As you might imagine, working with raccoons in rehabilitation is not always easy and comes with a variety of challenges. For a case in point, read to the end of this letter. Every so often, though, the masked bandits will make the job just a smidge easier for you. Thus was the case in late …
As I’ve mentioned previously, while reuniting a separated baby raccoon with its mother is possible, there are several factors that come into play when determining if the attempt should be made (location, health of the baby, circumstances of intake, etc). The literal baby hand-off last year was a unique experience. Typically when a reunite is …
One particularly lovely thing that can happen in wildlife rehabilitation is a reunite of a displaced baby with its mom. If the baby or babies are in good health and the particulars of circumstance and location are right, it is possible to attempt to reunite the “orphan” with its mom. However, in far too many …
A couple of weeks ago, a young raccoon came in to WildCare after being stuck in a garbage can with her sibling for at least a week. The trash can had accumulated several inches of water during a rain storm. Unfortunately, her sibling died in the can. By the time she was found and brought …
Remember the little singleton raccoon that needed a bath this summer? We released him last Sunday, along with 6 other juvenile raccoons! Baby raccoons do not do well as singletons, so we create family groups of usually 4-8 orphans. They also do better when released as a group; they look out for each other and …
Difficult as it may be to believe, my favorite thing about raccoon foster care is not picking up a steaming pile at 6:30 in the morning. No, my favorite thing is releasing them into the wild! It was time for 4 lucky contestants to venture out into the world last Friday. Scheduling was an issue, …
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This is my sixth year doing raccoon foster care for WildCare but last weekend I got to do something I hadn’t done before: give a raccoon a bath! We have a little singleton raccoon who came in about 2 weeks ago. He’s the guy we got the message about after we got back from Santa …
I have been meaning to post these pictures for weeks now. Sorry for the delay! In April, Steve and I babysat a 5-day-old raccoon one afternoon while his foster parent took the afternoon off. He was very tiny and stll had his umbilical cord attached. He was very cute, but I think the raccoons we …
A couple of weeks ago, Steve and I babysat for some foster care raccoons while their foster parent was away for a week. All of the raccoons that we had looked after earlier this summer were in varying stages of depression, anxiety, and wildness. They had all come to WildCare a little older than the …
Last weekend Steve and I got to do one of my favorite things about volunteering at WildCare. We got to release some patients. Specifically, we got to release 6 orphaned raccoons that had grown into burly, strapping adolescents. We found a great location for them in the woods near a creek, and not all that …