1/5/12 - New raccoon.

Thursday of last week, which would be December 29th, Teresa, Katie and I went riding our four-wheelers on our neighbor's property. Katie drove right past an adult raccoon in the middle of a pasture, in broad daylight. Katie never saw the 'coon (and for reasons I'll explain later the 'coon didn't seem to see Katie).

I pulled to a stop and watched the raccoon. Teresa joined me. We thought the 'coon must be sick to be in an open area in broad daylight. We watched and noticed that the coon didn't show any of the typical outward signs of illness - matted eyes, runny nose, aggressive behavior. The coon stood up and walked away toward a creek. We followed. The coon had a slight limp - maybe it was injured. The coon was also skinny. Teresa left to go get a cage in case we needed to intervene and some food we could leave behind for the coon to eat if we decided to leave it where it was. I watched and followed as the coon went into a creek bed. The coon eventually settled in the exposed roots of a tree. We watched and decided not to intervene. We left food and thought that was the end of the story.

Fast-forward to the evening of Wednesday January 4th. Our dogs went nuts in the backyard, barking at something on the neighbor's place. Katie went to look and discovered a raccoon ambling slowly toward our house through the neighbor's pasture. Teresa and I both agreed that it appeared to be the same raccoon we'd seen five days (same size, condition, and slow, ambling gait) earlier and nearly a mile away through the woods. As the coon got closer, she didn't seem too worried about us. We took the coon some food, which she ate. We couldn't quite put our finger on it, but something was wrong. I donned gloves and used a fishing net to capture the coon. To my surprise she didn't fight after the initial shock of being snared in a net wore off. We brought the coon to the house and examined her as best we could - we didn't want to handle her more than necessary for fear that it would stress the raccoon and also because we both really like our fingers attached to our hands. A mad raccoon can HURT you.

We determined that the raccoon was a female, she appeared to be a young adult and as we checked her over, we noticed that she didn't react to seeing us, but appeared to react to sound and smell - was she blind?

We've had the raccoon for over 24 hours now. She seems to be in decent shape but poorly nourished. We've started a five-day antibiotic cycle and are feeding her every few hours. She does appear to be at least partially blind. Young raccoons can suffer blindness as a result of a poor diet, and we think this little girl has been living off of nothing but corn from the neighbor's deer feeder - she was a hundred feet from a deer-feeder when we initially saw her. If the impaired vision is the result of poor diet, it may be reversible.

This little girl doesn't have a name yet, and I took the first photo of her today in her cage. When I took the photo, she didn't know the cage door was open. I got her to look my direction by kissing at her - she followed the sound. The flash made her eyes glow.

We don't know what to expect from here, but we will care for her and get her in good physical shape. If the blindness does reverse itself with proper nutrition, we'll release her back into the wild where she belongs. If she truly is blind and it is determined to be permanent, we won't be able to release her. At that point, she'll just become another well-cared-for member of the family.

12/18/2011 Updates.

Raccoons:
We released the four Raccoons in September. We were told that the males would become independent quickly. That was right. We saw the two males (Ricky and Fred) once or twice following release and then they went their own way. Lucy and Ethyl stayed gone for a couple of weeks, then started showing up in the evenings once or twice a week. We'd feed both girls and they'd go away. Then the girls started showing up every night for a snack. Both are HUGE and very healthy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRYUT_dtxDo

The deer are doing great. All four have done very well and we expect all four to do great in the wild. We expect to release all four in January or February of 2012.

HOG WILD!!! -or- Phoebe McRib the wild pig.

12/6/2011

Bethany, a friend of Teresa's found an orphaned wild piglet. Always up for a new challenge, we took the baby off Bethany's hands. Our best estimate put the baby at about a week old. Katie, our daughter complained that she never gets to name anything. We gave Katie her shot at naming. Katie picked the name Phoebe. I (John) added a surname McRib just to irritate Katie.

We started Phoebe on Ultra 24 milk replacer and she took to it immediately. When the formula wasn't enough, we added rice cereal to the formula. A week later we started Phoebe on pig feed and gradually reduced the formula. Now Phoebe is weaned and thriving. 

Having never been around pigs (we both grew up with cattle and horses) we're pretty amazed at how smart Phoebe is. She comes when called. She uses the litter box in her cage. Phoebe plays chase with the dogs (sometimes being chased and sometimes doing the chasing) and follows us around like a puppy. Phoebe is incredibly clean. For now Phoebe stays in a cage in the laundry room at night and runs around in the house during the evening. 

