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(all photos and video were provided by Jack Gescheidt, photographer, and Amy Pfaffman, Tim’s caregivers!)

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Tiny Tim had broken his back and both his rear legs were paralyzed. Because our job is to release the wildlife animals back into the wild, giving them a second chance, this was a very grave situation for this baby raccoon.  Paraplegic animals do not survive in the wild! Something had to be done.

Tiny Tim’s miracle began when he was brought into care with our own “Rancho Raccoon” team and, under the supervision of raccoon team leader, Megan Isadore, placed in the care of two very wonderful fosterers, Amy and Jack, who gave Tiny Tim the extra care he needed.

Here is a video of him at the beginning of his stay with Jack and Amy:

Tiny Tim’s plight caught the interest of Dr. Andrew Sams of The Sams Clinic, an orthopedic specialty vet practice in Mill Valley, who has donated consultations about our rehabilitation raccoons, and provided great veterinary guidance. The Sams Clinic has a neurosurgeon on staff, Dr. Lisa Klopp, who looked at the spinal x-ray and examined the 9-week-old raccoon. Dr. Klopp determined that the fracture would need to heal for a month, and agreed to perform a laminectomy to free the spinal cord from the compression causing his paralysis. Tiny Tim needed back surgery!!

During his month-long healing time before his surgery and after, Tiny Tim received physical therapy from Amy. Amy exercised Tim’s back legs several time a day, helping place them under him, supporting him minimally. Tim barely needed the help; he was determined to do everything a normal raccoon does. While Amy patiently placed his legs under him for walking, Timmy was on to leaping and climbing, never mind the falling. We were worried that he would further injure his spinal cord — but not Tim. He refused to be anything but what he is…a wild raccoon youngster. Amy’s therapy included roughhousing using a raccoon doll so he wouldn’t get too used to playing with humans.

About a week prior to surgery, we rescued a female raccoon a little younger than Tim. Her mother was hit by a car, and she was found crying by the body.

This little girl wanted no part of humans. She’s a normal 12-week-old raccoon who would rather do almost anything than cozy up to us scary monsters. But when we placed her with Tim, they bonded within hours. Tim was so happy to have a REAL raccoon to bite, and she was delighted to have someone of her own kind to cuddle with. And Tim’s human team was equally relieved Tim could learn from his own species.  This put an end to our concerns about Tiny Tim’s prolonged recovery and extended contact with human caregivers.

Finally the day for Tiny Tim’s surgery arrived. Although over the course of Tim’s month of healing he had recovered some use of both legs, he still needed the surgery to repair the damaged spine. Dr. Klopp, Tim’s neurosurgeon, said she’d never seen a smaller spinal cord. She had to perform delicate manipulation to get her instruments to work for a 3-pound raccoon kit!  Thanks to the hard work of Dr Klopp, plus two surgical assistants, and an anesthesiologist, the surgery went great!

Three hours post-surgery, Tim was up and about, and even PLAYING with his new sister! His caregivers watched him like hawks and made pen modifications to ensure he wouldn’t fall and jar his tender spine. Nevertheless, Tiny Tim and his sister had to be repeatedly constrained to allow Tim’s staples to stay intact over the following 10 days!  Thanks also to Amy’s daily physical therapy, we are seeing improvement in Tim’s abilities. Based on these improvement, and on our experience of raccoon healing, we predict Tim will be released as a normal, wild young raccoon.

Thank you to everyone who was involved in this amazing rescue! Thanks to Dr Sams Clinic, Dr Klopp and her surgical team, Jack and Amy, and Megan.

We will be posting a video of Tiny Tim post-surgery as soon as possible.  Thank you for your interest!

Luckily, we have some really great, reliable volunteers this year and are handling it in stride.
Thank you to the volunteers who come here daily to clean and cook for the animals.
Thank you also to the volunteers who have opened their hearts and homes to our orphaned babies, giving them both a family and a second chance at a normal life in the wild. Without our volunteers we would not be.

In the 2009 we were able to successfully help 519 orphaned or injured wild animals. Although we cannot write about every animal who comes in, we intend to give you updates on the animals we did write about in our previous 2009 posts, before things got so busy that we ran out of time to update our blog. Thank you for your patience.

