Bandits

Oh the raccoons. A few days after Kara and I came home from the hospital, we found out that we were housing a lovely raccoon in our attic. There I was rocking my newborn when I heard a very curious scratching above me. I called Jason over to hear it. He looked up in the attic and found her. (because that's exactly what you need after having a baby)

We called a trapper to get her out of the attic. We didn't know that she had babies. So the trapper came and took mama away.

The next day I didn't hear a curious scratching noise. I heard little baby raccoon cries for their mother! Oh my gosh - that is not what an over emotional mother needs to hear. So Jason went up in the attic again and found four little baby raccoons. The trapper would have come to get these as well, but Jason felt terrible for having them take away the mother that he had to find a way to save these little ones. That and I think he was trying to buy some time and convince me that we should keep them for the summer. Not happening.

They were so new. You could even see the little umbilical cord stump on their bellies. Ugh. It was so heartbreaking that their mother was gone.

We took them to Willowbrook Wildlife Center to see if they could take them and nurse them to adulthood. They were unfortunately at capacity and could only offer humane euthanasia. They had a list of other places we could call, but they said that they were probably all full too. Our one hope was a woman nearby who had a raccoon cage (read - huge habitat) in her backyard. She only agrees to take very small baby raccoons, so we thought we would give her a try. Willowbrook Wildlife didn't think we had much of a chance since they hadn't been able to get a hold of her all season.

Jason called and left a message. She returned his call within 15 minutes and we were off to give these babies a second chance at life. Jason was VERY glad that we found someone to take them. Kent still asks about the raccoons and if they are getting bigger. 

Jason wore gloves when he went into the attic to find the babies. He brought them out to show the boys and they both ran into the house to get their gloves so that they could hold them too. Clark's gloves seemed reasonable, but when Kent came out with the baby mittens I couldn't stop laughing. These boys and their wildlife.