Adventures

On Friday, I picked up five newborn raccoons from Cobb County Animal Control. The mother was trapped in someone's attic and released outside, leaving the babies behind. Thankfully, the homeowners brought them into animal control, and a rehabber who works there contacted me. The raccoons are currently about a week old and weigh 125 grams, measuring about 4 inches long. They're so tiny! They're in that so-ugly-they're-cute stage: their eyes and ears are fully closed, and they're pretty awkward creatures, as you'll see in the video below. I think these are the youngest raccoons I've rehabbed. Thankfully, they're all healthy and in great shape - I don't expect to have any problems with them. In a couple more weeks, they'll look more like raccoons and have fine motor skills down pat. Until then, they're just balls of awkwardness:
Four of them:


And a video of their awkwardness:


They look just as awkward as I felt in middle school.

Last Friday, I was looking forward to releasing my last four raccoons so I could have a couple weeks off before "baby season" begins. Ha! Instead, I got another juvenile on Sunday and tomorrow I will be picking up five (!!!!) newborn raccoons. For three days (Friday - Sunday), I will have three different age groups of raccoons with wildly different needs.

After the release on Sunday, I will be working like mad to get the floor ripped out of the habitat, get the rhino lining guy out here for an estimate, and hopefully get that installed asap so I can move the newest juvenile into his new home.

Oh, and on Saturday evening, we're hosting a barn concert. Which means all the organizing/cleaning projects I've been putting off for months have been full-swing-ahead, as 100 people are going to be milling around the barn and our house all evening.

Oh hai there!

Most of the day-to-day wildlife rehab details aren't very exciting this time of year, when my raccoon responsibility consists of the bare basics - food, clean water, and shelter. There are days when I don't see them at all because they don't need anything and I limit my contact with them.

A week and a half ago, I acquired raccoon #3, Casper. Despite riding on the back of a dog with his previous owner, he wanted nothing to do with Rowdy and Crackers, so I secluded him in his own kennel inside the raccoon habitat in order to help him adjust to the other two raccoons. In his kennel, he could see them, smell them, and have minimal contact with them through the kennel door. He didn't want anything to do with me, either, so he would back away from me each time I opened his kennel to give him fresh food, water, and bedding. I've been extremely patient with him, taking things slow, letting him sniff (and nibble) my gloved-hand, and giving him the time he needs in order to adjust to this giant lifestyle change. In mere days, his life turned completely upside-down from being a pet living in a home to being a raccoon living outside. It's only natural he'd be freaked out, so I've been giving him time to adjust.

Yesterday was the one-week mark of him living in the kennel in the habitat, so I decided it was time to see how he'd do with Rowdy and Crackers. I opened up his kennel door and waited. And waited. After over an hour, he darted out of the kennel and up onto the side of the habitat, where he hung out for a couple of hours. From then on, I've been checking on him every couple of hours. At first, he would nip and growl at the other raccoons when they came close (they REALLY wanted to play with him!). At about 10 p.m. last night, I saw him down on the habitat floor, sniffing Rowdy. At midnight, they were walking around together. At 3 a.m. (because yes, I DID set my alarm to check on him), I couldn't see him, so I figured he had just gone back into his kennel.

Imagine my surprise when I went out there to check on him this morning and found him SLEEPING IN THE HAMMOCK WITH ROWDY AND CRACKERS! Guys, I was ELATED. I've been so patient with Casper, making sure nothing was forced on him, and it paid off! There are few times when I've felt so successful at rehabbing, and this was absolutely one of those times. I'm so happy he's fully integrated into my little raccoon family!

Rowdy licking Casper in the hammock:


Crackers and Casper:


Although you can only see Rowdy and Cracker's heads in this picture, the hammock is being weighed down by Casper, too:

Ping, the cat who chews on air, has recently found a new place to sleep.

On top of the litter box.


Side view:


Here's a video (from November-ish) of Rowdy and Crackers yawning in their hammock:


I acquired the new raccoon, Casper, on Sunday evening. He's still getting used to being in a totally different environment, and he wants nothing to do with Rowdy and Crackers yet, but he'll come around. Currently, he's in a giant dog kennel inside the habitat - he can see, smell, and have little interaction with Rowdy and Crackers (through the locked kennel door), but he's still secluded in his own safe space. Once he's fully integrated into the habitat with the other two raccoons, I'll have to take some pictures and videos of him. Until then, this one photo will have to suffice:

For Christmas, I really wanted to decorate the raccoon habitat with a Christmas tree. Since I'm over-wintering them, I have to find new enrichment activities for them every week-ish, so they don't get bored. And what a better way to celebrate Christmas with two raccoons than to have a Christmas tree!? A local Christmas tree stand closed down on Dec. 23rd, and I called them up to ask if I could have some of the remaining trees on the lot. I was told "Yes, please! The more you take, the less we have to turn into mulch," so "take" I did - nine trees of various sizes!

I ended up using four in the habitat - two small trees hanging upside down from the top of the habitat, one tree standing right-side up (although still hanging from the habitat roof), and one tree laying across the habitat floor. They've LOVED the trees! I took a bunch of pictures of them playing in the trees. You can see the full set here on Facebook, but here are a couple of my favorites:

( Pictures and video behind the cut! )

Just spamming the flist with more raccoon videos.

My coworker and her three-year-old son collected acorns for my raccoons the other day. I told her I'd take video of them eating the acorns so she could show it to her son. He's so cute, he kept bringing her handfulls of acorns and saying "This is good raccoon food." Love him!




Here's a video that I shot two weeks ago on my iPhone of Rowdy playing with the streams of water:


( And an old video (which I don't think I ever posted, and am too lazy to go back and check) of them eating food that my coworkers donated: )
In a couple of days, I'll post the second release video, from the three-raccoon release on Oct. 3rd.

The video quality isn't as high as I wanted it to be because I accidentally put my camera on the "e-mail video" setting, but whatevs. Still an awesome video!



Thanks to scottique for not only supporting me this whole summer, but also for going with me on Saturday to release them, shooting this video, and making it lovely. :-)

Rowdy plays in the water!



It looks like he's playing the drums!

This one isn't edited because I don't have the time. Regardless, it's a video of them eating their dinner, parts of it thanks to scottique, my coworker Jennifer, and my great aunt's neighbor (she gave me TONS of tomatoes and cucumbers!). :-)