Little Hands, a raccoon that was found on the side of the road, was rescued by a woman working in wildlife rehabilitation when he was only a few weeks old. The wildlife rescues at the time when Little Hands was found in the summer were at full capacity.
His rescuer, Nikki Robinson, told The Dodo:
"When you ask what you should do with [an orphaned raccoon], they say, 'Leave it alone and let nature take its course,' or 'You can take it to a vet and they will have to euthanize it'. That broke my heart. I couldn't let that happen!"
Robinson was working full-time at the time, but her mom, Linda, took care of the baby raccoon. She was feeding Little Hands from a bottle up to five times a day. Robinson said of her mother:
"The first time she bottle-fed him and he looked up at her, she just kind of melted. She treated him very sweetly early on because they like to be touched a lot. So she created a bond with him, even knowing he'd go back to the wild at some point."
Little Hands soon grew up healthy and strong and was able to strike out on his own by the end of the summer.
Robinson said:
"They get a soft release and go out on her property and live under the deck for a bit, and she'll leave food out until they wander off and find their own way. But Little Hands remained friendly with the whole family and he was very kind and sweet with us."
She added:
"[My mom] has a porch swing where she sits outside, and he would come up and literally crawl onto the swing and sit beside her and just want his butt and chin scratched. He wanted his snuggles, then he'd have his food and wander off."
Although three years have passed since Little Hands lives on his own in the wild, he keeps visiting Linda at the house he was raised.
A post shared by Nikki Robinson (@red_pangolin)
Since then, Linda has cared for a number of orphaned or abandoned baby raccoons and raises them until they are ready to live in the wild on their own. Every year, the raccoons come back to visit her.
Robinson said:
"Every day, she sits outside and waits, and even when they're grown up, they'll visit her and she just lights up and she just loves it. They love her, too — she's just Mom."
[h/t: The Dodo]
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