Raccoons

16 years ago

Polly and Friends is a non-profit organization dedicated to raccoons through direct care and education.

Alone, Terrified, Immobile, blind and covered in her own blood laid a tiny baby raccoon named Peaches. She was two and a half months old only weighing two pounds. She constantly attacked her own body as she had one seizure after another. Her brain was slowly dying more everyday she laid in this devastating condition. As I followed my vets instructions I provide her with intensive twenty-four hour a day medical treatment along with tender loving care. Peaches health slowly improved one day at a time.

In 2007 Peaches finally took her first literal baby steps. She lost her balance and tumbled over, but she could walk!!! By this time she had also regained some of her eye sight and sense of smell. Although I was over joyed with her progress I knew her brain had been too badly damaged for her to ever survive in the wild. I was loved her and was happy to have her with me for her life time. On the other hand I felt bad for her because she could not return to the wild with her litter mates. Peaches was so happy living in the moment she never felt sorry for herself the way people did. She just made the best of every moment.

I'll never forget April 29, 2007. Peaches and I spent the entire day together. I was marveling at her health improvements. It was about eight at night as she sat up and ate on her own. Ten minutes later she was seizing repeatedly. I was shocked she had not had one seizure for 7 months. By the time we arrived at our vets office she was unresponsive. Since that day Peaches has had bad times, but she also has her good times. For the last couple weeks she has done exceptional. I Know she my die any minute, but I also know she is alive and content with me in this moment.

Polly and Friends is a non-profit organization dedicated to raccoons: those living in the wild and those in captivity. Our purpose is to help raccoons: not only though direct care, but also by educating humans on how special they are. Peaches is our first disabled educational raccoon. She goes with us to schools and events, touching lives just by being herself. If she were able to survive in the wild we would return her there in the same way we do for all self-sufficient wildlife.

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Comments (15)

Lily316
16 years ago
I had my own pet raccooon many years ago. He was found as a baby and raised indoors with the family. When he reached maturity he had free run outside , but still lived in a shed on the propery. He was a lovely pet and I think of him still 30 years later and hope he found a mate and lived a long life. He went to my child's kindergarten and rode in the car with me. I hate hunters and trappers who kill them because they are sweet intelligent little animals.
spiritual_gardner
16 years ago
Can you educate us on how to keep raccoons out of our fish ponds???

I'm sure you are aware how destructive they are, which does not bode well for a good reputation.

