Wildlife Rehabilitation of Daytona

Yes, I met a "rehabber", a person that takes in orphaned or injured animals and or mammals and cares for them until they can be released back into the wild or an appropriate home is found.

You knew it was only a matter of time before I did a post like this didn't you?

Steve calls me from work at about 8:15 Tuesday morning, "You have to come see this, a baby raccoon is here at the shop following us around."

Me, "I'm about to leave the house, I'll call you when I'm at the corner so you can be at the shop when I get there" I'm thinking, ohhh there's going to be some great photo ops there!

Steve works at Bishops Glen, a "retirement comunity", taking care of the maintenance in the many different buildings there with a few other men.

The little raccoon took a liking to all the guys on the crew.  As I pulled up he was following one of the guys around like a little puppy. Just a tiny little guy about the size of a 8lb cat.

They were trying to catch the critter in a box, apparently he is scaring the residents. Steve starts to walk toward him with the box and the little guy runs towards a fence. Steve turns to walk away, next thing I know the little guy is literally following right at Steve's heels. As I turn to get my camera I hear a noise, I turn and the box is over the coon. "sigh" A missed shot. The guys know this small creature will get out of this box fast, they slipped a piece of cardboard under the box and placed that box in a larger box, tape it, then went hunting for a cage.

Cage being found and the little guy placed inside the question now is what to do with him?

Isn't he cute? Honestly I want to bring him home and snuggle with him, he seems scared and lonely.

I remember seeing a mammal rescue website when I rescued that small bird earlier this summer so I volunteered to take him with me to work.

My major concern, cute as he was, is that this is a wild animal and this cage is very old, will it hold him? What if he were to get loose while I'm driving? Oh that could get ugly!

Well, he talked to me the whole way to Daytona, he was kind of upset and when I talked back to him it seemed to sooth him a bit. He didn't like that orange shag carpet on the floor of his cage, but hey who would blame him?

We arrive at the office and I bring him inside, tell my little traveler to make himself comfortable, my agent thinks I'm nuts. (He was also working floor the day I found the small bird) I get on the computer and start searching for this rescue organization.

Once again, it was a challenge to find the site. I tried different search words and phrases, no luck.

"Try what you tried when you were searching for the bird lady" I thought to myself. BINGO! There's the site! (Ya think I would have saved it back in May, Right? You don't know me that well do you?)

Wildlife Rehabilitation of Daytona!

These guys will take in any lost or injured mammal, give it the care it needs and then release it if that is possible back into the wild.

What They Do They will nurture orphans, tend to the sick, provide them with vet assistance, and give them a permanent home if so required.

I called right away and got a sweet lady's voice on the other end, I told her I had a baby racoon, she thought I was going to say I had a baby squirrel as it is "squirrel season" here in the Daytona Area.

She asked if he was in a cage and could she keep him in the cage until later that afternoon, can I bring him over?

By the way she is located at ..

South Daytona 

in Beville Rd Business Park

Right down the road from me! (this I remembered from May also, another reason to volunteer to take the small creature)

I dropped him off with her, at her place of business. We (the raccoon and I) had bonded, Jackie the rehabber told me this. Jackie told me that young raccoons bond quickly with people after losing their moms and she thinks thats why she was following Steve and the other guys around like he was. She also noticed he bonded with me very quickly too. Had I not had 4 cats at home, he would be a new family member!

There was a lot of eye contact with him and I, and something very sweet about that look in his little eyes. I do miss him but Jackie told me he is doing fine with his new raccoon family. She'll keep him about 2 months then let him out into the wild with a group of other raccoons.

Wildlife Rehabilitation of Daytona is constantly on the lookout for donations of:

Other ways to Donate 

You can drop off the donations at the address I provided above. If you need to contact Jackie you can call her at either 386-235-3751 or 767-2500, the 2nd number worked for me on Tuesday.