This story is from Karen Inman.

This story is about my first baby raccoon. I had been volunteering for about a year, taking care of mostly baby squirrels and a few baby opossums. I had been begging Kathy (the rehabilitator) that I was volunteering for, to let me take care of different species of animals. I was new at this and I wanted to learn it all, “or at least I thought I did”. I must give her credit; she did not want me to handle any vector species animals until I had gotten my rabies shots. We made the appointment and I started my series of shots. I had gotten all of the shots, except for the last one, which I was scheduled to get in 3 weeks.

A baby raccoon came in for care and I begged and pleaded for her to let me take care of this baby even though I had not finished my rabies shots yet. She finally gave in.

The baby raccoon was a little female about 8 days old. I was so excited about this baby, “my first baby raccoon”. I decided to name her Cheyenne. The baby raccoon appeared to be in good condition.

I had been caring for her for about a day, she was nursing well and her stools were not runny, but more like a soft pudding and her stomach felt like jelly and appeared to be a bit distended.

I had spoken to Kathy and she said just to watch the baby and make sure it does not turn to diarrhea. She told me that we may have to worm the baby, but she wanted to wait a few days because she did not like to worm the babies before their eyes were open unless it was absolutely necessary.

I took care of Cheyenne for a few more days; she was doing everything perfect, except for the soft stools and distended stomach.

I had been caring for Cheyenne for about 10 days and you could see that she was about to open one eye at any time. She was now about 18 days old. When Cheyenne was 28 days old, her eyes had opened, and she had been gaining weight. We had wormed her about a week previous; however, her stomach was still distended.  This was on a Wednesday evening and I was scheduled to have my last rabies shot the next day.

Around 11:00 p.m., I was standing at the sink, heating a bottle for Cheyenne’s last feeding of the night, when I heard this terrible little cry. I went to her carrier to check on her and she was having very difficult time breathing. I spent the rest of the night caring for her. She lay on my chest the rest of the night and unfortunately she died around 7:00 a.m., Thursday morning. I was devastated; I called Kathy at 7:30 a.m. and told her that I did not want to go for my last rabies shot and that I did not want to volunteer anymore.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this story, I had been rehabbing baby squirrels and at the time Cheyenne came in for rehab, I had 20 baby squirrels in my care. As far as I was concerned, “This was all my fault”, “I did not have enough experience to care for this baby raccoon”, “I had done something wrong in caring for her”, and “you know all the things that we blame ourselves for”.

Kathy was a smart rehabilitator. She told me, first of all that there was something wrong with this baby from the beginning. Second, she informed me that I could quit if I wanted to but I needed to go and get my last shot because it was already paid for. Third, she said that I needed to finish what I started, which was to finish raising the baby squirrels that were already in my care, then I could quit if that was what I wanted to do. That was 12 years ago.

I wanted to tell this story because it is so easy to say “I quit” and at times it is extremely hard to be a wildlife rehabilitator. I have lost a lot of babies over the last 12 years, but by staying with it, I have also saved a lot of babies that would have never had any chance at all, if there were no wildlife rehabilitators around.

These pictures are of Cheyenne at 8 days old (1997)