There is a slow progression at Wild Angels. Animals are in outdoor enclosures. They are learning to feed themselves and are having almost no contact with Older Daughter at this point. These are the things that get them ready to be released. Because there are really no new happenings at Wild Angels, I’ll just update you on a couple of the raccoons on the property. The first report is a sad one. One of the raccoon babies has died. Unfortunately, we believe this little one was destined to perish from the very beginning. She was small for her age all along, but the real worry was that she just wasn’t growing. The others far surpassed her in size and weight. In Nature, this would have been one of the kits that didn’t survive. If we knew the numbers of baby wildlife that do not survive in the wild it would shock us all. Older Daughter and I talked about it and we always tell each other the same thing. Animals live in the moment. They do not fret about the future. This little girl was happy and playful right up until she started showing signs of slowing down. But once she started to decline, she was gone within 24 hours (which is a blessing).
The other story is about that wobbly momma raccoon who brings her babies to Older Daughter’s yard to eat. I’ve reported about this mom and two kits several times this year. Today’s story is a little different however. Ms Wobbly Raccoon will come into the yard to eat even if Older Daughter is somewhere outside and Ms Wobbly can see her. But the kits stay back until Older goes inside and then they join mom for some food. Well the other day, Older was outside and she saw Ms Wobbly moving towards the food. She saw that the babies were close behind her and had not noticed that Older was outside. So Older froze. She stood statue-still and mom wobbled on up to the food with her babies right behind her. The babies had not a clue that a human was standing so close to them. Older had her phone out to snap some pics. The family got close enough that Older could have reached out to touch them. She didn’t move a muscle. In the first pic, you see Momma look up at Older Daughter with a baby right behind her. In the second pic, the baby has suddenly noticed Older and has raised up on hind legs to stare at her. When the babies realized something was up, they ran away and into the woods line. It actually spooked Momma Wobbly and she ran with them. SO cute!
Good stuff!