A successful (and fun!) fundraiser!

A very heartfelt thanks to everyone who came out for our Bling for Babies fundraiser!! It was a great success and a lot of fun too! Thanks to Jess the Silpada jewelry rep for suggesting it in the first place and guiding us while we pulled it all together!!

It was a great excuse to finally clean my house for a change too! LOL (thanks Mom and Laurie for helping with that!)

Good fun, good food & drink, good friends....it was a wonderful night full of wonderful people all out to help our wildlife! Thanks to all for everything!

And they're off.......Michelle's group gets released.

Sunday night Laurie and I released the last of the gang going out this fall. We were a little more attached to this crew so it was a little bit tougher saying goodbye! We brought Vin back over too. He healed well and was ready to go. We figured it would not be difficult bringing him back into the pen since none of them had an issue with each other the day we found him in there.....and we were right! He immediately had friends coming over to say Hi and play! Laurie became a human tree when some treats were brought out to make everyone come over so we could check them before releasing them.....it's blurry but great! They were moving so fast I'm lucky I got it at all!

Two of the beach boys had some issues....one had a scraped nose and one had an abscess right between his eyes! What the heck! While mulling the situation over in my mind, he ended up popping it in the mad rush for treats and was very diligent using his paws to clean it. So issue resolved.....abscesses are very common in them in the wild and most usually resolve themselves unless they are as extensive as Vin's were. This is already draining now and he can easily reach it to keep it clean and draining so he should be fine. We'll keep an eye on him also.

So decision made, a final goodbye to the gang....especially my sweetheart Michelle.....
(sniff, sniff!)

....and out the door they go!

The abscess was already looking better.....and he's still doing a great job keeping it clean! He certainly isn't acting like it bothers him!

A den box was put on top of the pen after we put the gang in there in case another of Vin's gang made their way back injured....this way they would still have a safe place to hole up since they wouldn't be able to get into the pen for a while. This crew wasted no time investigating it.

The rest of the time we were there they spent running around like maniacs and obsessing over acorns! This crew didn't just melt off into the woods like the first crew.....they hung out around the pen like they usually do and Laurie and I finally snuck away to leave them with their fun!

Vin's second release...he stuck around this time.

We didn't see Drake there when we released them, but I'm sure he's around and will catch up with them....I saw him hanging out near the pen just the day before so I know he's doing great and will be very happy his buddies can join him now!

Laurie went by Monday morning and the majority of the gang were sacked out in the den boxes in and on the pen. Vin really likes this gang and he's apparently decided to stick with them instead of head back out to wherever the rest of his brothers disappeared to a couple months back.

We'll keep an eye on the area for a while until eventually, they too will move on and find their own homes in the woods.

Holy crap! Babies in October!

Laurie got a call this past week from a woman that found a baby raccoon in the middle of a very busy road. When Laurie called and told me we both figured "we'll see what it really is when it gets here". Many times things are not what people think they are....and all the coonie babies should be grown by now!

Well holy crap....doesn't it turn out to be a little baby raccoon! Very young and very much still on the bottle. Uhhhh...you're about 4 months late this season little fella!!

The next day the woman checked the area for more and sure enough there were 2 more at the entrance of a drainpipe, down in a ravine type median in the middle of a very busy main road in Woburn. She managed to grab one but the other went further into the drain pipe and disappeared. Laurie headed out there to try to help. Unable to reach the little one Laurie called in the Animal Rescue League to help. Fast forward a couple hours and soon she has the DPW, Woburn Police, Woburn Fire dept. and State police on scene, all trying to help find the little bugger! Unfortunately it was an unsuccessful endeavor.

Of course we can't stop thinking about the poor thing so we decide to head back that night to see if just maybe we could find it in the area....to no avail. But the drain pipe goes underground across the road and under a big building. There is a night guard there, and turns out a night shift on duty in the building....so we head in and ask if they know where in the building the pipe goes to and can it be checked? They call the maintenance guy who would love to help (actually they were all very helpful and kind.....but who wouldn't be with 2 adorable little baby raccoons there to melt their hearts! LOL) but even if they could manage to find the pipe, all they would be able to look at is straight down a manhole, not into the actual pipe. They also mentioned seeing a dead coon in the road within the past week also, no doubt the mom. So he promises to keep an eye out and we have to call it a night.....a very sleepless night thinking about one poor unfortunate baby that would probably die out there.

Fast forward again to the next day....I'm at work and get a text from Laurie.....the third baby was found and in route to her house! AMEN!!! I was ready to ball my eyes out I was so happy! A not so common happy ending thanks to the diligence of the 2 women who found the first baby and didn't give up, checking the area on their way to work, until the last one was found and safe!

2 girls and a boy now reunited and doing great despite a rough beginning and a crazy search and rescue! I had the pleasure of coon sitting for a couple of days and I have to tell ya....Laurie almost didn't get them back! No worries though...they'll be back here soon enough to join all the rest that will be spending the winter!

Updates on the gang....

Feeding time is just not the same without the gang we moved to the release site! Oh....Dolci usually hears me out there and is the first to investigate as usual..........and then she calls the rest of them out who begin gathering on the wall as usual....
.....but there is a lot more empty space there now! *Sigh* The gang out at the release site is doing great...with one little kink. Drake decided to release himself early! I went back a couple days after putting them out there and while I'm inside cleaning up, a raccoon shows up outside trying to get in! I was mortified thinking I somehow let someone slip out the door when I went in!! He was easy enough to catch and put back in and I did another head count...about a hundred times!.....and once I was satisfied everyone was in there I left.
Laurie calls me the next day and guess what! Drake is out again....hanging out quite comfortably in a tree next to the pen. He's a little shy with me, so he's definitely not coming down for Laurie. So now we know at least it wasn't me being careless! He's getting out somehow. I checked the entire pen and the only thing I could find was a little section on the top where he possibly could have squeezed through and I wired it shut. Not much more we can do about it. When I see him out there he's not stressed or scared or running to me to "save him from the big scary world"....so I brought an extra den box and put it on top of the pen so he would have a place if he needed it, and we leave food out for him in there...that's in addition to the feeder that's already out there anyway. He's been hanging out in the area near them....sometimes he's right in the tree near the pen and other times we can't find him, but he seems to be doing fine and definitely doesn't seem to want back in. I just feel bad he's by himself right now.....if the weather wasn't so crappy we'd let them all join him....but as soon as it clears up they will.

So it's Vin that has the big hole in his ass....and he's doing great, but if you were to ask him how he feels this would be his reaction! LOL
He's being such a good patient though! He's got so many little holes all over him, poor thing, and he's very good about just sitting there letting my pull off the scabs to keep them open and draining. In fact I think he actually enjoys it!

He's done with the antibiotics and now it just remains to be seen if he's healed enough to go back out this fall or wait till spring....

The 6 baby squirrels (Caramel and crew) are growing like weeds and are in the large indoor cage now and loving it!

Once the weather clears up it will be time for Qbert, Snarf and Snuffles to get released with their group. They are big and beautiful and ready to go!

The baby flyers are doing awesome at Lisa's. She's been decorating the large cage with lots of hollow trees and branches for them to practice gliding when they are old enough.

We are also working on a fundraiser at my house for October. Some munchies, some beverages and Silpada Jewelry! The proceeds from the sales will go toward our jewels of the wild! It's going to be a busy month with that and then 2 wildlife conferences to go to as well in NH and NY!