STORIES FROM THE HEART
| Boris & Natasha as babies., orphaned brother and sister. First raccoons raised and released from Sky Harbor. |
IF I COULD WRITE A BOOK...stories from the wild side of life
| BORIS AND NATASHA |
| KUMQUAT, KI W I & BERRY 12-2008 Three tiny furry bodies, barely three weeks old, complaining heartily about empty tummies. There they were, huddled inside a box of fruit delivered to a Tampa produce stand from Plant City. Thanks to some very caring folks, who luckily knew about hand feeding newborn kittens, the babies were cared for overnight and brought to our center by a terrific lady named, Moira. Hungry, confused and lost, they were fed and quickly transferred to their warm enclosure of soft blankets and stuffed toys. Within a few days, all three were devouring bottle after bottle of formula. Moira called to check on their progress several times. The little masked bandits had quickly stolen her heart, but she knew she had made the best decision for their care. Kiwi, Kumquat and Berry will sleep, eat, play and snuggle and take many months to grow and learn what all raccoons must know. In the wild, they would stay with mama up to a year, so they will be with us 7-8 months before being released. They will learn to eat on their own, swim, climb, play, defend themselves, discover what delicious golden substance is inside an egg and chase fish around their pool. All three will become more territorial, aggressive and independent as they reach maturity. Fast and strong, with long sharp teeth, a vicious bite, wicked claws and increasingly unpredictable as the wild instincts take over, we will wisely be much less "hands on" with them. In the end, we will close the gap and prepare them for release far from humans, around April or May, 2009, as soon as the weather is decent. Our success will be bittersweet, there will be no good bye hugs or kisses...just an open door and a few tearfully whispered words as they scamper out into the world.....goodbye little ones, our job here is done, be free now and take care! |
| CHUCKIE 12-2008 Just two handfuls of fur and big eyes, Chuckie arrived. Three young raccoons were spotted huddled against the cold in a residential yard. Chuckie was the smallest and the slowest. a day or so passed and no mother seemed present. Hungrey, cold, the young ones clearly needed help and the call came into Sky Harbor. As the rescue capture began, Chuckies' larger siblings found a broken board in the fence and made their escape, leaving small stumbling baby brother behind, destined for rehab. Chuckie was the most terrified little guy we had seen in a while. He had wide frightened eyes, displayed defensive posture, did a pretty good impression of a big mean snarly raccoon and was pretty accurate with his biting aim. My fingers and hands can attest to that! We scooped him up and giggled as he whimpered pathetically, curled into a ball, slapping both paws over his eyes. He was so frightened he wet all over himself and us. " Poor little guy", I cooed as I wrapped him in a soft blanket and held him close. His body was thin, his fur scruffy, he wasn't interested in our offerings of milk replacer. We placed him with two other baby coons about his size. He cried, cowered and they began to work him over. We quickly rescued him from that situation. Chuckie remained terrified of other raccoons, us, the dog, cats, free ranging chickens, ducks and basically , whatever moved. He would sneak out to grab some chow, fruit or veggies and race back to the safety of his hammock, where he would tuck himself under his quilt and remain there, munching away. Each day we would grab him up, wrap him in a big soft blanket and try to get some warm milk formula in his tummy. We held, cooed to him a while and hoped for the best. We will never know the whole story of what happened to him or his mother, but it must have been terrible for him. We continued to work with Chuckie and he soon decided maybe we were not so bad after all. He remains wary of us but has become all that he needs to be as a healthy young boy. He will continue to make progress and with any luck Chuckie will scamper off this spring with several other of his cage mates, into the heavy woods to explore and learn and be wild again. |