Ouch!

Well the poor boy was getting agitated in his pen. I think he could hear and see his buddies River and Witchey across from him in the big pen and wanted in! In the hopes of further preventing more damage to his foot....I brought River over to join him. He was SO happy to see his sister again....a very cute and happy reunion.

But then River was agitated trying to get back to her pen and the 9 friends she left behind there. So I came up with another compromise....I separated the small section of the large pen off and put River and Einstein/Willie (I'm still not positive which one it is but now I'm leaning towards Willie) in there. The entry window was covered with wire so they can interact with the other babies. Soon they should all be used to Einstein and then when his foot is well enough they can all be mixed in together!

His poor back foot looks like hamburger! It looks awful...and much worse in person even! I've rigged the cage with flat surfaces and shelves for him to walk down so he doesn't have to use the foot to climb.

The very happy reunion!

River is definitely enjoying the new shelves!

Einstein meets the rest of the gang.

I think the foot is going to get worse before it get's better...it already looks worse since these pictures were taken......keeping a close eye on it in case it doesn't start healing properly.

Victim of a wildlife Assault & Battery!

Got a call Thursday from the family at Baloo's release site....one of the gang was in the den box and something is wrong with one of the eyes. So I went over after work to check it out. Sure enough, Einstein was huddled up in there and not in the best of shape! The eye was obviously injured and his back feet looked swollen so I bundled him into a carrier and brought him home.

(At least I think it's Einstein! He and Willy look similar...I can tell by the fur color around the eyes who is who and with the injuries it's hard to tell....although he acts a little huffy like Einstein, the injuries would make any coonie huffy like that at this point!)

Brought him to the vet and on closer inspection...he basically got the shit beat out of him! Luckily the eye is ok in there...just a lot of swelling around it. Lots of wounds on his back and all 4 feet, but the worst are the back feet. One back foot was chewed pretty bad....lots of holes through the toes. Nothing he can't recover from, but it means he will be spending the winter as it will take quite a while for it to heal up. With all 4 feet hurting, he's having enough trouble walking, much less being able to climb and escape danger if left out there.

Here he is the morning after treatment and some pain meds, all settled into the den box in his pen.

This is the least of the damage on his feet....it's the other one that is pretty mangled, but he keeps that one pretty much away from my prying hands!

At least he's being good about taking his antibiotics...he won't let me near the eye to put ophthalmic ointment in there, and we don't want to cause more harm to the feet by causing him to struggle trying to treat the eye, so oral drugs it is because believe it or not, that's easy!

The vet thinks the wounds were about 3 days old, so he pretty much got beat up his first night out there, poor guy! Luckily he was able to work his way back to the safety of the pen...it took him a couple days, and I guarantee it wasn't easy, but he made it!

I just hope the rest of the gang is faring better!

Disney World for Raccoons

Flipper, Willie and Einstein are finally weaned and in with Baloo, River, RJ and Scootch. After a few play days in there to get acquainted, everyone is getting along and they are now permanent residents with the older four and loving it!

River of course loves everyone and they were immediate friends as you can see here with River and Flipper....

RJ took a while to warm up to them, but since they invaded her hammock and obviously were not going to go away she has come to terms with it and enjoys playing with them now!

Willie was all over the hammock when he discovered it!!What a fun toy!!!

Goldie and the 3 bears and Razz and Diesel's group continue to enjoy their new big pen with all the fun stuff to climb and play on! They now have mosquito netting covering the pen and the bug free environment is WONDERFUL!!!-for all of us!! I've got more on the way for the other kids pen too!

Grizz and Goldie enjoy lunch!

Diesel has a relaxing meal.

Play time in the pool...before they all start peeing in it! Ugghh!

Pine cones are ALWAYS a fun toy!!

...and Panda is not about to share his!

Tank comes over to say hi to mom.