Umm...yea, thats NOT a kitten.

[Care2Adopt]

So, I get a call from this woman today. She tells me that she has a kitten she has been bottle raising for the last two weeks, and she just cant do it anymore, she has to go out of town because her mother is sick, etc etc, and she needed a place to take him. I walked her through a couple of her options, and it really sounded like she either needed to place him RIGHT THAT SECOND or she was going to take him to animal control, where he would be immediatly euthenized. When I asked her his age, she said "Well, his eyes are open now and he has fur, so I guess 4 weeks or something". I remember thinking...HAS FUR? what?

Then she said "he is really, really cute, his stripes are really showing up and they are brown and black." So ok, I'm thinking she has a little brown tabby. No other real thought.

So anyway, she convinces me to take this kitten, and she comes to the house about 30 minutes later, with it wrapped up in a towel. I cant see him yet, but she is telling me how sweet he is, and how he likes to paw at you and is purring and drinking almost a whole bottle now. So she hands me a towel and I open it and can you imagine my suprise when I see....

a baby RACCOON!

yep, this was one strange looking "kitten".

So everyone please meet Rocky (I know, I know, sterotypical.)

He is completely dependent on people and will cry and hold his hands out to you when you put him down, so I dont know if he can get to the point where he can be released. I am one of those who firmly believes in NOT handling them almost at all. She was talking about how she slept with him at night to keep him warm and carried him everywhere, so in my opinion he's pretty much ruined. But who knows, maybe with some tough love we can teach him the skills he will need he still has a long way to go, needs to be about 12 weeks before I can get him outside in a pen and start working with him, but I will most likely pass him along to a friend of mine who has a lot of coons arond that time, since I dont have a pen and I worry about the dogs. Luckily for me I have my wildlife rehab license!

Isn't he adorable?

[Ali]

BWAHAHAHAHAHA! A kitten! OMG, that is hysterical!! I MUST know what her reaction was once you told her that she'd been sleeping with a raccoon! Tell, tell! Ah, that is one for the books. You should write one, you know. You've got stories a-plenty!

[Care2Adopt]

Oh she definitely got a little disturbed. It was amazing how she was cooing and loving on him until I explained he was a raccoon and then she just barely touched him with one finger when it was time to say goodbye LOL. She was pretty grossed out and did NOT believe me when I told her it was a raccoon, until I showed her pictures.

We had a nice long discussion about rabies/tetnus shots and I explained that Kittens are born with fur... and they dont have huge rubbery hands on all four feet, but you know... paws... and that the chittering/wuffling noise a raccoon cub makes is nothing like a purr a kitten makes... not to mention the totally different body and head shape, fur texture, smell, and anatomy.

 Apparently there was another one that didnt make it, poor thing.

[lorim2]

OMG that is the cutest kitty!  How adorable. I know you shouldnt have them but I did have one growing up and she was the best pet I ever had. She was inside for about a year and half and then started introduces her to the outdoors.  By the end of the 3rd year she was able to be out on her own again.  But omg I loved my Rasmo...Good luck.  I wish we lived closer, I would so help you with that one..haha

[KiraNGunnersmom]

OMG   I really needed that laugh today! 

[Icerotti]

OMG....thats too funny. Hopefully he can be tre- introduced to the wild. 

[AnnaCrew]

I have simlar problem - I am raising a fox cub just now and my main concern is how to teach him hunt later. he is 4 weeks old now, eating on his own, very cute, but we do not handle him, even for cleaning I just put cage in sand pit so he can clean himself in sand. Soon I will need start frog hunting for him...

This is my not kitty

[Scootergirl]

That is the best laugh I've had in a long time! What a great story! I think Rocky/Kitty (Ritty? Rotty?) is probably young enough that the imprinting done so far won't have any long-term negative effects. Baby raccoons still need to be bottle fed by humans if they are orphaned. I would think once he is old enough to eat on his own, if you could introduce him to some other raccoons in a safe enclosure (do you have a zoo or wildlife center nearby) then they can teach him the ropes.