When Little Hands was found alone on the side of the road, he was just a few weeks old. Early June and all of the area’s wildlife rescues and rehabilitators were already full.
“When you ask what you should do with [an orphaned raccoon], they say, ‘Leave it alone and let nature take its course,’ or ‘You can take it to a doctor and they will have to euthanize it,'” wildlife rehabilitation specialist Nikki Robinson told The Dodo. “That was a heartbreaker for me. That was not something I could allow to happen!”
Linda, Robinson’s mother, was semi-retired and could bottle-feed a baby up to five times a day while Robinson was working full-time. Linda unwillingly became Little Hands’ mother after Robinson made it apparent that grandkids were not on the horizon.
“She just sort of melted the first time she bottle-fed him and he gazed up at her,” Robinson added. “She was quite gentle to him at first since they want to be stroked a lot.” So she formed a relationship with him, despite the fact that she knew he’d return to the wild at some time.”
Little Hands grew up strong, and by the end of the summer, was ready to strike out on his own.
“They get a soft release and go out on her property and live under the deck for a bit, and she’ll leave food out until they wander off and find their own way,” Robinson said. “But Little Hands remained friendly with the whole family and he was very kind and sweet with us.”
“[My mother] has a porch swing where she sits outdoors, and he would literally crawl onto the swing and sit alongside her, just wanting his butt and chin stroked,” Robinson explained. “He wanted his cuddles, then his meal, and then he’d go off.”
Little Hands has been living in the wild for three years, yet he still returns to the house where he was raised only to cuddle with his mother.
Linda has taken in a number of orphaned and abandoned raccoon babies that have nowhere else to go since Little Hands departed the house.
Each year, the raccoons she releases into the wild return for visits.
“Every day, she sits outside and waits, and they’ll come to see her even when they’re grown up, and she just lights up and she just loves it,” Robinson said. “They adore her as well; she’s simply Mom.”
Because of Linda, the little raccoons are able to live out their lives in the wild, but just like her human children, they know they can always come home to Mom for a snack and a hug.
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