1/5/12
Phoebe and her best buddy Steve enjoying an afternoon nap. Yes, now that you mention it, she IS lying on a throw-pillow:

Franklin the squirrel

On the first day of school, the principal at one of the schools in the district where we work called Teresa and said he had a baby squirrel and asked if we would be able to care for it. Of course the answer was YES!

The story goes that the principal was out hunting at night and heard a tiny animal crying. Looking around, the principal found a very young squirrel that had fallen from a nest. The nest was not visible and the baby had injuries that looked like something had already bitten or scratched it. Knowing it wouldn't last long on the ground, and with no possibility of returning the baby to the nest, he brought the baby home.

As soon as we got the baby home, we started him on a round of Amoxicillin and treated his wounds with Neosporin. The principal's middle name is Franklin. We named the squirrel Franklin.

Franklin has thrived!

August 2011 photos:

December 2011 photo:

Franklin is almost grown now. We will move Franklin to a larger outdoor cage where he will further develop his motor skills and get used to temperature/light cycles. Once Franklin has developed his motor skills, he will be released.   

UPDATE - Fawns, Raccoons, Squirrels, Opossums

Friday 8/19/11
The four fawns (Penny, Pepper, Holly and JD) are all doing great. They are almost old enough to be released. We're looking at mid-fall for a release time. We've weaned them for the most part and they're all eating grass, ground corn and sweet feed. We still give formula twice per day but we pour it into a bucket now and allow them to lap it up rather than feed them from a bottle. As they mature, we'll wean them completely from formula and move them onto 100% solid food. We built a water mister and put it on the south side of the fawn's pen so that the prevailing breeze will blow water mist into their pen. We also have a sunscreen on top of the pen to help keep the fawns cool.

The raccoons, Lucy, Ricky, Fred and Ethel (so-named because each shared personality traits of their television namesakes) are loving life and all four are thriving. The weather is so hot right now; 100+ every day and drought conditions are here for the immediate future. The heat and lack of rain has caused water to be very scarce and food supplies to dwindle. Even though the 'coons are old enough to be released, we're holding onto them until forage and water conditions improve. We put a water mister and a fan outside the 'coons pen so that there is a constant stream of water mist blowing into the pen. The 'coons play constantly and are always good for a laugh. Here's a video of one enjoying the water hose:

The squirrels have all been released. One or two still make themselves seen almost daily. They bark at us from trees as we walk through the yard, or they chase us down and jump on our pant-legs then climb onto our shirts so we can feed them a few pecans.


From time to time we see some of the opossums as they forage for food near the barn or the house.


The heat and drought have been a real issue for wildlife this summer. We set out cantaloupe, watermelon, pecans and vegetable scraps as well as plenty of fresh water that all can access from the woods or from the front yard. From the footprints and missing food, we know the wild critters are eating and drinking.

Update on Sandy, the infant squirrel

8/16/11
We held off for a week on naming the infant squirrel we picked up from Susan. The mortality rate on anything that small is very high, but she'd made it a week and was gaining weight, growing and seemed to be thriving. Teresa and our daughter Katie came up with the name Sandy (as in Spongebob's friend Sandy the squirrel from Texas). Sandy had been on antibiotics for a full seven-day cycle on Monday and everything seemed great.

At the 3:00am feeding - Teresa fed Sandy EVERY three hours, around the clock - Teresa noticed that Sandy was lethargic, her appetite was less than usual, bowel movement was labored and her urine output had decreased. At 6:00am, Sandy's condition was about the same. By 7:00am, her breathing was labored. At 11:00am Sandy died in Teresa's lap.

We stay small - we run our rehab from home, we don't solicit donations and pay for everything out of our own pockets. We don't have fund-raising events and we don't have volunteers. Our intent is to remain small enough that we know every animal on sight and every animal has a name. When one of out babies dies (there have been two out of close to 75 animals) it hurts us. We take comfort knowing that we did everything possible to keep Sandy alive, but in the end it wasn't based on our effort, prayers or dedication. We don't know the Lord's plans for His animals, so we accept the bad with the good and continue to work just as hard today as we did yesterday.
John

The "Coon Coop"

May 2011

Toward the end of the 2010/2011 school year, the students in Mr. Fischer's shop class at Rains High School ran out of projects and needed something to finish the school year. We supplied the lumber and materials and they built us a 10 foot wide by 8 foot tall pre-release cage for the raccoons. While they were working on the project, one student commented that the cage looked like a chicken coop. Another student replied that it was for raccoons. The students began calling it The Coon Coop and the name stuck. The Coon Coop was built with Wildcat Pride; it's perfect. Thanks guys!

I've got it made in the shade!