wild animal rescue

I would like to hear from any one who has brought a "wild" animal into their lives. Share experiences both good and bad. At the current time me and my family are sharing our lives and home with a young racoon.A friends dogs had chased it under her deck so she called me to do something with it. It wasn't weaned yet so I took it home and began feeding it a formula consisting of Carnation good start mixed with baby rice cereal and chicken& vegie baby food. Now she eats dog food as well as raw vegies cooked chicken and nearly anything else we eat.Her favorite treat is Dorito chips.

You have to be careful. In some areas it is illegal to have wild animals as pets. My family always had raccoons as I was growing up.--(Our farming neighbors would kill the mother--accidentally, I hope--and then bring the babies to us.) We had a vet friend who would vaccinate for us--rabies and both cat and dog distemper. Our raccoons were FANTASTIC pets. Robby, my favorite and last, would sit on my neck and play with my earrings. They love to feel everything. He didn't like a particular boyfriend that I had and would hide behind the sofa. When my boyfriend would sit down, Robby would climb up the back of the sofa and then pounce in the middle of his head and then dive back under the sofa. Robby also turned over every plant in the house, which made my mother crazy! We always left our raccoons outside in a rabbit-type hutch when they were older. As they got older, we'd leave the door open at night. They wandered off, but would come back in the morning to sleep. Our always loved "Fruit Loops." We even took Robby down to the creek and watched him catch crawdads. I also had dogs, miniature schnauzers, and they never had a problem with each other. Our mother dog would "baby" the raccoons when they were little enough. However, all of our raccoons would eventually leave our home and go back into the wild. I would miss them, but also know that this is where they belonged.

I tried to save a baby squirrle a while back. His mother kicked him out of the nest. I named him Rocky (of corse). He did fine for a while on cat formula, but I soon discovered that the reason his mom kicked him out of the nest was because he had an infection in his kidneys. The vet said it was too far gone and he had severe kidney damage. He died a week later. http://PetoftheDay.com/talk/frown.gif