Thanks,

SG
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I'm sorry but it is just wrong, wrong, WRONG to ever feed a wild animal!! It prevents them from foraging for food as nature intended, gets them accustomed to food they probably shouldn't be eating and it removes any proper sense of fear they should have about interacting with humans. While I do not necessarily condone the approaches that many previous responders have reported in their contacts with raccoons, it is practices like this (feeding) that help to create the problems with wild animals that results in these sort of unfortunate interactions. If your father is truly a vet, he should have told you this and trained you better!! Also rabies with raccoons is extremely common - they together with skunks, foxes and bats are considered 'rabies vector species', meaning they are a leading carrier of this disease among wild animals. If you see any of these species acting abnormal - like the nocturnal 'coons out and about during daylight hours, having difficulty walking or wandering in circles, then it is a pretty safe bet that animal IS sick and rabies (as well as distemper) is a likely cause. You are encouraged to call Animal Control or Fish and Wildlife or whoever in you area is responsible for addressing these issues. And how you can say the previous posters reporting their personal, unusual or scary interactions with raccoons as merely "urban legends" is beyond me. I live in a heavily wooded area and raccoons abound. Because of folks like you who feed them out of some erroneous sense of need or misplaced goodwill, they are not at all fearful of humans and will approach thinking you are a source for a tasty handout. Even in very urban environments raccoons are nearly omnipresent - they just tend to be less visible because of all the activity and vehicle traffic and more places to hide. My first up close and personal encounter with a raccoon was living in a densely populated city. One summer evening I went out to turn off my sprinklers and came face to face with a large male raccoon in my garden - no more than 10' away. We both stood stock-still for a moment and then with a low growl, he started moving in my direction and I beat a hasty retreat indoors until I saw him clamber up over my fence and move on across the street.
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Hi thanks for all the responses :) I haven't decided where I should put the pond yet. We have a natural spring under one part of the property that stays wet most of the summer. In drier seasons it will dry out. There are a ton of large hardwood trees out there so lots of leaf litter and roots to deal with so I am not sure that is where it will go. I am thinking it might be better just to get a liner and put it in a more open area. waterbug_guy, I am not sure if I will have plant shelves or not. I appreciate your illustration. That is helpful! I was thinking of mostly planting around the outside and then having some sunken water lilies and some other plants that are out towards the center more away from where the raccoon can get in and knock over the pots. I have a few books on water gardens and saw they had the pots submerged underwater on 'pillars' of concrete block etc. Gary, Your place sounds like ours in relation to critters lol. I haven't seen any herons here but we do get the occasional large egret and both bald and golden eagles. However I suspect that if I build it...they will come (herons) lol. I have quite a few plants that could work in or around water right now. Various colocasias, tropical waterlilies, canna, papyrus, lizard tail. I have found that chocolate mint does excellent grown in a bog and doesn't freeze in the winter or die back during the heat of the summer. I grow a lot of mint for our rabbits that I use their 'bunny berries' for composting and vermicomposting. As far as fish goes. I really love the look of koi but due to the critters and my last koi liking to eat up all my plants, I might go with plain old goldfish. I have heard that the goldfish won't eat up the plants as much. I will just have to find pretty ones LOL :P darla, I had 4 koi that I kept in a large preformed pond. One is still there. It is all black. When we moved here a few yrs ago, I had to put them in a holding pool while I got the other one set up on the screened patio. Overnight, a raccoon ate up all the koi except the black one which I assume maybe he couldn't see. I will probably just keep him where he is and get him a friend. When I get the in ground pond going, I am thinking of using goldfish. Do your koi eat your water plants at all? That is a good idea about the motion sensor. Haha I am surprised that it doesn't bother the cats but then again they are probably smart enough to avoid where it sprays. Does it also help with keeping the large birds away? ~SJN
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Meghane
16 years ago
It is illegal in NC to own pet racooons or to rehab injured ones due to rabies concerns. It's a nice thought though; racoons are deserving of respect and concern just as much as any other animal.
debi72653
16 years ago
A few days ago I received a phone call from someone going on the road traveling begging me to take their pet raccoon. He is 7 months old and they have raised him from a baby. They told me that he was very tame, which he is, but he can also get very rough. Ten years ago I was diagnosed with breast cancer and have lymphedema in my left arm. Any scratch or bite that got infected could cause me to lose my arm. I have no way of fighting infection in this arm. I realize that I have gotten much more than I bargained for when I accepted this raccoon but I will take in any animal in need and try to provide a good home for it. Regretfully, I do not feel as if I can keep "Patches" and give him the attention that he wants and deserves. I have thought about contacting our park to see if they will take him, but I would hate to see him locked up in a small cage all the time with little or no attention. Also, I know that being raised as he has been raised, he would have little or no chance of survival out on his own. Rehabbers will not take raccoons, and if he lands up in the wrong hands he will killed. Patches loves attention and he has no problem with running up to greet anyone. Any help that you might give me regarding finding a suitable home for Patches would be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much. Debi
mazer415
16 years ago
Im glad you were able to assist the raccoon. I am of the mind that rehabilitating wild animals which are numerous to begin with is only a future disaster in the making. Currently the California Marine Mammal Center which has been very successful in assisting seals rehab, have been too successful, now seals invade peoples areas, and great white sharks have become more numerous in the area (since seals are their number one prey animal) resulting in more attacks on humans. I think it is one thing to assist the California Condor come back from near extinction quiet another to be putting time and money into an animal which can and does cause so much damage to people, not including the diseases they carry - including rabies, distemper and many other deadly diseases easily transmitted to pets and people.
quirkyquercus
16 years ago
Yea Racoons may be cute but their populations in many places has made them pests, dangerous ones that not only carry disease but actually damage very sturdy human dwellings to find a place to live. When they got no other place to crash, your attic will suffice. When they got nothing else to eat, your garbage is like a Sizzler all-u-can-eat buffet. You call it a big green dumpster, they call it Bennigans.

