Dancing babies!

All 13 young kids are doing great and getting along together....whew! They are just so cute I can't stand it! Michelle relaxes here, trying to beat the heat. It has been pretty hot and humid this past month! I don't know how they do it with all that fur....but it doesn't seem to phase them all that much! Drake is eating...AGAIN! He is the biggest piggy with a pot belly to boot!

Drake and Michelle

Quarry wastes no time getting into position to jump onto me when I walk into the pen. Getting onto the box gets her to about thigh height on me....a nice big, trunk like area to cling to and climb up! Ouch!

Pansy is kind enough to climb the branches, not my limbs.

2 of the beach boys....Tash and Chappy....are interested in the wrestling match going on in the hammock.

Of all the coonie kids that have come and gone, I have never had so many that liked to stand on 2 legs than this group! All 4 of the beach boys, Pip, Merry and Kinky all love to stand on 2 legs, getting onto the box to get my attention by standing up and waving with their front feet. It is soooo adorable and they look like they are dancing!

(And yes, that is Quarry getting ready to spring onto me on the left! That left a new hole in the sweatpants! )

Oooohh....oooohh...pick me, pick me!!!

Ta dah!!

Have I mentioned how freaking cute Pip is?? LOL

The results are in!

Finally! We have the necropsy results on Phillip. Bottom line....NO INFECTIOUS PROCESS! That means no more quarantine....wooohoooo! It was most likely a genetic neurological process.

So that means the 8 younger kids have now been joined by Pansy, Drake and Quarry. Pansy is thrilled to have friends for a change and Drake and Quarry were more than happy to meet new ones. One big happy family of 11 now and I'm happy to say the younger 8 had no problem whatsoever welcoming 3 newcomers and vice versa!

So we have Pansy on the largest side, and Pip on the smallest and a hodge-podge of sizes in between....it's quite the motley crew!

Drake and Quarry

I totally forgot I have not properly introduced Drake and Quarry! They were out of quarantine last week and graduated to the shed. The girl, Quarry, is very outgoing! Her favorite place to play is on my back....in my hair!

The boy, Drake, is a little more skittish. He's not nasty if I handle him, but he definitely prefers it if I DON'T! He does not want to play with me but doesn't mind me being around.

Needless to say they are both very lucky to be alive and very cute!

They'll be joining the younger group and Pansy, rounding out the second group of babies that are now outside!

Here's Pansy!

This is the new girl, Pansy. She's being very helpful here assisting me as I prepare the outside pen for Michelle and the younger gang.

Yup..this tree is secure!

This branch is a little wobbly.....
This tree is perfect!

She reminds me a lot of Lexi...she's got the same face. She will start to get supervised visits with the younger kids during the day as soon as the necropsy results come back (if ever!!) and I know they were not exposed to anything contagious. She will have to come inside at night until her vaccines are boostered though. Have to make sure she is not exposed to anything by the wild coonies that might visit the cage area at night until she's had enough vaccines to protect her.

I did try a brief introduction to the older NCIS and Attitude kids.....she was not very pleased about that at all! Although she's the same size as them, she's been a single coonie so she would probably be more comfortable with the smaller ones, but we'll see.

Drake and Quarry, the boy and girl from the Dracut Quarry who were buried by the asphalt landslide, are doing great and will be out of quarantine on Sunday I believe......then I can get pics of them once I don't have to worry about contaminating the camera! They will also join Pansy out in the shed and all 3 can eventually be introduced to the younger kids making one big group of 11!

The skunks are great...eating solids regularly and getting ready to go outside if I can get a pen set up. Sammy the Muskrat is hitching a ride with JoAnn to Tufts this morning to get checked out. He's loosing weight despite eating well so I want him checked, not being all that familiar with them or their ailments. Lets keep our fingers crossed for him! (At least I think it's a him! LOL Not quite as obvious as coonies!) I really like the little guy!

Some of the neighbors.

All my woodland neighbors have been coming by for a visit lately! There are 2 pair of geese that are regular visitors and hang out together with their babies...this pair with their 3 kids and often another pair with a single kid. Looks like some of my little stinkers are still hanging around....I was happy to see this one passing through.


I'm really hoping to see pups following these guys one of these days! That would be awesome!

A lot of the coonie kids are out and about now with their moms....showing up everywhere pretty much!

And another pleasant surprise....perhaps one of my girls released in the spring?? There was quite a bit of possie activity here the last couple nights.


I thought this was Popeye at first.....the face is unmistakable...but upon further review of the accompanying video to this picture, it isn't. There is one other however, with the same face as Popeye.....his sister Foxy! Sure enough this is definitely a mom and with that face I am very confident it's our elusive Foxy girl! A very pleasant surprise indeed!

I've got another baby coming next week that a fellow rehabber has been caring for until it was weaned and out of quarantine. Hopefully I'll have Phil's necropsy results back by then so I can hopefully put it in with his gang if all is clear as far as contagious diseases go! At least if I don't have it back, I have the pens in the shed it can go into....only the babies that are cleared and out of quarantine graduate to the shed....I can't risk loosing that hazmat-free zone by putting anything out there unless it's been cleared!

I have 2 new kits that I couldn't say no to either, despite not having a quarantine free zone really. So I just put them in the guest bedroom for now! They were found at Dracut Quarry. The guys were working in the morning scooping from a pile of ground asphalt with a loader. When they dumped a load into another container, these 2 kits tumbled out. Alive and uninjured by some miracle, they were placed into a box and put aside for mom to find. A while later another bucket dumped into the container revealed the body of the mother. They had apparently been around the pile when part of it had collapsed onto them and buried them.....smothering the mom. The guys said the pile holds the heat and when they take bucket loads out of it small pockets are formed. Mom must have decided to rest with the babies in there and for one reason or another, the pile slid, burying them.

How could I say no to those poor babies! Luckily they are a little bit older....6-8weeks....and eagerly eat out of a bowl, making it much easier for me. Not all too friendly at first, but we had a breakthrough yesterday morning when the little girl decided to come over to me and start climbing onto my arm. Next thing you know she's jumping around playing with me! Little brother followed suit soon after and I have officially been accepted as the new mom now! I'll be holding my breath until their quarantine is over now! I can't handle another tragedy like Bramble and her siblings!

5 baby skunks heading this way Sunday also....looks like I'm back to a full house!