Found, Baby raccoon! NOW WHAT? Living in our rural community, we come across a lot of animals! This particular animal has such a wonderful story. Meet Bandit! At the present time, we believe she is about 4 months old. Bandit has been with us since she was about 3 weeks old. My wanna-be-farmer-husband was cutting some old trees down for a neighbor about 3 miles away. Yes I said neighbor. That is what I love so much about living in the country! Peice and quiet! Anyways, cutting this tree, he heard a noise. Low and behold, he found a raccoon nest. My husband remembered on his way to this tree, a raccoon dead on the side of the road. Could it be the mother? He decided to leave them over night and check back in the morning. Once returning, approximately 9 hours later, here was this baby raccoon all alone, no mother in site. Capturing this little thing was no problem, as she was so little. Once he got her home, we had to bottle feed her. Not knowing what in the world to feed a baby raccoon, I looked on-line and found some wonderful sites. Did you know that baby raccoons eat KMR? Kitten Milk Replacer is pretty hard to find! Teaching her to eat our of our bottle instead of mama was a chore as well. After about two weeks she finally realized that we were trying to help her. Getting her to eat baby food was a joke. Ever morning and evening, I would get her out of her pet carrier to feed her. The way she ate and the noises she made was a great experience. I really felt that she looked at me as her mother. OUR plan was to raise her until she was old enough to return to the wild. That is still my plan, but the more people I talk to about the subject, my feelings are changing. At the present time, she is tame. Will she turn on us? Will she survive in the wild? Bandit has a huge cage outside where she can climb, play, and be her little wild self. On a daily basis, she gets to come out and play, staying very close to us as she is so scared of every little noise. She is my yard buddie. I can sit in a chair and she will run around, climb the tree, play with the puppies, and try stealing little things. Having a raccoon as a pet has been a wonderful experience. When she is ready to return to the wild, she will probably let us know. Having coon hunters all around in the area is a big concern. That is why we have decided that when she is ready to go back to the wild, we will turn her loose in a wild life area where she will be protected from hunters. There will be more stories on Bandit as she grows. This is just one of our crazy animals on our farm! If you have comments, please leave them!