June 22, 2009

A Raccoon by Express Mail

Don't knock the Postal Service. It can provide in-state same-day delivery of a raccoon.

After our wildlife-transport training last February, the telephone never rang. May came and went, and so did early June. Nothing.

Today, finally, we had a call and email from our Division of Wildlife contact person. Could we take a raccoon from Pueblo to Tom and Cec Sanders' wildlife rehabilitation center. (Their book is good reading: If You Talk to Animals: The Life of a Wildlife Rehabilitator.)

It was sort of like the Underground Raccoon Railway. M. and I drove to Pueblo and parked by the railroad tracks just off Interstate 25 at a certain exit. After a short wait, a semi marked "US Mail" exited and pulled up—one of the contractors who moves mail from town to town. I waved. The driver hopped out, opened his passenger-side cab door and removed a cardboard carton, which made scrabbling noises.

After a minute's chat, he drove off toward Colorado Springs, and we headed west.

The little coon, the size of a half-grown kitten, had apparently been found in a Lamar liquor store, "knocking bottles of Jack Daniel's off the shelf." A wildlife officer responded and captured it, I gather, later turning it over to the trucker for the first stage of its journey. Injured birds of prey come up to the Raptor Center in Pueblo in the same way, I gather.

Cece put him in a pet carrier for the night, with a teddy bear. The other two raccoons that she is caring for had teddy bears as well—not for companionship so much as for something to burrow under and hide behind, apparently. I will get a progress report on Wednesday--it looks like we will be making another critter run then--but this new arrival seemed healthy and feisty enough.

1 comment:

Mark Churchill said...

I've been to Lamar...I would have thought knocking bottles of Jack Daniel's off the shelf a hanging offence. That raccoon was lucky to make it out alive. ; )