Raccoon Rescue

Hayley Hesseln rehabs orphaned kits and returns them to the wild

- Chelsea Laskowski

THE 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 has gifted her after she earned the nickname “The Raccoon Lady” in 2013. That’s when she established what is now Saskatchewan’s only raccoon-exclusive wildlife rehabilitation operation.