FYI, we’re now doing most of our posts on our FACEBOOK page, Rancho Raccoon.  I just don’t have time to update everything, so I’ll be moving the blog over to Facebook.  If there’s anyone out there who wants the blog but isn’t on FB, please email me and I’ll try to accommodate you somehow!

Meanwhile, come on over and friend us on FB!  We don’t have youngsters yet, but I am doing a wildlife tip of the week and beginning to post some photos over there.

Happy raccoons,

Megan

megan@ranchoraccoon.org

The Hissing Teapot

Debra reports on releasing her first group of the year:

When we opened theircarriers, they didn’t even say goodbye; they immediately began investigatingthe creek.  Last thing I saw were tails going along the water.

It was a great sight to see!  I will continue to go back twice a week until I feel

confident that they don’t need me anymore.  What a great batch they turned

out to be despite all the mishaps.  I wish Tiny Tim had been with them but I

know he is in the best of hands, thanks to you. I have been back 3 times

with food and treats and they are happy and safe.  The first time they were

up in a tree, second time I did not see them and worried all night. The last

time I was just about to give up when they arrived.

The Big Moment

Checking for crawdads

Congratulations, Debra!  Beautiful juvenile raccoons, and a beautiful release site!

Cheers, Megan

http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/assignment_7&id=7576575

Not many orphaned raccoon kits have their own personal neurosurgeons, not to mention a medical team including two surgical assistants, an anesthesiologist, plus a full-time physical therapist for after-care.

This might qualify for something more emphatic than the “only in Marin” chorus I often hear, along with the expressive eye-roll.  Even I had my doubts when one of our rehabilitation group’s raccoon youngsters broke his spine and was unable to use his back legs.  A paraplegic raccoon obviously can’t survive in the wild.  However, because raccoons are among the toughest of animals and the most determined healers, we decided to move heaven and earth to help little Tim.

Enter the Veterinarians

For several years, Dr. Andrew Sams of The Sams Clinic, an orthopedic specialty vet practice in Mill Valley, has donated consultations about our rehabilitation raccoons, and provided great veterinary guidance.  Thanks to Dr. Sam’s advice a juvenile raccoon who had broken both back legs, was able to heal completely without surgery, and was released 10 weeks later as a perfectly athletic, normal raccoon.

This time, it was more complicated.  The Sams Clinic has a neurosurgeon on staff, Dr. Lisa Klopp, who looked at the spinal x-ray and examined the 9-week-old raccoon.  Dr. Klopp determined that the fracture would need to heal for a month, and agreed to perform a laminectomy to free the spinal cord from the compression causing his paralysis.

YUWR/Rancho Raccoon’s animals are wildlife, not pets, and must be releasable to live their natural wild lives.  We were concerned that Tim might not socialize and learn what he needed as a wild animal among his own kind. While we love caring for the animals we look after, we’re careful to keep them wild, A protracted recovery might leave Tim somewhat behind his peer group in development. Thankfully, raccoon kits learn fast, and our experience told us that Tim would catch up quickly once he could use those legs.  Boy, were we wrong!

Tim Is a Raccoon

Tim did not catch up… because he never fell behind.  He did exactly what juvenile raccoons do… he played, climbed, bit everything in sight (including his own feet and tail), and learned to eat food rather than drink from a bottle.  As far as Tim was concerned, he is a raccoon, and there’s no doubt in anyone’s mind that he is a normal raccoon for his age!

Amy Pfaffman his foster care volunteer, exercised Tim’s back legs many times daily, helping place them under him,  supporting him minimally.  Tim barely needed the help; he was determined to do everything a normal raccoon does.  While Amy patiently placed his legs under him for walking, Timmy was on to leaping and climbing, never mind the falling.   We rehabbers were worried that he would further injure his spinal cord — but not Tim.  He refused to be anything but what he is…a wild raccoon youngster.  Amy’s therapy included roughhousing using a raccoon doll so  he wouldn’t get too used to playing with humans.