Thank you for your support and interest. We are 100% volunteer-run and donation-funded and without your support, we would have to stop doing this needed work. We hope you will continue to visit in the 2010 year, and perhaps consider becoming a volunteer or send us a donation so we may continue this work.

Raccoon Babies

These raccoon babies (from THIS POST) grew up happy and well under the care of Jack & Amy and Megan’s supervision. They were released and are living out their wild lives—but not before some photos were made of them.  Visit Jack’s website to see more photos and learn more of their story: http://raccoonery.com

These five little ones had a tragic start: their mother was killed by humans, an old-school “pest control” company.  These week-old orphans were left behind and Yggdrasil Urban Wildlife Rescue was called in.

We volunteer with YUWR’s Raccoon Team – Rancho Raccoon, as foster parents.  We feed and shelter them until autumn (2009) when they’re 7 months old and can survive on their own.  We release them back to the wild, near where they were found.

Soon, they had grown enough that their eyes opened and they became the curious explorers that they are. Jack &  Amy would take them on supervised outings in the woods for them to learn the sights and smells of their future wild life.

When they were old enough, they were released back into the wild. They live free now.

The Moses Family Squirrels

(from THIS POST)

Luci, Dean and their sons Milo and Felix raised Luke and Busta for us this year. In the end, once Luke and Busta were outside in their outdoor cage, 2 other foster babies were added to the mix, making a total of 4 babies in their care. Due to an unexpected birth defect, Luke did not make it to release. However, Busta and the other 2 babies, Florence and Bud, did. They were successfully released into their backyard where they roam free as they were meant to. Here are some photos:

When they first arrived these were tiny! But with proper care, they grew…

Soon they were old enough to graduate from a nursery kennel to a playcage!

Then, as the weeks passed and they continued to grow, it was time to make a pre-release cage for them in the backyard.

The cage was ready for them. They would stay in here for a month, then one day we would open the door and let them come and go. We continue to put food out for them for a while so they have help if they need it.

After release, on sunny afternoons, we were lucky to see our squirrels coming back for a rest and a visit…

…and sometimes for a treat too!

Good luck to you, our squirrel friends!

If you are interested in fostering baby squirrels, please give us a call at 510-547-9897. We will train you and supply many of the materials you need.

Tina’s Newborn Squirrels

(from THIS POST)

Theses squirrels were so young when they came into care with us, but thanks to the dedication of our volunteers – Lucy B. and Tina, they grew up and were successfully

Here is their photo story:

The Newborn Squirrels on Intake

After 2 weeks with Lucy B. they moved into Tina’s care

They grew well!

Eventually it was time to move them into their outside cage to prepare for release.

Look how BIG they’ve grown!

Now they are living Free, Wild Lives.

Thank you to Lucy B. and Tina for their hard work. And thank you to the caring family who found these little ones.

2009 Fawns (Coming Soon)

2009 Opossum Babies

Every year we get in hundreds of opossums who are injured or orphaned. This year we had a higher than normal number of mothers with babies in their pouches. The mothers had terrible injuries – the majority of them were either hit by car or attacked by a pet dog.

Opossums are north america’s only marsupial. That means that they are non-placental – that they are born as embryos and continue to develop inside their mother’s pouch.   They mate and 13 days later they are born. The embryos crawl up a hair-path that leads to their mother’s pouch. They climb in and attach to a nipple and stay there for a long time, growing and developing their eyes, fingers, and everything else.  When they are born, 22 of them can fit inside a teaspoon!

Here is a good picture of babies in a mother opossum’s pouch. This opossum was attacked by a pet dog. She recovered and was released shortly after this picture was taken:

When the babies are too big to all fit inside the pouch, they attach to mom’s back and go back into the pouch to nurse only.

In 2009, we received hundreds of opossums and many of these intakes included injured mothers with 8 or 10 babies in their pouches. I would like to highlight one story this year. That would be the tale of a mother opossum who was hit by a car. She was found by a good Samaritan who reported her apparently lifeless body to Oakland Animal Control when they saw the squirming of babies in her pouch. Animal Control found that she was still alive and brought her to the Montclair Veterinary Hospital where she was examined and it was discovered that she had a broken jaw as well as a skull fracture.  It is always a question – put them to sleep so they don’t suffer VS give them a chance to recover even if it is against the odds. In this case we decided we would manage her pain and let her recover and see how she did once her jaw was healed. We were concerned about brain damage from the skull fracture. This way, her babies would have a chance to grow up cared for by their mama.

