Fun with foraging!

Bear with me! My computer is slowly but surely up and running again. It's been nothing but a nightmare since the hard drive they replaced mine with is not loaded with the same things. Having trouble working with pictures and files of course. Oh and when I right click a picture to "rotate clockwise" when they are upside down......they disappear never to be seen again! WTF!!!!!!! I am annoyed beyond words and to be honest, I shouldn't have to be calling Dell every freaking day and wasting hours of my time getting all these little glitches worked out. It's making us all miss out on the cuteness!

Thanks to my cell phone, we have these though. One of many ways to keep babies busy. This happens to be a suet feeder. I fill it with chunks of goodies like apples and sweet potato and hang it in the pen. They have to work at it to get the food out...keeping idle paws busy. And it's fun to boot!

Add in the fact that it's hanging over the pool and anything that falls out means it is bobbing for goodies time!

I've got 4 cute little baby squirrels. I'll get those pictures on here when I get my computer to start cooperating. The 5 possies were released a couple weeks ago and 5 new ones have replaced them! They'll be here until they are big enough to go on their merry way....soon I hope!

Gibby, Scrappy, River and the kids and the rest of the regulars continue to pop in for a visit here and there. I'm hoping they all have secure places to hunker down and ride out hurricane Irene scheduled to hit us Sunday sometime. I'm a little nervous about the high winds and falling trees out here. Lets hope the ones that fall are all empty and miss the pens!!

Meeting new friends?

Well friends may be a stretch here! Looks like this possie decided it was going to take over the feeder by trying to scare off one of the gang. It probably would have worked too except for the fact that he wasn't the only coonie out there......and coonies are VERY curious and love to check out new things!! Once number 2 moved in to check out the commotion Mr. Possie decided it wasn't a good idea and made a hasty retreat. I can only imagine that the rest of the gang was out there and heading toward him....imagine what was going through his mind then!! LOL

Poopie joins Mary's menagerie!

Well I finally parted with Poopie the possum. She is great and growing like a weed. Now that she is eating on her own it was time for her to join some other possie's so I brought her to Mary's to join her clan of them.

Here are a few of her other charges..... Willie Whistle a very adorable groundhog baby in Mary's care.

6 older possies, so cute and innocent.......

....NOT!! Ha ha! Luckily their bark is worse than their bite!

My cute little Poopie coming out to say hi to mom (and "where's my food!")

Mary had a singleton that is bigger but just as mellow as her so we put them together. Here little Poopie comes out to visit the newcomer.

I talked to Mary and they are both doing fine together. Don't let her size fool ya....she may be smaller, but Mary tells me she definitely rules the roost and he just does what he is told! LOL

Two new girls, bunnies & possums, and a long awaited update!

Wow....it's been a while since I've even had a second to get on the computer!

I have added 2 new kids to the mix....I didn't want to due to the parvo I am dealing with, but they had no other choice....just being extra careful with them and have moved the other 8 who have remained parvo free to another room altogether.

Here we have a little girl....she's a little older, say 7ish weeks and what a spitfire she was when she came in!! Boy did she want to kill me! Some TLC and being the only source of yummy formula was enough to make her come around though! She's still a little shy, but at least she's not trying to kill me anymore! LOL

Her mom was harassed out of the attic den, then it was boarded up. Suddenly neighbors saw 2 of these wandering around. One was never found (I can only hope mom came back and collected it!) and this girl was finally located a couple days later cuddled up to a dead possum near the yard she came from. Skinny, hungry and scared, but none the worse for wear!

This girl came the same day, found under a truck in a buys parking lot at a strip mall. She is a giant for her age.....almost twice the weight of the older girl above and weeks younger!! A freak of nature as far as I'm concerned, but damn cute none the less!! She's built like Baloo the bear....big belly and a chunky back end...so Baloo she is.

Here are the 7 bunnies JoAnne released in my yard.....I see them on my overgrown lawn every now and then eating the out of control clover growth!

I'm no possie expert...that's Mary's field, but we are all overloaded so I got these girls found on the side of a city street along with the rest of their siblings who were dead. Unknown what happened to mom, but I can guess the whole gang was struck by a car, most were killed and mom probably ran off injured and died somewhere....

One had a few injuries and did not make it, but the other girl is doing fine...eats well and poops up a storm...I lovingly call her Poopie!! LOL

She's even starting to eat on her own already thank god!

As for the rest of the gang.....all healthy and no signs of any illness. Cinnamon and Peanut have opened their eyes finally and are cute as hell! Razz is loving being in with the fab 5. They are growing fast!!

River is doing great! Her appetite is back to normal, her poops are still soft but normal and she's packing on the weight again. No signs of ataxia so she appears to be out of the woods thank god! She'll have to remain alone in quarantine for a while, but it's a small price to pay for her life and to escape this horrible disease without any neurologic symptoms and be able to be released....

Red still loves mom & Diner at JoAnn's

Managed to stay awake long enough to actually head out back and visit. Daisy and Foxy were hanging out together. Ringer came in with her 4, and Red was THRILLED to see mom again!

Walked over to me and took some treats from my hand, then worked her way into my lap, then just hopped into my arms. So I spent some time walking around down there with Red lounging in my arms enjoying scratches all over! She was happy as a pig in you-know-what! She looks beautiful!! Nice full healthy coat and packing on the body weight already for the fall. Absolutely gorgeous! Big difference from her scrawny, ratty looking self a few months ago when she was in for her foot injury!

Myself, Laurie and Mary had a great dinner at JoAnn's the other night!! It was awesome JoAnn! Thanks for all the goodies. Got a chance to check up on Quinny too while I was there. He's doing great and so thrilled to have Rollo to play with! Also a chance to check up on the kids everyone else is taking care of!

