By Debra Spilar
January 28th, 2022
What a day…….it started at -17 degrees when we get a call that a raccoon has been injured in Alliston, possibly hit by car and bleeding.
Our volunteer Melissa heads up to see if she can catch it, no luck, so I grab a catch pole, net, crate and a trap to see if we can coax this injured raccoon into coming back with us. He has gone from hiding in a bush to climbing up a tree.
Ashleigh tried the catch pole, he climbs higher. So I tell everyone to leave and hopefully he will climb down and go into the trap. Only thing is, I didn’t have the heart to leave him there so I stuck around. -20 degrees and 1 hour later he starts to come down. I try to get him and he goes up the tree again. Geeeepers…I look around and it turns out Melissa couldn’t leave either.
She went into Walmart to pick up a can of stinky salmon to bribe him. We put it in the crate instead of the trap and go back into our cars to get warm again. I can’t feel my fingers. I guess I need to buy better mittens then dollar store ones!
I look back and he is moving very slowly down the tree. As he is climbing down, I move into stealth mode and slowly open my vehicle door, grab my net and creep around so he can’t see me. He is out of the tree sniffing the food. It’s in the crate…..please, please, go in…..I’m cold and you must be colder and in pain. He slowly moves towards the crate, he smells the salmon. He is in….I run to the crate, use the end of my net to reach the crate door quicker. SLAM……he’s in…..success.
We have a celebratory cheer, load him into my vehicle and off I go to Procyon. He will now be kept warm, fed and given lots of pain meds, antibiotics and his injuries treated.
Thanks everyone for helping.
HELP is in YOUR hands…it’s in ALL OUR HANDS!