Recuperating veterinarian returns to make lion's ears

Olsen not sure whether he will practice after accident

MOSES LAKE — Some of the people who stopped by the Moses Lake Lions' booth at the Grant County Fair had their lion's ear made by somebody special.

"In most places they call them elephant ears, but since we're not an Elephant Club, we renamed it to be lion's ears because we're a Lions Club," Ron Olsen explained. "They don't really look like lion's ears, but that's all right."

Olsen is a longtime veterinarian who arrived in Moses Lake seven years ago, and he has been making lion's ears as a member of the Moses Lake Lions Club ever since.

"The secret is to leave them in (the fryer) the right time to get them the right consistency," Olsen said, noting that when the booth has lots of customers, he's had up to six ears in the fryer at one time. "They're in, you flip them over and then they're out. Another one goes in, etc."

Keep them in too long, and the grease starts to get cold, but there's enough heat under the Lions' fryer that everything generally turns out all right, Olsen said.

"Basically, the secret is just staying with it, paying attention," he said. "It's fun. You get to meet all the people in the community. We do a lot of good things for the community, and this is one of the ways that we raise the money to do those things."

Lions' endeavors include helping to provide eyeglasses and hearing aids to those who can't afford them, Olsen noted.

Earlier this year, Olsen was injured while treating a bull, as part of his work with the Broadway Animal Hospital.

"I took my eye off of him for a millisecond, and he had a real mad on, and he ended up getting me in the face with a gate and then getting me in the back with his head," Olsen recalled. "Crushed a shoulder blade and 10 ribs."

Olsen said he had worked with all kinds of animals in his 40 years as a vet.

"I've been hurt a little bit, but this was the first time I've been hurt bad," he said.

The recovery process has been slow, Olsen said, although his doctor tells him he is way ahead of where he should be. "But I'm not as far ahead as I want to be."

Olsen said he bears no grudge against either the bull's owner, or the bull.

"He got what he deserved — he's in somebody's locker being eaten," he said of the animal with a chuckle. "He didn't have any specific grudge against me, he just had a grudge against mankind. It's just the hazards of the profession, and always before I've been able to be half a step ahead and get out of those scrapes, and this time I didn't."

Olsen said he doesn't know if he plans to return to work.

"I don't know how long it's going to take and how well I'm going to be healed up at the end," he said. "Right now, my right arm functions, but I can't raise it. A lot of the work that I do requires mobility in that arm, and that is not there. It's going to depend on that and time."

Olsen said he had plans to retire in the spring.

"It doesn't feel good, because to a certain extent, a lot of us define ourselves by our work, and I can't do any work," he said. "So I'm keeping busy volunteering and stuff for different things. But everything I do takes twice as long as I think it should. But that's OK."

Despite what he perceives as his own slow progress, Olsen feels his volunteer work is just as important, and he doesn't appear to have slowed any while doling out the doughy treats at the Lions' booth.

Taking the time to make the lion's ears is part of who he is, he said.

"It's kind of the same as my job," he said. "I've been in Lions 38 years in different clubs, I started in British Columbia, then I was over in Pullman and then I came here. Lions is a very worthwhile organization, it does a lot of good and helping out is the way I am. To be a real human being, you have to help other people, and this is one of the ways I do it."

Anyone interested in becoming a member of Lions should contact a Lions member, Olsen said.

"It's a way to give back to the community, and I think that everybody should give something back to the community," he said. "The community helps them, and they should return that."