Racoons

I've posted some racoon pics on flickr. You can get to them through the sidebar. We currently have two groups. A large colony of nine that live in the habitat I built out front and the three babies on the porch(!?). We are part of rescue network that rehabs baby racoons and then releases them back to the wild. It's very rewarding (most of the time!). We have to keep the two groups separate for now because the bigger guys will hog the food and beat up the youngsters.

Dolly went out tues morning to give the racs out front some water and inadvertantly left the door unlatched. Escape artists that they are, within a few minutes they were all in the trees and just charging around. She jumped the fence and got most of them just to have them re-release themselves in few minutes. She is no longer allowed to touch the cage! In the process of capturing the escapees she got into poison oak or ivy or chiggers or some sort of nasty, itchy bumpy stuff. She is covered with horribly itchy red bumps and is scratching, scratching scratching. I have to laugh quietly or I'll get blasted! It's funny but I still don't like to see her suffer like that. I'd show you a pic but boy would I ever be in the doghouse if I did!. Anyway, back to the racs. So we eventually recaptured 7 of the little devils but still had two on the loose. Over the last two days I managed to recapture both of them with delicious food and a have-a-heart trap. Although they may look big enough they are not yet skilled enough to find food and water on their own so I knew they didn't go far. They are completely dependent on us until they are 9 or so months old. At this point most of them are still quite friendly and like to touch you through the cage and grab your fingers and shirt. They have the most fascinating hands, large soft pads with articulated thumbs. When they hold onto your fingers it's like velvet gloves. I understand that the reason they appear to wash their food is actually that the water makes their hands more sensitive. Apparently touch is their primary sense.

The little guys on the porch are a panic. They come and fuss at the door when it's time to eat. They watch us as much as we (and the dogs and cats) watch them. I'm not sure who is more interested in who! When you go out to feed them they will come charging from wherever they are and banzai at the food. Milk, banana, omnivore biscuits, grapes, sardines, apple, left-over spaghetti, pear, dog food, cat food actually just about anything.

After the racoons are about 6-7 months old they are moved (that should be fun) to the big release cages out back in the woods and eventually they will be released, wished good luck and that will that until baby season next year!

Just a note about racoons as pets. They are quite cute and affectionate when they are small but as they get larger they can get really mean and quite vicious, particularly at breeding time. Any idea how much fun it is dealing with a cranky 40 lb male racoon in your kitchen? All in all a bad idea and certainly not fair to the racoon.