and create new nesting beaches for them. If they'd never been discovered, they would never have a chance to be rescued.

It's a start, but it's not the full hook that I'm looking for.