Big Adventure Day August 31, 2009

These three raccoons were released today in the Northwoods. They are smaller than normal for this time of year to begin with {only 17 pounds}. Around the fourth of July, as you know if you've been following the blog, someone decided to throw poison of some type into the enclosure perimeters. 16 became seriously ill. It was buy them daily medication at over $36 per day or get a freezer to replace the defunct one. They got medication freezer can be on the wish list for a bit longer I guess. Some were too small to fight it. Some were not so small but it took them too. This will haunt me forever. Why would someone do such a horrible thing to such precious creatures? You can help by sending gently used items from our Wish List on Dory & the Orphans website -- many items you would probably throw away anyway. Your donations not only help the Raccoon Orphanage in the Northwoods, they help LBA members rehabbing in all the States and Canada.

You know? For the past nine weeks I have been taking care of everything by myself when it comes to chores and taking care of the wildlife here. There are more than coonie babies. There are turles [yes more than one these days], squirrels, rabbit, ferret, ferals, unwanted parakeets and a zebra finch, and of course, the guard dog. I am also a single mother trying to raise fine upstanding children. Tomorrow school starts in the Northwoods and my #1 volunteer helper baby girl will be in her senior year. She's taking three college courses this semester as well. President of Coleman's FFA Chapter, State FFA Honors Band, Marinette County Badger Girl and first flute in the Coleman High School Band.

Tommorrow school will also start for the dozen babies and juvies in Blarnia [my outbuilding]. They will get to move into the Coondo now and hopefully the CoonCam will be back online. I took it offline when it was tampered with and left it down as it was not good to have public viewing sick and dying creatures. It really was [and still is] unbearable to find I couldn't protect them on my own private property.

Some of you local citizens that read my blog should consider organizing a collection drive for baby blankets, paper towels, stuffed animals, toddler toys, things on the wish list that I have to purchase for these wildlife orphans. Baby raccoons need these for developing their sense of touch. In the wild they have trees and leaves, bark and moss. Help me help these creatures PLEASE. What I don't use here is distributed to wildlife rehabbers in all the states. Please help the LBA Maybe you can't hold these wild ones and feed them, but you can help them survive by donating your unwanted gently used items instead of giving them to Goodwill or throwing them away -- even just once is a big help!
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Hiway

My big fat girlfriend Hiway became seriously ill last week. Her 'normal' never ceasing frantic pacing due to her brain damage as an infant ceased. She began just laying in whatever mud she could find to keep cool and quit eating. Hiway is my educational keeper coonie of 2+ years now. She is my bestest girlfriend and the love of my life. I have been devastated for over a week feeling stupid not knowing what to do for her. I can advise just about anyone with a coonie what the problem is and what to do. But .... apparently could not think clearly enough to diagnose my own best girlfriend's issues. Until about an hour ago I thought she was going to cross over Rainbow Bridge and leave me. I have been a basket case. Many many people have been praying for her as they know what she means to me.

This was posted in my group by a dear friend and colleague and thought I'd share with you, as I had truly forgotten.

"Hiway, a few personal thoughts"

Gotta say a coupla things here, or try to. Matters of cosmic reciprocity and such are hard to put in human language, but that has never stopped me from trying before, so i will post this and then i will shut up and wait out the weekend in hope and prayer, too.

For those of you who were not here yet, or were and have forgotten the Hiway beginning a couple of years ago...(i hope Matz will forgive me for sharing this):

Avermectins are a class of drugs with similar properties, Ivermectin being one of the most common...BUT the dose the vet gave Matz to administer, as Doc Sandy said later that night "was about what you'd give a horse. It will kill her," she said. And that pronouncement nearly killed our Matzo; Matzo had mindmelded with this pathetic little bunch of fur and bones, sat through the entire night (or was it two?)picking and flushing maggots from her eyes, held and hummed her in and out of consciousness, clung on to faith in coonies' "amazing recuperative powers", marvelled at her fight to live when she rallied, cradled her when the very Essence ebbed, and suddenly in a stabbing moment saw herself as the instrument of the little thing's demise. She had given the shot that was going to kill Hiway.

