Baby Raccoons

I know...sorry. I promised this to my family the other day. Lots going on, work, school, sinus infections and internet difficulties. Life just keeps coming at ya.

So on Sunday we cut down the big dead oak tree in the yard. We had a feeling there might be something living in it, but when Hubby took the deadest section first and nothing stirred we figured all was good. Once the second, smaller section was down, this little guy plopped out, yelling like crazy for waking him up:

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I called the local wildlife rehab center (we have them on speed dial around here because there's critters everywhere - last year it was baby bunnies) and they told us to put him in a box near where we found him and mom would probably come back for him. How cute is this? Just look at his widdle nosey....

Click to enlarge

We cleaned up the remainder of the yard and waited. Little guy (gal?) burbled and twittered on calling for mommy.  We hung out til a little after dark - you could see eyeballs in the woods, so I think mom was waiting for us hoomanz to go away. About an hour later, Hubby took the dog out for his nightly constitutional, and the box was toppled over and baby was gone. I feel pretty confident it was his mom that came back, or we would've heard him yelling. Kid's got a set of lungs, and I don't want to think about the alternatives.

I checked online at a few baby raccoon websites, and it looks like he's probably only about 2-3 weeks old because his mask isn't really defined, he's small and his eyes weren't quite open.

Times like these make me appreciate living in the country.