They rescue all kinds of critters
Published: July 11, 2007
On most Sundays, David Ogden watches NASCAR in his double-wide, with Cotton, an overweight squirrel sitting in his lap scamming potato chips and sweet tea.
Seven years ago, Ogden was a hard drinker and smoker, a former Marine who liked Harley-Davidson motorcycles and riverboat casinos.
Today, he’s a much different man.
He married a woman who devotes her life to saving animals. Misti Ogden, a veterinarian’s assistant, tube-feeds orphaned baby opossums and shares bologna sandwiches with recovering raccoons.
The couple — who met through an Internet chat room — rescue animals throughout South Carolina, coming to the aid of turtles in Hampton County, red-tailed hawks on Hilton Head Island and even a shoebox full of baby mice from Columbia.
Half the time, David bickers with Cotton, a permanent pet because of her lame foot. She sleeps with the couple, perches on their shoulders and builds nests out of toilet paper.
Little Critters Wildlife Haven is a menagerie, both inside and outside of the house on 3 acres in Nixville, S.C. The town is essentially a Baptist church, convenience store and fire station near Estill.
At the Ogden home, animals have invaded both spare bedrooms, and homemade incubators take up part of the kitchen.
Each creature has a name. There’s Buttercup the opossum, Louie the cardinal with feathers plucked like a chicken, Gidget the Australian flying squirrel and Picasso the parrot.
Many of the animals they rescue are babies, orphaned by loggers, cars and pets or injured when they fell from nests. Some come from flighty owners, no longer willing or able to take care of their pets.
They never reject a creature in need or ask for money. They are always on the lookout for more animals, even if that means postponing a rare movie date in order to check roadkill opossums’ pouches for abandoned offspring.
Largely under Misti’s careful watch, the couple rehabilitate the animals, eventually releasing them at wildlife preserves, near their home or, in the case of birds that mate for life, where they were found. It’s hard to let go of something you’ve nursed back to health, said Misti, who spends the night with sick animals so they won’t die alone.
“A lot of rehabbers only take the animal out to feed them; they don’t believe in bonding with them,” said Misti . “We’re the opposite.”
Most of the animals go back to their wild ways when they’re released, although a few occasionally return to the Ogden home for a bite to eat.
Misti, a farm girl from Michigan, has had to say farewell more often than she’d like to animals that can’t be saved, no matter how hard she tries.
And she’s seen her share of personal tragedy.
Her son, Jason, died of cancer in 1999 at the age of 19. Her 22-year-old daughter, Sommer, was killed by a drunken driver in 2004 on S.C. 46 just east of Hardeeville while helping a stranded motorist tow his pickup out of a ditch.
The couple rescue animals partially as a tribute to Sommer, who helped rescue their first animal, Cotton. An insurance settlement paid off their home and allowed them to expand the operation, which sometimes houses up to 100 animals.
“I like giving back to nature what it gives me, which is a lot of pleasure,” said Misti. “By taking care of them and releasing them back, it gives the next generation the chance to enjoy what I’ve enjoyed.”
David’s vices have changed. He no longer smokes or drinks, after suffering a pair of heart attacks. He’s replaced “hogs” with rescued pot-bellied pigs.
His biggest thrill these days comes from watching the squirrels bound from the trees in the front yard. One of them, a former patient, approaches him on the porch. He delicately hands it a peanut.
“They’re really a trip,” he said.
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