Late on a Friday afternoon, a woman walking past a shuttered restaurant heard something that made her stop. Looking around she found the source – a large bin filled with old cooking oil – and also containing two juvenile raccoons. She called Humboldt Wildlife Care Center. Staff immediately was dispatched .

On scene we found two raccoons trapped in a large bin that contained several gallons of used cooking oil. We were saddened to find one of the raccoons had drowned.

The living raccoon was completely soaked in cooking oil. A small, juvenile male, he was in a lousy mood. With the oil soaking his fur he was cold and hungry. Tomorrow we could determine a course of treatment and determine the strategy for bathing him, but for the night we set him up with heat support and a decent meal. Perhaps many wouldn’t agree, but the raccoon found the whole fish, the egg, the live mealworms and the frozen rat we’d thawed for him to be appetizing. In the morning the food was gone.

We kept him indoors with heat support and food for a couple of days to make sure he was strong and ready to be washed. His size was working out in his favor. He was small enough that experienced staff members had no difficulty restraining him while he was lathered up with dish detergent (seventh generation free and clear) and rinsed of the foul smelling old oil which had darkened the suds and fouled the tub.

And then the bomb cyclone hit. This gave us plenty of opportunity to ensure that his fur would again protect him from the elements – the several days pre- and post-wash were good for his weight too. He’s a good looking raccoon and he looked it, even in the rain. A week after he’d been found in a situation that surely would have killed him without intervention, we released back to his wild freedom, a second chance in his grasp.

Your support, of course is why there was a place for the person who discovered this guy trapped in oil to call. Your support is what gave this raccoon a second shot. Your support is why a facility to properly provide his care exists. Thank you for helping us meet our mission, serving our region’s injured, orphaned (and sometimes half-drowned in cooking oil) wild animals in need of helping hand.

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