The Mothers' Day Coon

While most of the world celebrated Mothers' Day with family and meals out etc. my day started with a sick raccoon. No, I am not complaining or whining, I long ago accepted that this is how my life goes and I am okay with it. The poor raccoon had been in a fellows woodshed the day before and he came to see if I had any suggestions on what to do about it. That the coon was ill was pretty obvious. It moved very slowly although it was aware of us. On Sunday it made it next door to me and my neighbour is elderly and phoned me. The poor animal had collapsed on her lawn and again she knew not what to do.

Well I didn't either but decided I would come up with some ideas anyway-someone had to do something although I knew the choice was mine to get involved or not. But I could not simply walk away and do nothing. The poor beast was beyond recovery and I only hoped it was not diseased and spreading something to all other animals. The Ravens came in to scavenge and I tried to put a laundry basket over the poor animal but it “woke” up a bit quicker than I thought it would. A bite from an already sick raccoon could end up being infected for sure and so I backed off but kept an eye on it as I had coffee with my neighbour.

I put several phone calls out trying to get some help for this poor animal but to no avail. The Conservation people promised to phone me back but that call did not come until the following day. In the meantime I carried my battery phone with me everywhere I went. It turned out the Officer was only up the lake but cell service does not extend that far. The vet was away and the RCMP informed me they could not simply shoot the raccoon. So then what? The poor animal suffers until it dies? I am well aware that letting “Nature take its course” is a rough road at the best. I know about survival of the fittest as well but this time I wanted to help somehow.

Our present gun laws prevent most people from taking action in the old way when the locals simply dealt with these things. In short it makes criminals of the good guys. I could have solved this problem very easily myself-in the old days. But now I live in town and what to do?

In the meantime the poor coon got too hot in the sunshine and managed to get to the creek for a drink. Now I felt my hand was being forced and didn't want it to drown either as the creek is up at this time of year and it was so wobbly and unstable. So armed with my small catch-pole I proceeded to try and capture the coon. I soon found out my agility has gone elsewhere and luckily the other neighbour two doors away came to help. She is a tough lady and one to have at your back for sure. For me to do it on my own would have meant getting in the creek and I had new shoes on that were expensive-still I would have done it. As we dragged the small beast out of the creek it flipped on its back and showed a large and infected hole in its belly. It definitely was not going to get better. We put it in a dog crate and I took it to a shady spot to await its fate-hopefully a kinder one than waiting in agony for a natural death.

I knew better than to open the cage again but wanted it to have water. I got the cage on a slant and was able to pour a bit of water in on the bottom of the cage and this worked OK. I spent a lot of time on the phone trying to find help but could not. Finally a certain person was suggested to me and he agreed to destroy the coon for me. He is a really good guy just like his Dad was and I was most grateful to find someone who thought like the old way and was willing to do what needed to be done. Not only that he came and got it! Again I am so grateful for some of the good people in Kaslo. I can't thank him openly of course because you can get in a lot of trouble for shooting anything these days but sometimes you just have to do “Whatever it Takes!” My hat goes off to this guy. I didn't get and don't need any details of the deed but he didn't shoot a hole in my carrier(its plastic-which shoes you how sick this coon was as you would never hold a healthy one in a plastic cage) And so I answered my own questions of who would do something for this ailing animal. Not everyone would agree with me but that's how i felt about things. Sometimes all we can do is help the wildlife out of their misery. We won't ever know what happened to coon to cause such a wound in its belly. It could have eaten something bad for it or been shot once already or had a fight with another coon or, or, or. But I know I slept better that night knowing it was over for this particular beast in agony and I was glad of the help I received.