This is one of Mary's little charges.


Also one of Mary's...this guy is about the same age as the group of opossum's we got a while ago.....

....and these are those very opossums grown much bigger now. They are back at Mary's now and will be reunited with their siblings soon! Here are the messy buggers just after an evening romp through their dinner!

This is JoAnn's Luna. She's had her since she was a pinky and she's doing great!

Finally my little Quinny and Rollo! They are living the good life at JoAnn's right now. Quinny has the lighter face.

New kids and updates on the old.

We've got some new additions to the crowd that have been put in the release pen out back. These kits were older when taken in so they are less social towards us! Just as well for them and their release, pain in the butt for us when we have to vaccinate, worm etc. though. We have 2 girls that came from Laurie, Stormy and Thunder. Here you can see them making an appearance for food of course! One girl was brave enough to come out and grab her treat....very cautiously!

Those ears say it all! haha!

The other girl just waited inside the box for me to throw her treat into her! Then there is a little boy....Huffer was to quick to even get a picture. Literally dove out, snatched it and ran back inside! He was a single kit raised by another rehabber and finally ready to be brought into a group to be socialized with other coons.

Finally we have this adorable little girl. She was also a single coon raised by another rehabber. Unlike the other 3 though, she is a sweetheart and wants to play! She is unsure with the other coonies right now, but she will eventually adjust and rely less on me for companionship and play.

After getting the 4 of them settled overnight and making sure they could all get along, I brought Buster and Seeker down to join them. They are very easy going and should help get the little girl to start playing with other coonies. I'll probably add Growler and Tugger to the mix tomorrow also. They are all the bigger kids that will definitely be ready to go by fall.

Little Quinny is with JoAnn now. She has a little boy Rollo that was a single and needed a friend and Quinny was the closest in size. I miss my little man, but he'll be back plus 1.....as soon as they are ready for the big kids pen both of them will be back here.

The terrible twosome and Mohican are officially weaned and Tosser is not far behind. He's down to getting a bottle once a day and only if he seems to need it. Sometimes he starts sucking his "little pee pee" (hehe) if he doesn't get his morning bottle....but that is starting to taper off thank goodness.

Our little friends the possie's are with Laurie now and she tells me they are doing great and all starting to eat on their own. It won't be long before they are reunited with their 4 siblings at Mary's again!

So right now we've got 9 up in the main cage....Growler, Tugger, Roxy, Teddy, Clover, Nosey, Stinky, Mo and Toto......and 6 out back in the release cage....Buster, Seeker, Stormy, Thunder, Huffer and the yet to be named sweetheart of a girl.....and Rollo and Quinny will be joining us at a later date.

While checking on the gang out back in the release pen last night I ran into Daisy, Popeye and Lexi with her kits. Tonight I ran into Red, Foxy, Fuzzball and Daisy again. Gave Laurie a quick call and she was able to make it over in time to get a chance to visit with Daisy. It was great and Daisy was very happy to see her mom again! Everyone looks great!

Funny looking raccoons

No masks and no ring tails! But pretty cute none the less. Got a group of 8 opossums....all boys too! Mom was hit by a car and killed along with 2 other siblings, but these guys were found and rescued in time. Mary is our resident opossum expert so I RAN to her when I got them! ha ha

These little guys are about 47 grams. They are not self feeding yet, but they are close....so I got some instructions from Mary and we split them. I'll take care of 4 of them until they start self feeding then we can reunite them all again and they will stay at Mary's until released.

The gang gets released!

It's official now...Foxy, Popeye, Daisy, Buddy, Whitey and Screech are free raccoons! And they are enjoying it thoroughly as you can see in just a few of the pics I got of their antics.

I can't even begin to describe how silly they were running around like maniacs. Buddy enjoyed splashing around in the pond and Popeye starting causing trouble with the other resident coons as they started showing up. He's already got a got some minor battle scars!

Red and Feisty showed up for a brief visit and in the middle of it all, Laurie and I had to head out to rescue a momma opossum and her babies curled up on the side of a road. We picked her up and there were babies everywhere! She is doing great now. Mary has her in a nice safe, cozy cage. She is thin and tired...but has already rested and eaten a good meal and should do well in her care while she raises her babies in safety.

Introducing Buster.

Here is one of the new kids! This is Buster. Something happened to his mom, but we don't know what. He was found wandering in the area of a barn where mom's den was known to be. We thought he was reunited after he was left out Friday night and gone the next morning. But on Sunday he reappeared wandering the woman's yard. And unfortunately 2 other siblings were found dead in the road. He was a little dehydrated and hungry...but none the worse for wear!


Then I got a call today from the woman that found him. They just found 2 more! Buster still has some siblings!

His 2 brothers are not in as good shape as he was. They are very dehydrated and thin, and one of them has puss leaking out of one eye and a swollen front leg. They are in the process of getting rehydrated and the injured little guy will be visiting the vet tomorrow. Poor things...they've been without mom since at least Friday! The 2 new brothers are pretty active and alert considering their condition, and eagerly drinking their fluids, so hopefully they will do well.


Here are a couple other new kids that have come our way. Mary has this cutie pie! How cute!! Momma was evicted from her den...in the garage or shed I think, I can't remember. Mom was seen by some leaving with a trail of babies, but this little girl was found later. Apparently she got separated or fell off mom in the move.

JoAnn has taken on these precious bundles. There are 3 chippies all together. A house was being demolished and the chimney brought down. The workers found these guys under the rubble! Amazing...not a scratch on them. They are in great shape so they were most likely orphaned as the chimney came down, therefore they were not without mom for very long at all! 13 tiny grams!! Wow! Good luck JoAnn.....you didn't want any sleep this week anyway, did ya!? Ha ha.