Wonder Pet Weekend!
>> Sunday, May 18, 2008
I think it was Karen who once told me that I was like Snow White. I think she's right. I find myself in the weirdest situations with wild animals. I once had a skunk in the garage. I've fed the geese and mallards and pissed off my neighboor across the pond (since I had about 60+ geese come every morning for breakfast and they don't poop where they eat so across the pond to neighboors they would head-ha) and once had a huge muskrat living under my porch. Not to mention at our new home, we have about 6 birdfeeders that are filled every other day with faithful bird visitors that hang out in our yard. The list really goes on and on. However, this weekend was just another chapter in my wild animal rescue adventures. It began in the morning when cutting the grass and coming upon baby rabbits. I have a little experience in helping baby rabbits since two got stuck in my window well last year but this was exciting. Jonas and Zaiden were soo excited to help. We grab an old baby towel and captured the babies that were hopping and freaking out all over the yard (those babies can hop pretty fast- just ask Jonas!). Then we looked for their holes and only found one. So we made their burrow comfortable by placing grass clippings and the blanket around it and carefully placed the babies in. THEN....my neighboor comes to the gate and asks if I know how to get a raccoon out of a window well. So we rush over to check out the raccoon. He is soo cute. The boys and I fall in love instantly. We must have looked pretty silly to my police officer ("tough guy") neighboor as Jonas, Zaiden and I are talking "baby talk" to this raccoon. I ask the neighboor what he is going to do? He says leave it over night and then he will bring a noose home from the station tomorrow and get rid of it (which means kill it). I started tearing up and thoughts of pushing him in the window well ran through my mind. I grab the boys hands and we march away. I almost break into a run to get to the house faster so I can grab the phone and call my garden club friends. I was certain there had to be an animal rescue somewhere in Monroe County. But alas, my first phone call proved to be success. I talked to Rita's husband who had a live trap that I could use. A minivan trip later, I was cutting an apple and spreading soy butter on it and the trap was lowered into the window well. After a broom stick and a shovel to get the raccoon to move into the trap, he was caught and saved from death. Hooray! Another minivan trip down a dirt road and Mr. Raccoon was released into the beautiful woods by a stream. He didn't make a noise the whole trip. No hissing, no fights, nothing. I think he was happy that I saved him. I did tell him to go dump over my neighboors garbage tonight-hehehe. We get home and eat dinner and then decide to go check on our baby bunnies. We are happy to see that Momma bunny has come to check on them also. I can only imagine what she's saying to her babies. We did find that the bunnies seperated from each other and 4 bunnies made a new burrow and two were left in the old burrow. Maybe Momma Bunny did it when she came earlier. Jonas and Zaiden convinced me that we should make them dinner too. We cut up some cabbage I had in the fridge and took a small bowl of water out to them and then say goodnight to our baby bunnies. So after reading "I love you, Little One" and talking about the bunnies and Mr. Raccoon, Jonas says to me that he's happy we save animals. I tell my boys everyday how important it is to love animals and treat them kindly. He then tells me that we are like the Wonder Pets (for those that don't know who the Wonder Pets are...watch Nick Jr sometime). I suppose we ALL are. "We're not too big, and we're not too tough, but when we work together, we've got the right stuff!"
One of the baby bunnies
Some of the rabbits made themselves a new burrow (two burrows now) and here is their dinner
Mr. Raccoon in the window well
Mr. Raccoon in the Live Trap
Mr. Raccoon's new home
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