Tim’s brother and sister-in-law were having a new roof put on their house when the roofers discovered a racoon nest in the pine straw on the old one. A wildlife rehab advised them to put the kits somewhere near where the nest was. So they put them in a small basket and tied it up to a nearby tree. The next day the kits were gone — hopefully mama racoon fetched them and brought them somewhere safe!
photos by Fran
Oh my gosh they are cute. And we know how smart these “kits” are and how destructive they can be near a trashcan. 🙂 Hope they’re safely with their mom.
They are definitely intelligent, “able to remember the solution to tasks for at least three years.” Those dexterous little paws certainly help! I hope it was their mom who got them, too.
Adorable photograph Barbara! Did you see those giant sharp toenails already!
It is interesting what the wildlife rehab advised. Without knowing how rural or the acreage, it is impossible for me to feel comfortable with releasing the critters right back onto the property only to find havoc of destruction in the very near future. I would have preferred for the rehab to collect them and care for them until they could be properly released into the wild away from houses and homes.
Most likely Mom gathered them overnight. They will be back!
I say this with experience of having to trap an Opossum with her new born family that were born under my house. These critters are overpopulated here. And it’s a constant battle as one neighbor just chases them out from under their house for them to run to the next neighbor’s house. It’s never ending…
I do love the critters as you know, but rehoming to appropriate areas in order critters can thrive is my line of thought and heart.
There’s always the good and the bad stuff…
The thinking is that the mother can take much better care of her kits than the wildlife rehab could. If the mother wasn’t around I’m sure they would have taken them in. I haven’t heard of any raccoon damage or overpopulation problems from my sister-in-law so perhaps there is enough natural food in the area for them to eat. And there are plenty of predators keeping the raccoon population in check.
Sometimes the snarky part of me thinks that if we humans didn’t waste so much food there would be nothing in our garbage cans to attract the wildlife…
As you say, there are pros and cons to opossums. On the plus side, “Possums are a good ally to have in your yard — they kill an estimated 5,000 ticks a season and catch and eat cockroaches, rats and mice.”
I should not have shared my experience. I apologize.
No need to apologize, TD. I’m glad you shared your experience because it’s good to be reminded that there are lots of different ways of looking at a situation, and that most problems have no perfect solution!
Well, the babies are kinda cute, but the adults can do some damage, so I’m all for rehoming them. Sometimes it can be challenging, living with all of Mother Nature!
Coexisting with wildlife can indeed be challenging. Nature has her way and we have ours but I think it’s up to us to find better ways to share our living spaces!
Oh, wow, what a discovery! They look like they aren’t all that old, too.
So very tiny that the kit fits right in the palm of that gloved hand! 🦝
How cute these kits are – they’re so tiny! I like those human-like “hands” for paws and look at those claws!
Those claws are huge compared to those tiny hand-like paws! The better to locate and handle their food with! 🦝
Yes! They were huge, no wonder the pest control service had the gloves on. I have seen videos of raccoons fishing and it looks like a human washing their hands.
That was my sister-in-law’s hand in the glove! The wildlife rehab folks never had to come to the house because Dan & Fran followed their instructions so well. 🙂
Oh, I didn’t realize that – I was so enamored with those cutie pies, I didn’t know!
Fran is like us when it comes to helping animals! 🦝
Kindred spirits!
Oh so precious! Fingers crossed Mama came to the rescue!
I looks like mama racoon did come overnight to collect her little ones! 🦝
Oh my goodness! Those hands and feet!
Such perfect little hands and feet! 🦝
Cute little guys. Sweet, but better off not inside the house. Hope mom found them.
Yup, nature is best left outside! It looks like mama raccoon did come back for her kits. 🦝
Oh wow, they’re so cute! And a much better find than the one the electrician found in our roof three years ago when we had our kitchen replaced. He found three snake skins!
They are adorable! 🦝 Yikes! Hopefully the snake only used your roof as a safe place to shed its skin and moved on for all other activities. Some snakes here eat raccoon kits.
We found a small dead snake up in the roof once. So long as they don’t come into the house, I’d rather not know what goes on up there! The little racoons are so cute. 🥰
I agree, there are some things best left unknown! It’s all I can do to deal with the occasional spider that makes it into the house. Rescuing those raccoon kits was so exciting for my sister-in-law! 💕
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