photograph by carey shawT
HE EVIDENCE IS all over Hayley
Hesseln’s living room: a throw
pillow featuring the faces of
three smiling specimens; a nutcracker
on the mantelpiece complete with
whiskers and masked eyes. Hesseln,
52, doesn’t buy all these items for
herself—each one was gifted her after
she earned the nickname “The Rac-
coon Lady” in 2013. That’s when she
established what is now Saskatche-
wan’s only raccoon-exclusive wildlife
rehabilitation operation.
Hesseln doesn’t have a specific
attachment to the raccoons—she likes
all mammals. Mostly, she’s fascinated
by how orphaned animals come to
trust humans and find comfort in
them. For the past two decades, whenshe’s not teaching environmental agri-
culture and resource economics at the
University of Saskatchewan’s College
of Agriculture and Bioresources, Hes-
seln has worked with wildlife and
abandoned animals, from rehoming
orphaned rats to volunteering with a
provincial rehabilitation hotline. The
raccoon operation came about when an
overwhelmed Jan Shadick, who takes in
hundreds of animals a year at Saska-
toon’s Living Sky Wildlife Rehabilita-
tion, asked Hesseln for help.
For the past six years, Hesseln has
spent her summers feeding, playing
with and cleaning up after orphaned
raccoon kits, usually in their first few
weeks of life. Her operation is called
Bandit Ranch Rehab, which is a bit ofHayley Hesseln rehabs orphaned kits
and returns them to the wild
Raccoon Rescue
BY Chelsea Laskowskireader’s digest
14 october 2019
DO THE RIGHT THING