I believe she would have willingly followed Hiway right into coma just so the little waif wouldn't have to go there alone. But Hiway didn't die. She knew the Presence was there for her and together they battled back through the dehydration, kidney failure, liver overload, neuro trauma, brain damage...and finally Hiway awoke, somewhat changed, but forever grateful to her Matzomom. And Matzo awoke, also somewhat changed. She had always had "the touch" with wildlife, always had healing hands, but each rehab was a challenge of symptoms, a partnered battle against whatever elements were trying to bring down that particular individual. Some were more endearing and memorable, but for each one the healing and release was the thing. They all got to her, as we all know coonies do, and each release brought days of melancholy and the crabbies, then softened as new needs arose. But Matz said, in the middle of one of the nights of Hiway, "This one's different. There's something about this one". And there is. They reached a place within each other that is usually closed to members of the same species, let alone another. Matz's healing will bolstered Hiway's, and Hiway took that weary little hannie and touched a place in Matzo's heart that even she didn't know needed healing.

So. That is how The Guru of all Things Coonie, who had always, "until that very week, day, hour and moment" lived and breathed rehab and release, and who had consistently proclaimed against "keeper coonies" (believing what Jani did was wonderful, but housecoonies are generally not the thing to do) suddenly had one.

The group responded with great glee and much teasing as phrases like "my best Girlfriend" issued forth from the erudite and clinically correct Ms.Matzo. Well, Hiway didn't truly become a housecoonie, but is, i believe the term is "permitted education animal"...a small(?!) fur ambassador who has moved school kids, day campers and even sportsmen to a different way of seeing wildlife. And she has remained Matz's "best girlfriend".

Perhaps what she is undergoing now is a metamorphosis from her impaired self to a new level of wellness; maybe it took her brain this long and a little fever to remap itself so she could stop pacing and worrying. Or maybe she is just aging (alas, don't many of us move a little slower these days?). Or maybe she is fixin' to move on altogether. Whatever she does or wherever she goes, "Essence" there will be the better for it because she will take a part of Matzo with her. And Matzo will be the better for it, despite her very human angst, because she will carry always, Hiway.

schulz

About an hour ago she "came back" to me from her near comatose state, and is now eating and perhaps with a little more prayers, patience and faith in the amazing healing abilities of the raccoon will grace me with more years of freindship and love.

Thank you to all for your prayers for my precious Hiway!

A Day to Give Thanks

Well. It's here again! My favorite holiday of the year! The day I give thanks for everything in my life. The good, the bad and the ugly. Why? Because it all pulls together to make life a perfect circle.

I am thankful for the LBA. The marvelous wonderful hoomans who rescue both the wild ones and the citizens afraid to have them. Those who remain always in the background, under cover, waiting for the next contact to jump in and save the day. Those wonderful marvelous caring hoomans whom I would be ever so lost without.

I'm thankful for life itself and the opportunity to serve those who need. Einstein once said we do not begin to live until we serve others.

Here at the orphanage we will be having our annual give thanks feast. To be able to provide this meal shows me that there is nothing lacking at the orphanage. Food, shelter, comfort and peace for all who reside here.

Every one please remember to tell others what you are thankful for today. But don't just do that once a year. Every day you are given that you don't wake up and find yourself dead is a gift.

Be safe today. And PLEASE -- don't drink and drive.

Winter at the Raccoon Orphanage

It snowed in the Northwoods -- finally. I mean it really snowed. Started early last night sometime and hasn't quit yet -- twenty four hours later. It's a very pleasant snow. Sparkly, glittery little floating entities slowly piling up everywhere. It looks like it's fragile little balancing pieces of glittering powder. I had to shovel an accumulation of about a foot off the top of Hiway & Shazbot's mini-coondo. The weatherman says we're in for sub-zero weather tomorrow and colder over the weekend. The kids got sent home from school today at lunch time. It's pretty rare to get a snow day in Coleman!


Lillian made a rare appearance - but if you watch the video you'll see she's very careful not to put her feet right in the snow. She spends some time eating a few icicles from the top of the Coondo perimeter though. But I think she's giving me a bit of a 'what ARE you doing' look when she sees me through the window moving the CoonCam trying to get her climbing antics.

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.