Thursday, July 23, 2009

raccoon watch day three: the drama continues

it's day three, and our little buddy is still around. yesterday we found him in the same tree as the day before. we consulted a raccoon rescue organization, and they gave us tons of helpful information about him.

he's about three months old and apparently has been separated from his mother. most likely she was trapped or run over, leaving this little guy an orphan. he's been out in the day because he's too young to effectively catch little mice, so he's hungry and foraging for anything he can find. it's like a freaking disney movie really. and my dad's cruella deville.

we decided to go ahead and purchase a humane trap (since it seems that we have a lot of woodland critters in our neighborhood) to try to catch him and release him to a better, more raccoon-friendly area.

we didn't catch him last night. this morning, he was nowhere to be found, so we assumed he'd be back today. sure enough, we were right.

about 3pm we looked out the window and saw this:

a little raccoon head peeping out of the empty squirrel feeder. we moved the trap and loaded it with raccoon-pleasing food items: apples, corn, tuna, peanuts. he took an immediate interest, but made no show to move:

finally, as i was composing an earlier draft of this post, he began to make a run for it. i can only assume that his empty belly eventually led him to get past his fear of my dogs and cruella.



the cage worked appropriately and trapped him very quietly and safely. he proceeded to chow down on all the goodies.

my parents loaded him in the car and took him a little ways down the road to live in a forested area near a brook. just to make sure he had plenty to eat, i made them take some of the squirrel food he was so found of and spread it around where they released him.

i hope he'll be happy and healthy there for the rest of his little raccoon life.

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