Night Creatures

I left for work yesterday with the pounding rain soaking me before I got my car door unlocked. I looked out my windshield and noticed a dead animal catching a full dose of rainfall. I couldn’t tell what kind of critter it was. I guessed a kitten but thought it might be a rat or opossum. I sincerely hoped it wasn’t a rat that close to the house. I never got closer than 20 feet or so and it clearly wasn’t going anywhere. I decided I’d dig a hole and throw it in when I got back from work, whatever it was. Luckily the temperature never got above 60 degrees. Everyone knows what a hot steamy afternoon can do to an animal carcass.

As I drove up my driveway after work I noticed a fur ball standing up and licking itself, fully alive. I could see it better this time, a raccoon, a very young one too. Clearly injured and unable to move even a little bit as I approached. He gave a type of whine steady and fearful as I got closer and closer. It was obvious he wanted to move but some unseen wound kept him from it. I left him there and went inside. Raccoons are basically rats without the shriek factor, they can be cute. But they do eat trash and carry disease. OK they don’t live in sewers but they are a nuisance. I’m pretty sure they get in the attic too. Despite all of that I couldn’t kill him. Loose dogs or cats might though.

My neighborhood is the like the Gotham City of the animal world at night. Cats in roving gangs terrorize the streets and beat up any creature not at home after dark. They look for wounded ones especially. Birds that can’t fly and squirrels with a limp. I’ve seen both in my yard. This is the first raccoon though. I found a young rabbit with a bum hind leg who managed to escape but paid a price. They go to war with other cats from nearby streets. They wake me up with their fights and blood curdling hisses. They run across wooden fences and tease sleeping dogs who wake up and bark for hours, so irritated are they. I tolerate the cats because they keep away mice and rats, opossums and yes raccoons.

Why should I help this one raccoon out then?

I could have taken the shovel and ended his painful existence. Maybe I should have. I don’t see him making it through the night. He made a few desperate attempts to scale the big maple in the front yard, which I’m pretty sure he fell from in the first place.  Here is my theory: he moved around gingerly on the branches trying to gain footing in the downpour. He slipped and fell knocking himself unconscious or nearly so. We are talking about a 30 foot fall. At some point during the day he comes to but is in a lot of pain and pretty loopy. I walked right up to him and he hardly moved. That's how I got the picture. Some stray cats spotted him once the sun went down that night. He panicked and tried to climb the tree for safety but just didn’t have the juice in his legs. He was reduced to dragging his hind quarters and yelping like a lamb seeing a wolf in the distance. The cats never came in the yard; I made sure.

I went to work this morning again and glanced over to see signs of life from the raccoon. He was down near the base of the tree just like yesterday. If my theory about the family living in the tree is correct they should have gotten him by now. I was starting to feel like I should do something. But this is essentially a rodent we’re talking about, a baby one. If this were a rat I would have killed it no question. Raccoons are kind of grey on the good versus evil scale. It’s not like I’m keeping chickens in the yard. So I asked coworkers around the office. 'What would you do' type stuff. Do people actually care for injured raccoons? If so do they pick them up because I don’t want to take this thing for a ride in my car. One woman at work gave me a number of someone who either runs a shelter or knows someone who could take it. I wasn’t clear on the details but I promised if it was still around when I got back home I’d give her a call and we could work out the details. I still held out hope that the mother was around.

He wasn’t there when I got back tonight. I’m hoping he made another shot at the tree and scaled it this time. Or that he managed to limp away to a safer spot. But nature is pretty unforgiving and  he was in rough shape. There is always the chance a neighbor saw him and patched him up or called a wild shelter. Someone better than me no doubt.