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!!

An update.

The hard drive in my computer was just replaced so I hope to be up and running soon...woohoo! In the meantime, a brief little update!

A couple happy endings thanks to Maureen! An adult bunny had been pretty much knocked out by a group of guys playing horseshoes. Poor thing had head trauma and I'm sure a pretty good headache! A few days in a nice quiet hutch and he was eating like a pig and no more head tilt. When I brought him back to his home he bolted out of the carrier....straight as an arrow across the field and into the bushes. Then she rescued a  young skunk about a week ago. Some lady found it floating in her pool one morning, scooped it out with a net, and left it there in her yard. It wasn't until later that afternoon that she decides to call animal control because it's still breathing! Ugghhh! I'm happy to report the little bugger made a full recovery though and is roaming happily in my woods now!

On to the raccoons.....

In the main pen. Trooper, Doc, Sis, Bama, Springer, Chester, Rizzoli, Isles, Tumbler, Legend, Sammy, Soldier, Rocco, Brim and Spit...all doing great. 5 of them are getting doxycycline for some skin lesions that developed on their foreheads just in case it's part of the whole mycoplasma problem that started with Pebbles and Porcelain earlier this spring.

In the small pen attached to the main pen we have Porcelain, Pebbles, Lucky and Ducky. They were separated out from the main pen after Pebbles developed a swollen foot and Ducky was limping, just in case it was a recurrence of the mycoplasma. They are also on doxy  and may stay for the winter, as fellow rehabbers across the state have begun a study on the disease as it seems to have reared it's ugly head all over the place! They are doing fine though so don't worry! Pebbles foot is pretty much healed and Ducky is no longer limping. Her issue was most likely just a minor injury.

In the larger baby pen we have Houdini, Pinner, Spencer, Petey and 5 of Laurie's little ones. Cooper and Mayhem arrived first then the younger 3 that for the life of me I can never remember their names and all 3 look alike! I'll get it eventually, especially if they stay the winter which is most likely since they are very small.

And finally we have the 4 boat babies in the release pen we had to throw up to handle the overflow!

It's a full house around here right now.

Operation mangy fox is a success!

Last week Laurie got a call about a little fox that had been seen in town not looking very well. When she responded she was able to locate the poor thing (it looked like it had mange) but unable to catch it as it led her on a merry chase through the woods! Luckily the people kept an eye out for it and when they discovered it under their front porch the next day, Laurie, Lisa and I headed over to try to catch it.

It just so happened we were armed with our newly acquired equipment, thanks to the Flatbread fundraiser...and our efforts were a success!!

The poor little thing is now at Tuft's getting treatment. It will probably be 6 weeks or more of treatment, but in the end we will be able to release it back in it's own home area. 

I have to apologize for a lack of posts! My computer hard drive fried. I am totally lost and for the most part am only getting on the computer when at work. I am also praying I can recover all my pics. and info. that were on the damn thing that hadn't been transferred to an external hard drive yet. (Pretty much all the 2011 rehab pics!!!! Insert BIG scream here!)

It also means no quick way to get photos from camera to blog. I can't download them to the work computer to get them onto the blog, so hopefully some visits to my parents house will give me an opportunity got get some on here....or I may be borrowing Laurie's laptop for a bit.... 

So in advance....I'm sorry if some of the updates may be a little boring with no cute pics and just a lot of blah, blah, blah to look at! Right now you're looking at the last picture I managed to get on here.

River's crew.

River and the kids are doing well and seem to have integrated perfectly into the native population out there. Many nights I go out there to find them hanging out with Ringer and Belle and all their kids! They are all very tolerant of each other and it is very surreal to go out and be tripping over moms and kits mingling around. Throw in Gibby and Scrappy and a couple other unidentified adults and I am just amazed at how tolerant they all are of each other (and me). Males, females, adults, babies....a total mix and a total contradiction to the solitary life described by experts in the past.

A daytime visit by half the gang allows for some nice family portraits.

Momma River and one of her girls.

All 4 of her kids, Howell, the only boy, is the black one.

Ringer and her kids were out there as well. She moved off with 3 of them but one decided to hang with her cousins! She's on the far right acting like she was one of River's own.

Howell left, River's 3 girls in the middle and Ringer's girl on the right.

Ringer's girl. She's adorable and looks exactly like a larger version of Springer with her markings. She is very distinguishable from the other babies.

It seems to me that "release" is a bit of a contradiction here......I'm tripping over more coonies outside the pens than inside some days! LOL

I wouldn't have it any other way!

Dandy & the extended family.

Well it has been far too long since updating you on my extended family sharing the woods with me!

Lets begin with one of my favorite success stories...Dandy! If not for Dr. Bruce and Dr. McGrath, she would not be out there today bringing her adorable new family in for a visit! THIS is why we do what we do!

Then we have the bachelors. All the older males....you know those loners who don't socialize and kill kits whenever they get the chance. HA! These guys have been hanging out for a couple years together, and they made sure Dandy and her kits were long gone before chancing a meal!

Then we have Dandy, Quinny and Scrappy all eating peacefully together. All from different releases....none knew each other prior, Dandy a new protective mom, Quinny a seasoned adult male now and Scrappy the new kid on the block.

Having recently had conversations on the Raccoon Network regarding the so called "experts" who decided what the social lives of raccoons were like....I'm always curious as to how the hell they came up with their info. Because to be honest with you, it's all a load of crap! After years of observing them out there...in person and on video....it's obvious one of them probably saw one lone raccoon one evening and spun the tale of the elusive procyon lotor, with something less than an intelligent imagination! LOL

The possies are in town.

Give a big welcome to some of the new residents! These little guys are spending some time in the outdoor pre-release cage until they are big enough to head out on their own. We've juggled so many animals around this year that I'm not positive, but I think they started with Laurie, then went to Nancy who got them to the point where it was time to go outside. There are 5 of these cuties in there. Two have decided to take up residence in a squirrel nest box while the other 3 have chosen the the more spacious den box.

In other news, Pebbles has developed a swollen foot. It looks like an abcess, however due to her past myclplasma history, and the fact that it's a very difficult bug to get rid of, it's very possible a re-occurance of it. We cultured it last night to check, but in the meantime she will be going back on doxycycline and has been separated out from the main group ...with a little company of course. Her sister Porcelain and Lucky and Ducky are with her also. Lucky is a little gimpy on a rear leg but there is no swelling or external injuries, so hopefully she just sprained it while climbing around the big pen. She'll be getting doxy anyway just in case, as the mycoplasma is contagious. And I'll be keeping a close eye on the rest of the gang that was in the big pen with them!