Posted: 6/5/02

Hearts are healed and critters go free

Cliff Buchan
News Editor

Gen Sederstromís heart was breaking this spring. A white squirrel, a critter that often came to her squirrel and bird feeders, lay dead in the street, hit by a car.

Sederstromís heart ached even more several days later when one by one, two starving baby squirrels, both white, emerged from their nest looking for food and their mother.

But slowly the heartbreak for the Forest Lake woman is starting to heal, thanks to another area woman whose kind heart and foster parenting skills will give the two orphaned squirrels a second chance.

By day, Becky Olson is a veterinarian technician at South Shore Veterinary Hospital in Forest Lake. When sheís not at her job ó and sometimes when she is there ó Olson is caring for a wide assortment of orphaned animals.

It was Olson to the rescue in early May when Sederstrom gently collected the two babies and drove to South Shore Vet Hospital from her home on the heavily traveled NW 3rd St. looking for help.

For the past three weeks, the two babies have joined other orphans who are getting a fighting chance at life thanks to Olson when they are released on the grounds of Olsonís 400-acre farm in New Scandia Township.

Labor of love

For Olson, 43, working with orphaned animals has become a labor of love. It is also an activity that grew from her desire to work with animals.

The 1977 Forest Lake High School graduate has worked at South Shore for more than 15 years as a vet tech. She left for a few years to try her hand at farming.

And farming in a big way. She milked 250 Jersey cows on the family farm and took care of 350 head of cattle in all. When she developed a bad case of tendonitis in her wrist, she was forced to sell the herd and exit the dairy business.

ìI was pretty sad and I was lonely for critters,î she said, looking back on that 1994 decision.

She found an outlet for her love of animals through a course offered by the Hennepin County Humane Society on fostering wildlife.

When five baby cottontails came to Olson Farms, she faced her first test. After weeks of laboring and learning with the baby rabbits, all five were set free on the farm.

ìI was pretty proud when all five made it,î she said.

In the eight years that she has been caring for abandoned or fostered animals, Olson has seen her share of rabbits, squirrels, numerous birds (sparrows, robins, ducks, geese) and raccoons. A few years back she was called to collect seven goslings that were loose on I-694 in Brooklyn Park after their mother had been hit and killed by a vehicle.

ìWe were able to get all seven,î she says, describing the action much in the style of the ìKeystone Cops.î

Olson tries to care for animals that can find habitat on the family farm. She has taken formal training to work in this field and is state licensed to rehabilitate wild animals through the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.

Wherever needed

Olson has developed a reputation in the area as someone who can help. With 15 plus years at South Shore, many doors have been opened and the word spreads.

When Sederstrom called last month, Olson quickly extended an offer to help.

She believes she is doing something positive in this world.

ìThey are babies and they need me,î she says. ìIt is their second chance and they need me.î

Olson says it is her goal to raise the infants to the point where they can be released into the wild. Most find freedom on the Scandia farm; some are returned to the areas where they were first found.

Raising wild creatures to adulthood is not easy and Olson is careful not to let the young become too dependent upon the human.

Once the young animals are strong enough to begin functioning on their own, they are gradually introduced into the wild and placed in situations where they learn the sights and sounds of nature, and what to fear, Olson says.

ìAll are wild by the time I release them,î she says. ìThey want to be released. They get their freedom. They are given a chance.î

Not always easy

Olson says it was touch and go with the Sederstrom squirrels for a while. The two babies appeared two days apart with the last baby coming down the tree a week after the mother had been killed.

ìThey were dehydrated, cold and almost dead,î Olson said. ìShe (Sederstrom) was in tears. She feeds the squirrels and loves them dearly.î

The two babies are albinos with the white color caused by a recessive gene, Olson says. In the northwest area of Forest Lake, a population of albino squirrels has been present for a number of years.

Under Olsonís care, the infants at first required feeding every two hours. As they have grown older and stronger, the squirrels will need feeding every five to six hours.

When the squirrels are 3‡ months old, theyíll be transferred to a release cage which is used in the transition from Olsonís care to life on their own.

Olson faces the reality that animals like rabbits and squirrels are low on the food chain and may fall victim to predators in the wild. But they are given a chance at life which is something many didnít have when they were orphaned, she says.

Olson says there is great personal satisfaction in helping infant critters survive and have a chance at life.

On her walks on the Olson grounds, Olson believes she has met some of the animals that have been in her care.

ìThey acknowledge my presence and then run off,î she said. ìThey are all my kids.î

Sederstrom for one couldnít be happier.

As she makes weekly visits to the hospital to check up on the two squirrels when they are there with Olson, Sederstrom says that the heart that was once breaking is now swelling with pride.

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