Woman Saved A Raccoon Three Years Ago, And He Still Comes By Regularly To Visit Her
What should you do when you find an orphaned baby wild animal? Nikki Robinson had no dilemma. When a baby raccoon was found at the side of the road, it didn’t have much chance of surviving. It was the beginning of summer, and rescue services always have their hands full during that period.
“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,’” Robinson, who works in wildlife rehabilitation, says. “That broke my heart. I couldn’t let that happen!”
Robinson had a full-time job, so her mom took care of the little raccoon, bottle-feeding it five times a day.
“The first time she bottle-fed him, and he looked up at her, she just kind of melted,” Robinson says. “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.”
They named the raccoon Little Hands, and with their help, he grew up strong. By the end of the summer, he was ready to try living on his own.
“They get a soft release and go out on her property to live under the deck for a bit, and she’ll leave food out until they wander off and find their own way,” Robinson said. “But Little Hands remained friendly with the whole family, and he was very kind and sweet with us.”
“[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, just wanting his butt and chin scratched,” Robinson says. “He wanted his snuggles, then he’d have his food and wander off.”
Little Hands has been living in the wild for three years now, and he continues to visit the Robinson home regularly, just to snuggle with his humans.
Little Hands was just the first of many orphaned raccoons the family has taken in since. The wonderful thing is that they all keep coming back for regular visits.
“Every day, she sits outside and waits, and even when they’re grown up, they’ll visit her, and she just lights up; she just loves it,” Robinson says. “They love her, too — she’s just Mom.”
Thanks to Linda, these raccoons are perfectly capable of living independently. However, they still know they can always stop by for a snack and a hug.
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