Monday, November 26, 2007

To Los Angeles residents

I've been getting emails from Los Angeles area with coonie families making themselves at home. Some in the Jaccuzzi, some in attics, some with babies, some just "too friendly". They do not need help. They do not need to be relocated. They simply need the humans to quit leaving garbage and other things out to attract them.

Here is what I have had to explain to most humans concerned about a healthy family of coonies in their area:

Being friendly to humans is in their nature. They are a grateful creature
and need to learn to fear humans. They will approach humans just like a
little puppy when they need help. They will also choose only one or two
humans to let close and trust. All others will be kept at a distance or
warned with snarfs and growls to stay back. When really frightened they
bark like a dog, or arch and hiss like a cat. A wild coonie who is
friendly has either been fed by humans from a young age, or mother taught
it humans meant food sources and help.

They have discovered your area because you offer food and shelter. Most
likely there are humans leaving food out for the feral cats and their
domestic dogs outside at night. Bird feeders, BBQ equipment, kiddie pools,
Koi ponds, toddler toys, statues, trash in plastic bags [it should be in
containers with lids secured with bungee cords to keep them out] -- these
are all things that coonies like. A neighborhood needs to work together to
get coonies to move on. They need to lock these things up in sheds at
night for a few weeks, out of reach of the coonies.

Even if I help you move this 'one' coonie -- Mother Nature doesn't like a
void. She will replace it with two more. You need to make the area less of
a free meal and more secure. They will leave on their own in a short
period of time - about two weeks if the food is gone.

You are California. So much habitat has been destroyed just this year.
They have nowhere to go. It is birthing season in your area. Some are
young mothers looking for their first den. They don't know what's going
on, just they need a nice attic, chimney, crawlspace, or garage to give birth -- close to where there is food.

They also are a misunderstood creature. They actually benefit the humans
by catching snakes, rats and mice. If no human is putting out food, it's
quite possible it's a good hunting ground for them.

If you run across orphaned babies or injured coonies, please contact me. If you run into an emergency situation with this one you have concerns about, again, please contact me.

But to move this coonie? It has already lost it's home. Moving it would take away the home it has had to adapt to. Food & water sources would need to be found all over again. And they have been known to travel as far as twenty miles to get back to their babies. Most litters barely survive a week without mother. They can if they are strong - but it affects their growth and the quality of their life. It's okay if they are friendly -- as long as we don't try to touch them they don't want to hurt you. Don't try hand feeding them or picking them up, or think they are a domestic. But they will often want to touch your shoes and play with shoelaces, grab keys and run away, etc. especially the younger ones. All you have to do to scare them off is bang a wooden spoon on a large metal pan.

Thank you so much for caring about these coonies. Please help me to help
them survive where Mother Nature put them. There are so many injured and
orphaned each year, we rehabbers can barely keep up with their care.
Healthy ones just need a bit more understanding on the human end.

Saturday, November 24, 2007

New Residents at the Orphanage

Meet Skynard and Leonard.

They were hatched out in a nursing home. The little aviary kept for the residents enjoyment became too prolific. So the males began to be removed at a young age to help the population problem. A wonderful lady took them home and posted in our local Freecycle looking for homes for them. Within a day she had homes for a dozen or so little Zebra finches. Skynard is a bit younger than Leonard. They are very tame and don't mind being handled. Welcome to the Raccoon Orphanage Leonard & Skynard!

Friday, November 23, 2007

CoonCam Back Online

The CoonCam will be back online today for as long as the laptop cooperates.

Thursday, November 22, 2007

Give Thanks unto the Lord

Today is actually my favorite holiday. It is, in fact, the only one I really celebrate. Each year taking the opportunity to speculate on how many wondrous things there are in my life to be in awe of and ever so grateful for. Ponderings of the heart. Time to reflect on everything, show gratitude and share.
Hiway, my big fat girlfriend, is one miracle I am in awe of. What this little one survived through is mind boggling. This Coondak Moment {photo taken} yesterday just makes me wonder how she managed to get so huge and still be such a tiny baby.
Another little miracle that crossed my path is this little Shazbot {and her human Mariah}. This is the first single kit that Mariah raised on her own. You can tell she is quite proud of her little rehab. Shazbot and Hiway were meant to be roomies for this season.