I only mention this as a warning to others not to mess with the wild raccoons in the city.
buyorsell888
16 years ago
spiritual_gardner

An electric fence was all that has worked for me. My DH modified a Fishock fence to look nicer using bamboo for the poles and copper refrigerator tubing for the wires.

They still get into my container water gardens and my no fish waterlily ponds but my fish are safe. It is so frustrating how they tear up plants. One of my little ponds is totally ruined for the season.
mitchdesj
16 years ago
Why do the raccoons gravitate to suburbs and certain towns and not stay in the wild ?; they've torn up my back lawn to feed on the grubs, I had to spend a few thousand dollars repairing the lawn so I could sell my home.

A neighbor used to feed them table scraps after dark every night; as if they did not have enough of all the garbage they ingested. We tried to tell her to stop it but she would not hear of it.

They went after my dog many times in my own yard, they don't make it easy to consider them anything else than a menace and a nuisance.
quirkyquercus
16 years ago
Why did they gravitate to the suburbs?!?!!?!?

LOL LMAO.

I think it's the other way around.

And like many other pest wildlife, there's nothing to keep their population under control. Their predators don't live in the city but still they are able to survive on trash, koi ponds, whatever.
joepyeweed
16 years ago
Sure animals deserve respect, but respect includes the right to die when they have an illness that wouldn't allow them to live in the wild. Any wild animal that has seizures in the wild, would become food in the chain of life. And we disrespect nature when we interrupt that chain.
quirkyquercus
16 years ago
Are you saying if a Raccoon is on life support and unable to communicate it's wishes that we should pull the plug?
joepyeweed
16 years ago
I was thinking more along the lines of the circle of life; ie. a coyote choosing the fate of epileptic raccoon. Or leaving it to die in the wild, where it would feed some birds and insects and the decaying flesh will feed the soil, helping plants grow that bunnies will eat.
buyorsell888
16 years ago
Raccoons don't stay in the wild because what wild there is, is already full. They need their own territory.

They are also an animal species like pigeons, rats, coyotes, opossums, fox squirrels and others that have been hugely helped by humans. There are far more of these animals now than there were before human populations got so large.

Human habitation brings loads of food sources for raccoons. People keep chickens, have ponds and aren't careful with their garbage, compost or pet foods. People also feed them on purpose.
kcfilley
16 years ago
I have an enormous problem with raccoons on my property. I built a new barn and they have torn out all the insulation to make nests in the overhang. A contractor told me he's going to have to remove the roof of the barn to get rid of the raccoons and block them from coming in. Additionally, to re-insulate the roof if going to be almost $2000. How do I keep the raccoons from doing this. Closing the door doesn't prevent them from getting in.

KC
chelone
16 years ago
Racoons are SMART. They know there are "good pickin's" to be had in the 'burbs! Think about the stuff you put into the trash bags, people... for an enterprising, clever, and omniverous creature, you just SET A BUFFET! duh!

Digging for grubs in a lawn sounds more like skunk behavior than a 'coon, at least in my area. (Just had a a "skunked" dog, too... first time ever. LOL).

I view foxes, 'coons, skunks as the "night shift". My pets come indoors for the night and the wild ones do a "neighborhood sweep". I'm fine with it. Our pets are vaccinated and indoors at night... so occasionally the late night canine wee-wee disrupts Mr. Skunkie's "round" and the dog gets a snootful? -hit happens.

I can deal with that! (and even find it funny).

Raccoons

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Lily316

spiritual_gardner

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