Sleeping raccoons

[eohartman]

No matter how long I've been rehabbing, I don't think I'll ever get used to some of the positions the raccoons sleep in. They contort their bodies around toys. They'll all pile on top of one another. They'll sleep sitting up inside the water bowls. They'll sleep in ways that look so unnatural and uncomfortable to me, I can't possibly imagine why they're doing it. Sometimes I think they're dead. There's been more than one occasion where I've run outside and poked them, or yelled at them just to make sure they're still alive. Because why else would you sleep like this?

Hanging upside down from the hammock.



Same raccoon, different day:






I don't have a good picture of them sleeping up here yet, but usually I'll find two-three raccoons smushed up on the ledge above the habitat door (click to get a frame of reference for the door):


And a video, just to prove they're not actually dead.

(Excuse the smudges - the video was taken inside, through the window that they dirtied up.)