Your neighbor's recipe: Nurturing nature

Laura Rissler’s house is home to a couple of dogs, a couple of cats and one tiny mouse.

The mouse is the really lucky one.

Once destined to be lunch — or maybe just a snack — for a snake, the mouse was granted a reprieve because of the snake’s apparent lack of appetite.

The experience apparently didn’t traumatize the mouse, as he now will nestle calmly in the palm of Rissler’s hand when she removes him from his own small house.

Rissler doesn’t just love animals; for her, caring for them is a way of life, and she has a bachelor of science degree in agriculture with her area as animal health.

Although she’s moved onto a somewhat different career path as assistant property manager at Starve Hollow State Recreation Area, the past several years have been filled with hands-on wildlife work.

“I used to work with eagles,” Rissler said, referring to the time she spent in southern Kentucky immersed in environmental education and wildlife rehabilitation.

Life eventually offered an even bigger challenge — an opportunity to work with seals, otters and raptors in Canada.

“It was one of the coolest things I’d ever done,” Rissler said.

The area was so remote that when her husband, Chris, came for a visit, it took him three days just to get there. Rissler said she had gone to Canada with her husband’s blessing, even though it meant lengthy separations, and as it turned out, the end result was a good one.

“That really helped us learn how to communicate,” she said. “It totally changed our relationship. It totally changed who I was.”

She also later spent a brief time in Holland, working with seals. Her work there took place around the time of the United States’ invasion of Iraq, and Rissler voluntarily cut short her stay because the anti-American tension that was running high in the country left her with a feeling of unease.

Stateside again, she kept up her rehabilitation work and also began doing programs.

“I was good at it and I liked it,” she said. “I felt like I really connected with people. In order to take care of the animals, you have to teach people to take care of the environment.”

She said Chris has always been supportive of her work, above and beyond what is expected in most marriages.

“Most people wouldn’t have a litter of skunks sleeping beside their bed,” she said.

Both Rissler and her husband are from Louisville and attended duPont Manual High School there, before they both went on to Murray State College.

“We were actually high school sweeties,” Rissler said, smiling as she added, “I still like him. It helps.”

The family also includes their daughter, Kendall, 3, and son, Jaxon, 1½.

“Life’s a little crazy,” Rissler said, laughing, as the children romped through the house a bit before settling down to an afternoon activity.

The children are one reason Rissler decided to take the position at Starve Hollow and relocate the family to Vallonia.

The couple had lived away from Louisville for nearly nine years, and during that time, the city had changed, Rissler said.

“We wanted (the children) to grow up in a place” that had less crime and offered a more family oriented environment.

In accepting the position at Starve Hollow, “I knew it would mean I’d have to move,” she said. “The location and community were exactly what we were looking for.” Before they moved, Rissler visited the area and decided she liked what she saw.

As she learns the ropes of her new job, there’s plenty to keep her busy.

“We’re upgrading the (Starve Hollow) property,” she said, with more campsites to have hookups, although some primitive campsites will remain.

She has plenty of good help, though, Rissler said.

“My staff here is awesome,” she said.

Creamy Crescent Bites

2 tubes refrigerated crescent roll dough

1 8-ounce package cream cheese

1 pound sausage

Fry sausage; drain and rinse. Add sausage to cream cheese and mix together. Place 1 whole tube of crescent roll dough on a pan and cook for one-half of the recommended time at the recommended temperature. Spread the sausage mix over the dough. Cover with the second tube of crescent roll dough. Bake recommended time (about 12 minutes). Once top is barely brown, broil for 1 to 2 minutes (until golden brown) so bottom does not burn.