Lily/Booger/Coo Coo Cachoo The Baby Raccoon

Agent Pineapple and I have become an animal rescue team in the past few months. First a feline escapee from the animal hospital and last week: this little hunk of burning love.  Little booger was standing in the middle of the opposing lane of traffic, bobbing her little head, not moving an inch. The next street to pull over on was a few blocks away. We sprinted through the grass on the side of the road dodging protruding pieces of rusted metal and hubcaps. When we got to her she was curled up in a ball and despite all of the cars that had passed, very much alive! Agent P. scooped her up and checked her for injuries before . She affixed herself with her barely-there claws to my bosom and stayed their for hours. She loves boobies, they're great for naps.We took her home and managed to coax her into drinking water from a tiny baby bottle (only four weeks old we estimated) and kept her warm while we waited for the Wildlife Guardians Network to find a rehabilitator for her. Baby raccoons need to be rehabilitated with other raccoons their own age in order to be reintroduced into the wild.

(Click and smile wide)
Booger and I napped, snuggled, and watched the Ellen Show and Gray's Anatomy. She preferred the Ellen Show of course, me being her mama and all.She made the cutest squeaky noises when I scratched her a certain way.
Baby slept in a Converse shoes box lined with t-shirts and awoke with a sqeak the next morning when I turned on the light. We passed her on to a woman with a raspy smokers voice who specializes in rehabilitating small woodland creatures. With a rustic carved sign on her door that read "Welcome to the Nut House," a door concealing squawking birds and barking dogs, it seemed like the right place. She was very sweet and even encouraged us to call about Booger in the future. We smiled the whole way home.It wasn't until a few hours later that it hit me, lots of tears and lots of hugs. I miss little Booger but I'm so happy that she's going to be able to return to the trees in a few months and play with other raccoons. I love what my mother wrote: "Though we would have loved to keep her--in this case loving meant letting her go. She came to give us all 24 hours of love and a reminder of the beauty and fragility of the natural world. Bye baby!"


Animal Rescue Update: Last night we found a little injured bunny, Josephina, in the front yard. Her arm was injured by another animal who we must have scared off. I think that the plastic bunny that sits on our front steps functioned as one of those Helping Hand signs that people used to post in their front windows. The post-scoop consisted of water, grass, and love. At first we tried to release her a few blocks away so that the predator couldn't finish what it started but Josephina wasn't up for walking with her injury. She scooted around the cage though and hung in there overnight for her Mama Pineapple until we could take her to the Wildlife Center. 

   

On the way back the universe high-fived us with free Starbucks (their computers were down).

And then their was magic. I went outside to take pictures of new collages but decided to go back inside in order to apply pants. A few minutes later I opened the door to find a plastic bag hanging on the knob filled with stuffed animal gifts, a precious blue bunny waiting to be scooped! I like to think it was a cosmic thank you from Josephina :)

At this rate, I wonder who will find us next week. We're official animal rescuers now!

♥ Lara and Agent Pineapple