How much wood would a woodchuck chuck?

The other day this man accidentally hit a opossum coming around the curve on a road. He gets out the car and sees that the opossum is dead, but notices something funny about its belly, it was wiggly. As he looks closer he realizes that there are six babies in the pouch. He removes the babies and brings them into the rescue center.

It was tough to see those baby opossums because the moment me and the other interns saw them; we knew that they didn't have a chance of survival. They were just too small and there just wasn't a way to feed them; all we could do is make the babies comfortable in their last couple of hours. It is always easy to feel positive when things are going well, but when you see "lost causes" it makes me feel like I am working a a hospice center and not a rescue center.


It has been very rewarding seeing the orphaned animals grow up. It is most evident in the raccoons. Last Thursday, we were able to place five of the older raccoons in an outdoor enclosure. On Tuesday we will move six more outside. To move a raccoon outside the raccoon must be fully weened of milk and eating solid food well. Also, the raccoon must be a decently good climber, and socialize well with other raccoons. It is hard for the raccoons to be outside for the first couple of days; there are some many new smells and sounds that sometimes frighten them. The first two night the raccoons moved outside there were severe thunderstorms, I stayed up most of the night worrying about them.

Also, we got in 5 new raccoons in the past three or four days. One of the new raccoons had so many ticks in his ear. Most of the time when ticks are in the raccoons' ears they are on the outter ear, but this time the ticks were attached to the ear canal. It took a long time for me and Stefanie to get the ticks out of his ear because he was scared and panicking, but we were able to get them all out. All of the new raccoons seem healthy now. Two of them were dehydrating on arrival, but are fine now. In total we have 31 raccoons of all ages, some are the size of my palm and other are the size of a cocker spaniel.


Released animals in the past couple weeks:

• Group of 5 adolescent skunks
• Three legged adult opossum
• Group of 4 Groundhogs
• Pair of Chipmuncks and a single chipmunk
  
• Family of 5 Wild rabbits
  

Did you know: Groundhogs are also known as woodchucks, whistling pigs, or land-beaver.