Friday, February 15, 2008

Dog Beach Florida Baby Raccoons

Our first successful baby raccoon rescue has taken place for the 2008 birthing season. Six baby raccoons with their eyes not open yet, were found huddled around their dead mother. Mother had apparently been attacked by dog(s) [in what can only be considered defending her infants from harm] and subsequently killed adjacent to Dog Beach FL. One neonate infant that made it through the initial trauma did not survive to arrive at the rehabber.

A feral cat rescuer contacted Raccoon Rescue about these orphaned baby coonies on her porch in a box. Thank the Angels she found RR6Public. Valentine's Day - Feb 14, 2008 9:42 am, Nancine's post for help set the wheels of our fairly quiet Yahoo group into high gear [it was impressive], Nancine learned what she needed to do [and did it quite marvelously]. Meanwhile our Florida rehabbers started brainstorming, pin pointed locations, and had those babies in the capable hands of Denise - [an experienced licensed wildlife rehabilitator] - within 12 hours of that post. The group sighed a collective sigh of relief, and welcomed in Spring birthing season, and a new kindred spirit to RR6Public.

More details will follow .... when I get pictures ...... :^)

Thank you Nancine and Denise ... and everyone in between there giving such excellent advice and moral support to each other. Gotta love it!

Monday, January 28, 2008

"tame" Raccoon

Mon, January 14, 2008 10:58 am
Hello,

Over the years I have tried numerous times to get information on releasing a ‘tame’ coon into the wild. Do you know of any organizations that do so in [state removed]? I have had George for almost four years now. He is a typical coon in so many ways but has a couple things working against him. 1. He has one eye. As a kit he snuck into the crawl space and came back up a short time later with a small drop of blood under his eye. I took him to the emergency vet to find it was punctured and had to be surgically removed. 2. After the first year of trying to find a rehabber I took him in for all his shots and got him neutered. I don’t know if that will affect his ability to be wild. After the first rehabber told me he was to tame, at about 6 months of age, I went along with the idea of keeping him. That’s what led to the neutering, I was trying to limit aggressiveness that I had read about. He is very tame and loving even now, but still a wild animal as I’m sure you know. I applied for and got the DNR permits required to have a raccoon in [edited].

Now here is my dilemma, the permit will not transfer to our new house, it’s not considered rural enough even though it’s only 2 miles away. And the final thing is my husband and I are now expecting. As much as I love him I don’t trust him around an infant or toddler. He spends too much time in his pen now, and I can imagine it would only get worse after the baby is born. He gets along well with our 11 year old. But I think my husband has had enough. At this point the only thing I can come up with is euthanasia, unless you have another option. I work from home so he gets lots of supervised interaction each day, his best friend is our beagle.

I did not go out with the intention of getting a raccoon, I work in construction and found him under a home, his littermate was dead in the yard and he was extremely emaciated and dehydrated. I bottle fed him through the weekend and tried to find a rehabber the next week. They were all full but the Humane Society offered to euthanize him for me. I just couldn’t do it. The rehabbers were all full. By the time I could get him in he was 6 months old and deemed to tame. Because I volunteered there they let me take him back to research other options and I still have him today.

Any direction you can give me would be so appreciated.

I don’t want to let him go, but I don’t think he has the quality of life he deserves. Thank you so much for reading through this and I hope to hear from you soon. I just need to see if you think he could possibly be wild again.

Thank you,
[name removed]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Thank you for taking such good care of George and great blessings to your family for treating him as King Lotor that he is.
This is just an update for those of you following George's progress:
George will be with a licensed wildlife rehabber within mere days [early Feb] in the perfect place for him to be. George is one of the fortunates who Dory & the Orphans have had the virtual pleasure of crossing paths with. We will keep you updated on George on doryandtheorphans.blogspot.com.

Thursday, January 10, 2008

Adult Raccoon

I volunteer at my local animal shelter in Western Ky, and we need to find a rescue for an adult raccoon that was raised by humans. He will not be able to be released back into the wild for he has no fear of humans, dogs or cats.
Do you know of any organization that can assist me in finding a forever home for him.
Thanks for your help,
A.H.


You have found that "organization" and we have located a proper home for this guy for you. We are waiting the instructions for his transport arrangements. Thank you so much for contacting us!!

Tuesday, January 8, 2008

Birthing Season is Soon!!

Birthing season will soon be upon us. Baby coonies are going to be heard and found in the oddest of places. Perhaps you will hear birds chirping in the chimney in the middle of the night. This is most often infant coonies. In the cities they may be in between wall spaces, attics or basements. Abandoned vehicles, stored boats, farm equipment, stacked wooden pallets, firewood piles, sheds, tree houses, many things make good birthing dens for new mother coonies. They have no choice since the humans took away all the trees.

Please help us to help those wild families and injured or orphaned to get back to the wild.

I will try to post as many questions from as many states as possible. With the group of licensed rehabbers in all of the states -- the world actually -- perhaps we can help those who don't know what to do.

To ask a question please click on the word 'comment' below.