Once again, we have orphans in our back yard. Two baby coons, wobbly but with their eyes open, were stumbling around near our spruce tree. I set out some chopped up fruit and they nosed at it, but didn't really eat much. They finally meandered away, going into the woods behind my husband's shop/studio.
This happens every year, it seems. I find a baby coon (one year he had a broken leg), an abandoned baby bird cowering under a peony bush, baby squirrels who fell out of the nest. I took the squirrels into the Wildlife Rehab Center (a LONG drive through rush hour traffic, a tale best told over a beer sometime), but I didn't try to capture these coons. I did try a year or two ago with the one with the crooked leg, but he evaded me and I have no idea what his fate was.
The good thing? I'm leaving town tomorrow so Mother Nature may take the decision away from me. I'll leave the food out (which will draw any coons in the area, so if Mom is around, she should smell the babies in the food and hopefully track them). I'm pretty sure my husband will keep the food supplied, but other than that, I don't know that there's much I can do ...
We'll see what happens in the next day or two. We've got a LOT of woods around our house and the only predators are a couple of neighborhood cats and I don't think they'd tangle with a coon (and if they do, they deserve what they get). I hate being faced with these moral choices but I feel obligated to at least put out the food and some shelter (there's ample shelter in and around our garages, so that's handled).
Of course, I may curse myself next year if they survive and keep coming back for handouts .... such is life, I guess!
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