More about Oscar

So, to cut a long story short, Oscar totally thrived under my care, and grew to become a very healthy, glossy coated, happy little raccoon, while I became very much his adopted Mother.  I would let him out of his cage every morning so he could run around and play, always hoping that he would find his brothers and sisters in the woods.  I had decided to keep him locked in his cage at night while he was very young, for his own protection.

Oscar followed me everywhere I went, and played happily in the yard while I planted and weeded.  His climbing skills had developed remarkably, and he had become a proficient climber.  I discovered his love of water, and often filled a bowl or the garbage can lid with water placing it somewhere in the garden for him to discover, then he would play like a small child, running and jumping in it, splashing around, thoroughly soaking himself, then run dripping everywhere to climb on my back soaking me and pull my ponytail. 

I sadly realized that I could not keep Oscar indefinitely as a pet, he was very much a wild animal, and often demonstrated his aggression with anyone outside my family, with us he was loving and very tame, but with strangers he was cautious, aggressive and spiteful.

I tried to interest zoo's, and even local petting farms, but no one was interested.  I became quite concerned about his future, we had our house on the market and were planning to move onto our boat in the Caribbean, Oscar would definitely not find a suitable home with us there. I had no idea what I could do with him.

At 6 months old, I started leaving his cage door open at night, hoping this would encourage him to develop his night skills and gradually revert back to the wild.  During the first couple of weeks of letting Oscar out at night, I had many sleepless nights worrying about his safety, and whether I was doing the right thing,  but no one could give me any advise, or tell me how or what I should be doing, so I just went on what I thought would be right, and kept my fingers crossed. 

After a couple of months of his night-time freedom, Oscar would often not be in the barn on a morning when I went up, but as soon as I called him he would quickly appear, scampering excitedly from the woods to climb up onto my shoulder and nibble at my ponytail.

Obviously he was starting to explore his territory a little more, and familiarize himself with his natural surroundings and other wild creatures, but he was still very attached to me, and continued to follow me everywhere.  He would climb around inside the garage and get up into the engines of the cars which really worried me.  We had to start putting all the cars in the garage at night and locking it, for fear of Oscar curling up asleep inside one of the engines without us knowing he was there.

When Oscar was about 10 months old, we had to go away for a weekend, and I was worried about leaving him alone, he was completely free of his cage now, but usually stayed relatively close to the barn, I was still feeding him once a day,  really just to check that he was OK, but otherwise he was totally on his own.

I asked my neighbor if she would come and check on him while I was away, but  I couldn't help worrying about him the entire weekend I was gone. I had a bad feeling about leaving him, it was almost as if I knew something was about to happen.

I couldn't wait to get home after the trip, and immediately went out to the barn to check on Oscar.    My friend said that when she had called at the barn to check on him the first day after I left he had come out, but hissed aggressively at her, and then ran back into the woods, she went back for the next 2 days but didn't see him again.

When I arrived home after the weekend, I searched the woods, every day for a week, but I never saw Oscar again.  We moved a month later...

Oscar

Feeding the baby raccoon turned into a full time occupation, for the first 2 weeks I was feeding every 4 hours, day and night.  Each time I went back to the tack room I expected to find him lifeless in his tiny shoe box bed, instead I found him sleeping soundly between the two hot water bottles, he was obviously a fighter.

At the start of the 3rd week I stopped the night feeds. I had decided to name him Oscar, he was crawling now, and making squealing sounds each time he heard me enter the room. At feeding time he would grab the feeding bottle with gusto, always demonstrating his healthy appetite. I was increasing his feed gradually, following the instructions from the Internet, but it never seemed to be enough, and when he had finished the bottle he would start squealing again. His coat was slowly starting to grow in and he already had the start of a lovely furry tail.

I decided to make him a cage, somewhere he would be safe, he was crawling everywhere now, and his eyes were open so he was curious and wanted to explore, I was frightened that he might escape and other wild animals would harm him.  I also needed to make sure Danni's Border Terrier didn't find him.

I used the transport cage that we used to bring our English Pointer from England to the USA, it was easily large enough, and sturdy so other animals couldn't break into it, or Oscar break out.  It had a metal caged front, perfect as Oscar's new home.  I made a little wooden box with a hole in the front, and attached it to the top of a short thick branch that I placed in the cage, this gave Oscar something to climb on and reach his nest box at the top, I filled the box with soft hay, and the base of the cage, just incase he fell out the box, his climbing skills were still far from perfect.

At 6 weeks old Oscar's round little face was starting to look more raccoon like by becoming a little more pointy. He was also becoming more and more playful, and would squeal loudly each time I entered the barn.  I was becoming more and more attached to this little guy.  

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...