I also need to thank all of you who have helped support the Raccoon Orphanage and keep me going. There are more friends out there on the internet than one can imagine. Social networking keeps Dory & the Orphans in touch with communities -- and I have met some of the most wonderful invisible humans in the world -- not unlike how many describe angels. Both those who have care and concern about me personally, and those who cross my path who want to help creatures they've encountered. Perhaps one day it is in destiny to meet some of these folk face to face. But just having them to ponder about is an amazing journey of it's own.

Please don't drink and drive during the holiday season. Blessed Be.

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Breakfast at the Orphanage

Hiway, Shazbot & Benjamin decided they don't care if it's mid November. They don't feel like sleeping. Lillian ate and went back up into the cubby right away. I have to wonder how their lack of cold weather for torpor is going to affect next season. It's bound to have a lot more birthing involved if everybody's out wandering about instead of sleeping for the season.


Sunday, November 11, 2007

~ Wave 11:11~

Today, 11/11/2007 at 11:11 a.m. in your time zone, Song, Prayer and Meditation was spread around the globe. Search your heart and you will intuitively know the intentions in your role in healing the planet. You might consider singing/praying/meditating upon any or all of these single words:

Peace, Trust, Love, Harmony, Presence, Acceptance.

Straddling the equator and bordering the International Date Line to the east, the people of the Republic of Kiribati started ~ Wave 11:11~ and it will be passed around the planet until the final destination of the Republic of Marshall Islands, and the full day of wave energy flow will be completed.

Share this with everyone you know! Join us in creating the butterfly's wave.

The flap of a butterfly's wings in Brazil can set off a storm in Texas.

Physicists call this theory "The Butterfly Effect" to explain how the breeze produced by a butterfly's wings could set off a series of reverberations that over time have a tremendous affect on weather patterns thousands of miles away. Now imagine the impact of millions of butterflies:

Currently on earth there is a "quickening" where more and more people are realizing there is much more to reality than meets the eye and are beginning to explore their consciousness. As we open up to the higher consciousness, we allow in a powerful energetic force which guides our individual evolutionary journey as we allow it.

At 11:11 am your time ~ Wave 11:11~ fluttered by your neck of the woods. Peace, Trust, Love, Harmony, Presence, Acceptance. Think about it.

Content by wickedscoops paraphrased.

Friday, November 9, 2007

Echo heard from Elgin IL?

Don't quote me here, but rumor has it Frannie thought about saying the 's' word again. Please say it ain't so.

Driving north through the forests Wednesday, a doe or two were foraging together off the sides of the highway, very small clutches of young turkey hens a bit further down. It's full rut for the bucks right now, so the deer are much more visible to the humans for now. Fortunately, the runners have seen the "GeWiZ" van before I have spotted them. They come out of the forest trees at quite a run sometimes, and then ... "oooops ... what is this hard strip crossing my path?" ..... It's different than their hopping like a bunny through the fields -- it's a full blown fight or flight dash for their life.

There was about 6 - 8" of snow on top of vehicles coming south leaving the Chequamegon, but no snow to be seen anywhere on the ground in any of the four forest's floors. But schools had a snow day up by the border already.

Torpor is all goofy this season. Torpor is the type of hibernation coonies utilize. It is not sleeping for several months and then waking up like a bear does. They sleep according to the weather pattern. When it gets cold, they curl up in a ball or snuggle together, and sleep. When it warms up, they come down and eat. In the winter they eat snow for moisture if necessary. But they still love their open water if any is available.

Snow does kick Torpor in for long periods of time. Nip & Tucker didn't come down for nearly a month the year we had blizzard after blizzard. They had no interest in food even if I went into the Coondo and offered it to them by hand up in the cubby. Just not interested and groggy. Perhaps one year we can get an infrared CoonCam set up for the cubby in the winter. I'd be quite curious to see what they do up there, or if all they do is sleep.