The Mama did really well. Very soon her jaw was working again. She ate well and nursed her babies well. They grew and grew. They grew faster than she recovered and before she was ready to leave our infirmary, her babies were ready to go out on their own in one of our opossum pens.  By chance, the same day that her little ones went out into their new pen, another opossum mama was brought in with a pouch full of babies. This mother had been mauled by a pet dog and did not survive her injuries. We tried putting the dead mother’s babies in the current Mama’s recently emptied pouch – and it WORKED! She was still lactating. The babies latched on and Mama settled in as their new foster Mom.

Over the months that followed it soon became evident that the Mama did have severe brain damage and was also blind as a result of the impact of the car. As long as she was caring for little ones she seemed fine and focused, but as soon as we moved babies out and she was alone she would start walking in circles and showing real signs of brain damage. When the baby opossum season was over, The Mama had successfully fostered 27 baby opossums that were so small they would not have otherwise survived. However, with no new babies to put in her pouch, her condition soon deteriorated and her quality of life plummeted.  After discussing it with our daily volunteer staff, we all agreed that the best thing to do for the Mama was to let her rest peacefully. She had given a miraculous gift of life to all those otherwise doomed orphans.

I chose the Mama to write about here as one wild animal’s story which stood out in the 2009 year because  her tale filled us with amazement and inspiration. Her strength to live against terrible odds with the sole purpose of loving not just her young – but any young in need.

Thank you to the Mama, for all her caring work this year.

This is one of the 5 babies brought in to our wildlife center earlier this month. Check out our Raccoon Team,  Rancho Raccoon to read more about their progress as they grow!

We told her that the best thing to do would be to get the mother to reunite with her baby(s) but that it was unlikely to happen in the middle of the farmer’s market. The vendor was willing to stay late after the fair was over to try to reunite this baby with it’s mother so we asked her to protect the nest until the market ended and things quieted down. She put the nest in a boxand kept it safe until the market closed.  Luckily we also had a volunteer willing to run down there and help. Margaret met the vendor after the farmer’s market ended and when it was quiet again, together they took the nest with the baby in it to the base of the tree he had fallen out of.  We told them to expose the baby slightly to the elements so he would cry in discomfort from the sudden change in temperature and then back away from the nest, watching from a distance to make sure the nest was left alone by passing people and animals.

They did not have to wait long. The squirrel baby let out a loud “Eeeep! Eeeep! Eeeep! ” and from hidden in the branches, the frantic mother made her way down the tree, grabbed her baby like a mother cat would a kitten, and carried him back up into the tree’s protective branches to her new nest.

Well Done to the Farmer’s Market Vendor, assisted by our volunteer Margaret!

This is the perfect ending we wish for all the wildlife emergencies. The vendor did everything right.

Unfortunately, not all wildlife emergencies end this way.  Most end with the babies being brought into care at our facility.  Reuniting is the best way to go, but it does require dedication of time and care from the finder as well as our volunteers.

If you see a nest fall, or a baby animal in trouble, give us a call and we can talk you through how to reunite a baby with it’s mother, if possible. If not, we will always be here to give loving care to wildlife orphans.  (510) 421-9897

They are doing great!

Keep up the good work – and keep the great photos coming!!!

Photo by the Moses Family

Well here they are!

Lucy B. took really excellent care of them, round the clock, taking them from critical to stable condition.

And boy have they grown!

They are now in foster care with Tina, where she will care for them until they are all grown and ready for release!

Good Work Ladies!!

• The two newborn squirrels have done well, tripling their weights and are no longer in critical condition, in the very capable and loving hands of Lucy Burlingham.

• The opossums are all growing by leaps and bounds – and oddly, they are STILL blonde! We thought their yellow coloration was due to dirt but after bathing them, they are still blonde. It will be fascinating to see if they keep this coloration as they mature. Blondes do have more fun, right?

