The Town of Underhill, Vermont Animal Control has taken in 3 orphaned 3-week old racoons. Ollie, Benny and Dora are in our care temporarily until Cheri in Poultney can take them in and raise them for release. It costs approximately $400-600 per raccoon to feed, care, and veterinary service to provide everything they need to be safely released and have everything they need to grow strong and healthy.

The state of Vermont ONLY has 4 Licensed Wildlife Rehabilitators that accept rabies vectors; of which racoons are - AND they are all full and not able to take any new orphans this year. We have agreed to care for these three until Cheri can insure all the ones she has are properly vaccinated and in a stage of their growth and development that she will be able to give these three what they require.

It's a lot... At this stage it's all hands on (safely and carefully as they are rabies vectors). They need to be hand fed every several hours and stimulated manually to urinate and defecate. As they have been with me, they have started to take the bottle and play more vigorously with each other. They are beginning to walk instead of crawling and I know in a matter of weeks they will be climbing and need more room to roam safely. They will start to eat on their own in several weeks also, but it will continue to be important to monitor their health, weight and stages of development.

I am not an expert and I am beyond thankful that Cheri is willing to help. I have so much respect for all wildlife rehabilitators and we Vermonters need to SPEAK UP! We need more licensed caregivers. We need to support them financially. We need the state to appoint or license more rehabbers. We NEED HELP!

Thank you for your support. Benny, Ollie and Dora and all of us truly appreciate your assistance. It will go to the direct care of the three racoons pictured here.

Thank you,

Jennifer