Here's more info about Torpor if you're curious.
http://library.thinkquest.org/TQ0312800/torpor.htm

Today we are bringing in one of the release site mini-coondos to make a more compatible Torpor setting for Hiway and Shazbot. Hiway is getting very big, but still can't climb too high without falling. Even with the CoonCam down, I can hopefully still post video clips here on the blog.

Benjamin & Lillian are up several times a day yet. They have done well and are ready for their Big Adventure now. But they are going to need to winter over for a while. They would not do well being in this state and attempting to find somewhere to safely sleep. I hope all the other orphans in the forests now have found a winter sleeping spot. They have hundreds of gnarly trees to find hollows in. i think of them all often.

Frannie thinking about saying the "s" word? Call me crazy, but that lets me know I better be ready for snow. :^)

Thursday, November 8, 2007

CoonCam

Sorry folks. But the CoonCam is offline for a while. The monitor on the laptop croaked and went black. So the CoonCam will be down until I can figure something out.

Sunday, November 4, 2007

4 a.m. visitor

Around 4 a.m. I thought I heard someone banging on the door to come in. Kamir said she heard it too because she ran to the window to look, and then ran to the door. She usually jumps up on the door to look out that window too, but upon seeing nothing - ran back to the other window. So I go look. Nobody there. So I open the door, nobody there. Open the storm door to check the Coondos, and in flies Shazbot.

Yesterday we rearranged Hiway & Shazbot's mini-coondo. Put the portable fencing around it so they have some outside time and space. We filled it with maple leaves from the yard. To watch them jump and hide in the pile of leaves was better than any Animal Planet's best animal videos. Shazbot tried to hide from Hiway and pull a sneak attack. Well. With Hiway you don't even need leaves to hide in to surprise her that you're there. Then they'd just roll around together in the leaves like one big fuzzy ball.

It would appear that Shazbot found a way to get out. She's the first one who has gotten out of that enclosure other than the ones who fit right through the spaces -- usually about 9 or 10 weekers.

Well. Being 4 a.m. and dark outside, I put her in the house kennel -- thinking it'll be daylight in a couple hours. But NOoooooo. Shazbot had a conniption if I wasn't right there looking at her. Sounded like something was attacking her the urgency she was yelling at me with. So. Take her out, cuddle her, hug her [sassy as she is she does like her attention], put her back in for a moment so I can grab the lantern and keys to unlock her mini-coondo perimeter.

While unlocking it, Hiway decided to grab onto my arm and hug it for dear life. With her arms through the fence, and my arm on the other side, it took a while to get the door open. lol. Then back in to get Shazbot. Had to lock the mini-coondo til daylight - then we can watch to see just exactly where Sarah Shazbot found a way out.

It's actually rather pleasant outside this morning, much to my surprise that it's only 30 degrees out there. This weather has all my rehabs confused. Everybody was up and pacing at me this morning, and yesterday they all slept until around 1:30 p.m. It seemed partial hibernation was the order of the day -- and November they should all be sleeping in. But this November? Not a typical Northwoods November again this year.

Saturday, November 3, 2007

Molly in Florida

Here are a couple of photos of the little baby in Florida that needed a rehabber. Her name is Molly. When first contacted by the rescuers, Molly was refusing to take a bottle -- she was syringe feeding. She had also developed diahrrea. After consulting with the rescuers, explaining how to get her on a bottle, how to mix her formula a bit differently, and reducing the amount she was taking in -- Molly improved and began to be the playful little baby she is.


She is a fortunate baby. She had finders that went the extra mile to find out if they were doing the best things for Molly while locating an experienced rehabber. She will now be in the best of hands to help her grow up and look forward to a Big Adventure in the Spring. Thank you for helping Molly.
But most of all, thank you for loving her enough to do what is best for Molly.

Thursday, November 1, 2007

Another Big Adventure Video

This is a newly released video of Wildthang, Wizzer, Chewie, Sonny, Little Girl & Rickietickietavi's Big Adventure in September 2006. Doug built them a nice little Mini-Coondo in a really gnarly old woodpecker tree. The orphans loved the new playground, and didn't want to go back to the Coondo. They didn't stay in the Mini-Coondo, and only came back to eat from time to time. Every now and then you could see a muddy paw print in one of the white buckets. But never a glimpse of the beautiful orphans again.