And Thankfully

About a week prior to surgery, we rescued a female raccoon a little younger than Tim.  Her mother was hit by a car, and she was found crying by the body.  Miss Fluff, as we called her, wanted no part of humans.  She’s a normal 12-week-old raccoon who would rather do almost anything than cozy up to us scary monsters.  But when we placed her with Tim, they bonded within hours.  Tim was so happy to have a REAL raccoon to bite, and Miss Fluff was delighted to have someone of her own kind to cuddle with.  And Tim’s human team was equally relieved Tim could learn from his own species.  Juvenile wildlife raised together is a win for everyone.

Surgery

Wildlife is difficult for veterinarians to deal with, unless they’re specifically set up and trained.  That’s why I can’t praise the Sams Clinic enough for their care and concern about young Tim Raccoon.   Not only did they go above and beyond to generously donate his care (the cost of veterinary care would exceed our entire yearly budget), but they treated Tim and his caregivers the way we all hope to be cared for when injured and vulnerable.

Dr. Klopp, Tim’s neurosurgeon, said she’d never seen a smaller spinal cord.  She had to perform delicate manipulation to get her instruments to work for a 3-pound raccoon kit!  Dr. Hawley, Tim’s anesthesiologist, made sure Tim’s foster caregiver was next to Tim when he woke up…..even more important for wild animals naturally afraid of all humans, than for a domestic pet.

And the result of all this great care…….

A New Tim

Three hours post-surgery, Tim was up and about, canoodling with Miss Fluff.  His caregivers watched him like hawks and made pen modifications to ensure he wouldn’t fall and jar his tender spine.  Miss Fluff and Tim had no such reservations, and had to be repeatedly constrained to allow Tim’s staples to stay intact…for at least 10 days!  One day post-surgery, Tim and Fluff were playing as though nothing had come between them.  That is exactly what we hoped for.  Already we see improvement in Tim’s abilities.  Dr. Klopp and we rehabilitators believe, based on his improvement, and on our experience of raccoon healing, that Tim will be released as a normal, wild young raccoon.

And what could be better than that?

As a wildlife rehabilitator and naturalist I have many stories to tell.  This one is close to me, because it’s about a couple of sad, orphaned raccoons, one terminally injured.  And a few humans who have the love, the care, the expertise and the sheer effrontery to insist that a single insignificant creature can be saved, and should be saved for no other reason than we care and we can.

I think all of us living creatures deserve such care, and if anyone rolls their eyes and says, “Only in Marin,” I say, “Well, it’s a start!”

Megan is a naturalist and wildlife rehabilitator from Forest Knolls, who leads the raccoon group for Yggdrasil Urban Wildlife Rescue (YUWR.org), Oakland’s wildlife rehabilitation organization.

The story of Tim is set to appear on ABC News on Monday evening, July 26.

Ever stamped on a spider deliberately?  Set out rat poison?  Glue-trapped a mouse?  Said, “We’ve got to get rid of those squirrels?”  Watched “Billy the Exterminator?”  Children watch us all the time, and they copy not only our nobler deeds, but also our casual and unthinking cruelty.  Children need to be taught to respect, if not love, wildlife and all of nature.

Newest Rescue

Here are two of our newest kits, who arrived dehydrated and hungry, yet fat and healthy!  Their mother was killed by a car or a dog (stories are often unclear), and they are here safe with us.  Despite the building project going on outside, inside the kits stay cozy and safe, happily gorging on bottled formula.  Soon they’ll be moving to their roomy rehabilitation pen outside.  Fern, Sky and Starfish will love their new digs!

Two of the Berkeley Beans

And Tiny Tim continues to thrive.  His sister, Charlie, encourages Timmy to be a real raccoon.  She is appropriately wary of humans, and therefore makes a very good companion for Tim.  Wilder raccoon juveniles are often used to “wild up” youngsters like Tim, who have needed human help during their babyhood.  Hurray for Charlie, and hurray for Tim!

Charle (left) encourages Tiny Tim to climb high!

Click on the link below for the flyer with details.

SFNS pres flyer final