A woman named Whitney Scully shares her story of an unexpected friendship with a raccoon.
A while back, someone brought her a baby raccoon to care for. Whitney works at an animal hospital and Mabel, the baby raccoon, came to her after someone discovered she was stuck in their ceiling.
With all the wildlife rescue centers full at the time, someone thought of Whitney, and that’s when their journey together began. As she shared in the video:
“I was excited and a little terrified because I had never fostered a raccoon. But she actually bonded to me very quickly.”
Whitney was also nervous, knowing that a baby raccoon shouldn’t grow up without the company of other raccoons.
They need to play and interact to develop their instincts. So, Whitney and her partner, Adam, brought home two more baby raccoons to raise alongside Mabel.
“And so, that’s where Leroy and Willow came in.”
Mabel was extremely happy to have friends. Once Willow and Leroy arrived, she took on the leading role. Since she had already formed a bond with Whitney and was already familiar with their environment, she became ‘the leader of the pack!’
Mabel And Her Raccoon Gang
Mabel was already comfortable in Whitney’s presence, helping the other raccoons adjust. She brought out their personalities, and before long, they were getting bigger and messier.
Once they became too wild to stay in the spare bedroom, Whitney started taking them outside.
They definitely grew larger and a bit wilder, which is a good thing! But one morning, when Whitney came out to serve breakfast, she discovered they had dug their way out.
“They weren’t supposed to be released yet, so I was pretty nervous that they wouldn’t be OK by themselves. The rescue said ‘Don’t worry, they’ll probably come home when they get hungry.’”
Soon enough, Mabel returned home, followed closely by Leroy. They let them back into their enclosure, fixed the hole, and thought everything was fine. But just three days later, they were gone again.
The second time it happened, Whitney simply smiled, realizing this was their thing. Adam even made them a little trap door so they could come and go as they pleased.
“They were figuring out how to be little grown-up raccoons.”
Mabel, however, always came home on her own because she knew their yard and home all too well – and she likely missed Whitney.
“She would show up at the back door like, ‘I’m home!’ It makes me so happy. It makes me feel like I did a good job raising them.”
After a while, Whitney grew confident in her parenting skills, since Mabel continued to come back.
Mabel Comes To Visit, But She’s Not Alone
She returned home every day before going into hibernation, and afterward, she would come home whenever she wanted to get snacks.
“She started getting chubbier.”
Whitney remembers asking people if they thought Mabel might be pregnant at the time. Soon after, Mabel returned to their enclosure and had three babies!
Whitney was shocked and couldn’t believe it! She couldn’t believe that Mabel had babies, let alone that she came to her enclosure to deliver them! Grandma Whitney was proud!
However, she worried about whether Mabel would know how to be a mother.
“I was just super nervous she wouldn’t know what to do, but the instinct just came to her naturally and she was a really good mom.”
Whitney installed a video camera in the enclosure so she could check on Mabel and the babies at any time. As she confessed:
“I would be at work, checking my phone to see what she was doing.”
Whitney knew that raccoons couldn’t stay in one place for too long, so Mabel was in the enclosure for about a week. One day, while checking the camera, Whitney saw Mabel moving the babies out of the enclosure.
After a few months, Mabel came to visit again, this time with one baby following behind. Now, even a year later, Mabel and Daisy visit regularly. As Whitney shared:
“It really fills my heart to know that they have a little safe spot that they can go to when they need it.”