Raccoon Rescue (attempt)

Six years ago, I owned a small horse farm in Ohio, we only had 5.5 acres, but it was beautiful land that was totally private, and surrounded by woodland.
One Spring day I was out in my yard gardening with my son Edi and his friend Steve.  It was an unusually hot day for the time of year (March), almost 90 degrees,  when Steve called me, he had spotted a baby raccoon in the grass.  The poor little thing couldn't have been more than 24 hours old, it still had part of the placenta stuck to it.  It was very dehydrated, and struggling to breathe.  Obviously it was going to die if we left it there under the blazing hot sun, so I carefully picked it up, placed it gently in a shoebox filled with hay, and put it in my air conditioned tack room in the barn.
I immediately called the raccoon rescue, only to be told that they were full, and that I should put it back where I found it, I was not allowed to touch it as it may have rabies. "Horse shit" I thought, there was no way I was putting the poor little thing back to roast and die in the heat.
My next idea was to drive to the local veterinary office, I thought that they would probably know what I should do . Danni came with me, and the two of us drove around for about an hour.  We went from office to office, but we had no luck, no one could help, or even offer advice, they were apparently not allowed (by law) to do so.  Everyone told me I had to put it back where I found it.  I knew if I did, that it would die for sure within an hour in the intense heat, if it hadn't died already.  So we returned home, and much to our surprise the little raccoon was still alive, and sleeping soundly in his little hay bed in the shoe box.

I had absolutely no idea what to do, but I thought it kinder to let the poor little creature die in peace, quietly, than roast or be torn apart by other wild animals out in the yard.  So I got on the Internet and researched raccoon rescue.  What I learnt was that baby raccoons almost always die in captivity.  But I also learnt what to do, and how to do it, in this hopeless situation.  I needed a kitten milk formula, and a tiny, tiny feeding bottle. So the next trip was to my local Pet Smart store to buy the necessary equipment.

My husband told me that the raccoon would probably die, but if it didn't I would have a baby to take care of that would take up a great deal of my time, and was that what I was prepared to do?  I honestly didn't feel as though I had any choice, and I was almost certain, having read about them on the Internet that the baby would die in a day or so anyway, my main goal was to limit it's suffering.

So I carefully made up the first feed, and with no expectations attempted to feed the little creature.  I wrapped it in a clean hand towel, and put the teat close to it's mouth, at first it squirmed and moved its head away, so I carefully squeezed some of the kitten milk out of the teat and dropped it onto the raccoons mouth, it almost instantly grabbed the teat and started feeding.
When all the feed was gone I put the baby back in the shoe box. I then filled 2 small water bottles with warm water, put each one into a sock,  then placed them either side of the little raccoon.  The hot water bottles would help the blind baby think it was laying with it's brothers and sisters, and it worked because within a couple of minutes the little baby was sleeping soundly again.
At this point in time I had absolutely no idea what I had let myself in for...

More to follow...