• The 5 orphaned baby raccoons are also growing well in the loving hands of volunteers on our raccoon team, Rancho Raccoon. Read about their progress at “The Treehouse”, Rancho’s blog at http://www.ranchoraccoon.wordpress.com

In addition to the babies we have written about above, we have received in many other babies, including more baby squirrels and opossums.

One of these baby squirrels was found when his nest fell out of the tree and onto a parked car! The owner of the car was a kind man from El Cerrito, who stood back and watched as the mother squirrel, in a panic, after falling with the nest and injuring her leg in the fall, carried off one of her babies to her “backup” nest (mother squirrels always have at least one backup nest).  It usually takes 15 minutes for a mother squirrel to relocate each baby in a nest, and this mother was moving slowly due to her new injury. The man needed to move his car so he had to remove the nest from his roof. He placed the nest at thebase of the tree and drove off, but he called us to alert us to the problem right away.

An hour went by and it was starting to get dark. The mother had been unable to return for her remaining baby. The wind had blown the nest into the gutter. Luckily, the man had returned and retrieved the remaining baby from the nest before darkness fell and a car drove over it. We met him at the location and took the baby into care. This baby is doing great in the very capable and loving hands of Lucie Moses and her family. Thank you to the good sameritan from El Cerrito, and to Lucie, Dean, Felix and Milo for their hard work caring for this sweetheart – and the other sweetheart they have as well.

Their other sweetheart was found by a caring community in Berkeley. They witnessed the nest fall from the tree in their backyard. Two babies fell, one into the creek, swept away by the fast current, and the other clung to a ledge overhanging the creekbed 10 feet below. They were able to climb out and retrieve the lone survivor and cared for him by warming him and wrapping him in soft blankets while they searched the internet for what to do with him. They called us and we were able to take him into care, where he has thrived. Now he and the El Cerrito baby snuggle togetherin a nest that is human-made, growing and sleeping. Their eyes are still closed but they are getting nice and furry.

Photo provided by Lucie and Dean Moses

The other babies are doing well also.

We are somewhat concerned that due to the economic crisis in our country, there have been ZERO donations for the last few months. We are a 100% donation-funded, volunteer-run 501c3 non-profit organization. Please, for the sake of these babies and the others we will be receiving in the coming months, consider making a tax-deductible donation to us. You can mail checks to:

Yggdrasil Urban Wildlife Rescue (or YUWR)

7036 Balsam Way

Oakland, CA 94611

Or make a donation online using a credit card or bank draft via Paypal from our DONATION page.

Thank you for your interest. Please check back regularly to see our latest patients and exciting news!

We received our first baby raccoons for 2009 today.

In normal years, baby raccoons start coming in around late April.

These beautiful 5 orphans are about 10-15 days old.  Their mother was trapped and exterminated for trespassing in an attic. She left behind her cozy nest with 5 hungry babies in it.

Unfortunately it is all too common for pest control companies to trap and kill wildlife instead of solving the real problem that is attracting the wild animal into our homes. In this case the raccoon was looking for a warm quiet place to give birth and raise her babies. An attic is perfect for that. She found a hole and moved in. To solve this problem, the hole needs to be sealed so animals cannot get into the attic. Trapping the animal does not solve the problem, but it does earn hundreds of dollars for the trapper. No matter that these beautiful babies were left behind to die from starvation and cold. No matter that as soon as it is discovered that this nice quiet attic is empty, a new raccoon will move in, which will make more $$$ for the trapper.  The ones who suffer are the animals – and the customers, who believe they are solving their problem but really aren’t.

Please, if you have a wildlife problem and want to trap wildlife, call Good Riddance – a Humane Wildlife Exclusion company, instead of calling the trappers. Good Riddance costs much less and will actually SOLVE your problem instead of a quick temporary fix that costs lots in $$ and in lives.  Good Riddance can be reached at: (415) 342-7956.

Now we have these sweet little ones and will do our best to raise them. However, the cost of raising these 5 orphaned baby raccoons will be several hundreds of dollars in food and supplies. As we run completely on donations (which have practically stopped with the economic crisis) we hope that someone will step up to sponsor these sweet little ones.

These babies are in the capable and caring hands of our volunteers at Rancho Raccoon, our wonderful raccoon team. You can read more about these sweet babies on the Rancho Raccoon blog, “The Treehouse”,  at: http://ranchoraccoon.wordpress.com/