This is from the Christian Science Monitor:


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This one is especially funny:

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We have them here every day... so we are used to them.
I've had them walk into the house and eat our cat food at times.

There is a funny book called Rascal, from the '60's which was a NYTimes best seller, and it has a sequel containing stories and pictures from people who read the first book. It is really funny, and interesting if you should find it somewhere on a sale table etc.


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Rascal is one of the best books really on animals I have ever read!

And this is the non-fiction sequel:

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Unfortunately, here in the northeast rabies is a big problem among raccoons. Have had to call in about a sick, staggering raccoon more than once. Unfortunately, this has also led most people to believe that ANY raccoon they see out during the day must be rabid, which is not true. But we can't risk contact, so everyone does everything they can to discourage raccoons from being around.

(because of the rabies, around here if a raccoon or skunk has to be trapped for removal, they don't get relocated, they have to be terminated, by law. So sad.)

We are having a skunk rabies thing going on here now this year.

Because of the raccoons, skunks and bats, we get the rabies shots for our cats, always.

I consider myself lucky to have had a raccoon for a pet. In the early 60's an aunt and uncle left after a visit with us and returned shortly with two baby racoons. Uncle had accidently run over a mother raccoon and she died leaving two small babies. We kept one and aunt and uncle took the other one. I cannot recall what become of the one they raised.

It was doubtful at first if we could them to live as it required patience trying to find a mixture of milk and whateverwe could add to flavor the mild with to make it tase right. After we found a doll baby bottle to feed them it became a lot easier job. I had the patience as I always loved any kind of animal and Pudding Baby as I named ours sure did look awfully cute taking that baby bottle.

I still have to smile to myself when I recall taking my pet duck, and a kitten and Pudding Baby inside the house and playing with them. Our favorite game was I would pull a feather or some such object on a string on the linoleoum floor in the living room with all three chasing after it, sliding on the slick floor. The duck was such a comical creature chasing that feather and was always last in the line up.

As Pudding Baby got older, she started going on ocassional visits into the back of our place into the woods. The visits started lasting longer. My dad would go and call at the foot of a large oak tree that was hollow inside. PB would stick her head out that hole, climb down onto dad's shoulder and catch a ride back to our house and be there by the time I was home from school. It is hard to say who was more taken by that animal but daddy knew I would be heart broken if she was missing.

Pudding Baby was never mean and was a nice enough inside pet or my mother would have called it a varmit and thrown it outside. Another favorite passtime for PB was to climb on the back of the couch behind us and try to pick out all the bobby pins from my usual Saturday night of trying to curl my hair using bobby pins, taking two and crossing them over a round curl rolled up for my Sunday School look. Those tiny paws did wash food just as we all have heard raccoons do.

Of course the day came when she no longer came home. On rainy nights, we would hear her romping on the metal side of our rooftop. She was big enough she made quite a noise. Even those visits stopped. Daddy told me that he thought Pudding Baby probably had a family of her own by then. She was a masked bandit for sure. You could not hide peanuts in any drawer in the kitchen. You really had to invent ways to keep those strong paws from prying open doors to get at what she wanted to eat for treats.

I guess it is quite obvious I still love recalling my special pet and talking about her.

What a beautiful story Zayne and I thank you for sharing it. I live in Australia and we don't have raccoons; I've only seen them in pictures.

I've not personally raised a baby wild critter but I have a friend who's registered wild life carer and she often has a baby kangaroo hopping around her living room floor. Instead of pretty potted plants soaking up the morning sun inside her home, it's trays of grass. She uses these flat trays to teach her babies how to graze as she weans them off bottled milk. When they're weaned she releases them back into the wild.

I just love watching these raccoons, skunks and monkeys (from a distance). They are so bold and sometimes sneaky to get the food that they want to eat. I just love watching them as to what are they up to next.

A few years ago I fed raccoons and skunks in the back yard.

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What lovely photos Wren, thank you for sharing.