Photos: Skippers and Baby Raccoons

Poor little bedraggled silver-spotted skipper.  He looks like the end of a long, hard summer, rather than not quite the end of spring!

Look what was in the eaves of our house -- a couple of baby raccoon kits!  They've been camping out in our addition; we discovered them last night.  After they went out for the night, Larry sealed up the places where they'd gotten in.

But this morning, I was awoken by loud chirring and crying -- a baby raccoon had come in through the pet door, and couldn't figure out how to get back out!  

These kits are big enough that when you get too close, they quit chirring and say, “FzssssssssssszzzzzzTTTTTGggrrrrrrrrRRRRRRoooarrrfzzssst!”  (Spelling my own.)

So I opened the door, propped it, and gently herded him with a towel (imagine a bullfighter with a big red cape) toward the opening.  Poor little guy; he can climb fairly well, but he sure wasn’t very good at navigating steps going down.  He slipped and ploppity-plopped down a couple, then tumbled the last two until he got to the garage floor.  Then, instead of going out the open walkout garage door to the Big World, he tried climbing up the inside of the door and wall to get to the top of the door!  I could hear other babies chirring and crying, and found them in the outside eaves.  

I worried about the mother.  Where was she?  She didn’t get left behind in the addition, did she?  We looked carefully last night, but it was dark in all the cubbyholes, after all. 

A silver-spotted skipper in better repair.

Here's the one who couldn't figure out how to get out of the garage.

I went into the addition -- and found the mother!  So I opened the patio door that opens onto the upper deck, and hoped she'd go out to her crying babies in the nearby eaves.

Here's Larry, pet carrier and ladder in hand, going to rescue the little raccoon above the walkout garage door.

Once caught (after a big growly fuss), we went up to the addition, looked around, saw no raccoons, and so we took this little guy down to the garage just south of the driveway and let him loose.  Mama Raccoon probably headed that way with the other two... so hopefully they will soon reconnect.