Mats Janzon heard “a sound I was not used to hearing – it sounded like an animal in distress,” and then saw a little brown animal in the forest. Turned out the Swedish animal rescuer had found a baby otter, malnourished and alone (he waited hours to see if the mother was anywhere around).
She could fit in the palm of his hand when he brought her home and named her Leya. Right away and around the clock he began the process of raising her. While Janzon knew how to help animals, this otter was a first. He bottle-fed her, nursed her back to health and taught her how to swim and hunt. He made her a nest so she could feel warm and safe.
He found out from a friend that Leya’s mother had been hit by a car and died.
Leya climbed all over him, constantly asked for attention, cuddled and followed him around (if you’ve seen otters in the wild, you know how playful and affectionate they are). “If she wants my attention she’ll make everything she can to get it,” Janzon said.
She explored inside and out. They lived together one-and-a-half years before she was independent and capable enough to be released into her natural habitat. “I don’t think I could imagine that this kind of experience would happen to me,” Janzon said.
Even though Leya now lives a fully independent wild life in Sweden, she frequently swims up to Mats’s kayak to climb aboard for cuddles and greetings. “I think she knows I’m a big animal in this lake and she feels safe.”
“It’s one of the greatest things on earth to have this interaction with animals,” Janzon said. “It’s’ one-and-a-million to have this opportunity.”
