Scrunchie, the brew Raccoon

**Nurmey** · 04-20-2009, 02:03 AM

My story starts yesterday with Troy was going out to our shed. As he walks around the corner of the house he hears a squeal/cry that scares the crap out of him. There in my flower bed is a newborn raccoon crying and wiggling around. Hubby comes and gets me and we look around the yard. No Mommy raccoon in sight, in fact I've never seen one in my neighborhood so we have no idea where the baby came from. We decide to leave it there in hopes that Mommy will fetch it soon.

Off we go to the hardware store for the mower blade; it is still there when we get home.

Couple hours go by and we go out for dinner. It is still there crying and wiggling around. Several hours later we get home from our night out; it is still there but has wiggled out of the bed and onto the river rock path.

I don't want to bother it in case Mommy is somewhere close by but I go to bed worried that it won't be alive in the morning. First thing in this morning I look out my kitchen window, it's still there. I'm pretty sure it's dead from the cold night as it's lying very still on the rocks. I am sad to see it still there and sad that it is dead.

I have my coffee, read HBT, and then start getting ready for brew day. In the back of my mind I'm thinking about having to send hubby out to dispose of the little guy.

Since it's a nice relaxed brew day it takes me quite a while to get things together so it's a couple hours later when we start the mash. Hubby looks out the window and exclaims "It's still alive, I just saw him move!"

We decide that the only thing to do is bring him in the house. I find a box and a t-shirt and send hubby out to collect the little guy. We bring him in to warm up. We look up a local wild life rescue place and after several calls, we get a hold of someone to come over but it will be a while.

We have named him Scrunchie.

He lies in his box wiggling and crying during the mash, sparge, and boil. The rescue lady gets to our house right before the boil finished.

Hopefully Scrunchie will live a long happy life.

**BlindLemonLars** · 04-20-2009, 02:58 AM

Wow...cute little guy. I hope everything works out for him. I'm impressed that you have a local wildlife rescue place willing to take on a newborn animal.

**Cheeto** · 04-20-2009, 03:04 AM

Glad you found a rescue service for it.

I have read that they don't make good pets.

-Jason

llazy_llama · 04-20-2009, 03:06 AM

Awwwwwwww.

So now we have brew dogs, bees, cats, cocks, and racoons?

Well done for rescuing the poor thing! I'll raise a pint to that, and to the caring and loving people who went out of their way to take care of the abandoned baby.

Skins_Brew · 04-20-2009, 04:30 AM

Quite a noble thing you did. My wife wants me to destroy a bird nest out on the back porch but I just cant bring myself to do it.

Damonic · 04-20-2009, 06:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cheeto

Glad you found a rescue service for it.

I have read that they don't make good pets.

-Jason

No they don't. My wife used to be a licensed wildlife rehabilitator and she LOVED raising raccoons. Fun and very playful apparently. Then they turn into vile little adolescent nightmares. Their wild nature just cannot be overcome, even with hand feeding.

Props for rescuing the little guy!

**IrregularPulse** · 04-20-2009, 07:02 PM

Much better than wild animal weekend we had. I woke up to a high pitch squeaking. I though aww man, my dogs got a bird. Then I hear SWMBO, who was outside, yelling for. I go outside with my son, we were sleeping, and see my wife has my Weim backed into the corner of the patio with a broom and he has a brown rabbit in his mouth. She could handed me the broom, I handed her the boy, and proceeded to "convince" my dog to let go and we put them in the garage. I watch as the little rabbit hobbled off draggin it's bloody rear end thinking, "I wish I had at least a pellet gun". Then the neighbors cat jumps the fence, walks behind the rabbit, and then picks it up in her mouth and carries it off. A nice free lunch for the cat courtesy of my dog.

**pjj2ba** · 04-20-2009, 07:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Damonic

No they don't. My wife used to be a licensed wildlife rehabilitator and she LOVED raising raccoons. Fun and very playful apparently. Then they turn into vile little adolescent nightmares. Their wild nature just cannot be overcome, even with hand feeding.

Props for rescuing the little guy!

+1, many years ago, some friends raised a rescued raccoon. Playfull little bugger, then it grew up

**jmendez29** · 04-20-2009, 07:11 PM

There was a guy in my high school who had a "pet" raccoon. They found it when it was just a newborn, like you, but had no intention of keeping it. They raised it to adolescence and let it go. But after it was "free" it kept coming back. It wouldn't go into the house anymore, but it would come around and keep everyone company. They would feed it, even by hand, and it would even allow them to pick him up and pet him, but they never even tried to make it a full time pet. Just a wildlife buddy if you want to call it that. Pretty cool little guy though.

**Mutilated1** · 04-20-2009, 07:24 PM

Wow thats great. I'm jealous - I love raccoons.

But you should not bring him into your house, especially if you have other pets or small kids - raccoons have awful worms and you don't want your other pets or kids to get infected.

Good call on the wildlife rescue. When my kids grow up and finish college, I'm going to have a raccoon/wildlife rescue as my second career when I retire.

Is it a girl or a boy ?

It looks like its close to a week old, but not much more than that - its eyes and ears aren't open yet.