I thought you all might like to know the story of Gus ,a Raccoon I found while out hunting with my buddies. We were hunting turkeys and were in a river bottom about a mile from the main highway when I heard a cry that sort sounded between a kitten's mew for its mother's milk and a sarcastic Jay trying to ward off intruding sparrows close to its nest. You know sort of a screechy whining growl. I carefully made my way through some brush at the side if the river bank and almost tripped over the remains of a dead Raccoon.
I immeadiatly saw that the poor coon had been ran over . It must have been mortaly hit by a vehicle on the highway and somehow managed to drag itself for over a mile back to this spot. I suddenly heard another cry and looking up to a burrough in the side of the bank I saw the reason the Raccoon was trying to get back. At the edge of the hole a little furry head popped out and hissed at me. The dead Raccoon was undoubtedly its mother and like all mothers its last thought was to get back to its baby to protect it.
Well, I hollared at the other guys and after making a small cage from the mesquite that was by the river I put the little feller in it and since we we hunted out we returned to our pickup and I took him home.
I put him in a larger cage when I got home and I am telling you , small raccoons can bite and bite hard. I think I was crying out louder that he was. It felt like the little sucker almost bit my thumb off. This happen a lot the first day while I was trying to feed it. I wasn't sure what to feed it so I gave it some cooked oatmeal and milk. Anyway it must have worked because it wasn't long after that, about 3 days I believe , It calmed down and would finally eat right out of my hand without trying to chew my hand off.
I don't know where I got the name Gus . It just seemed right so that's what i called him. I used Gus just as a housecat are a dog. He wandered round the house sleeping and staying just about anywhere he wanted to.
I had Gus for 3 years . He would do some weird things. If he knocked over something he would immeadiately go to the nearest corner and face the corner and put his hands over his eyes. LOL I think he thought he was hiding from punishment . You know , If I can't see you then you can't see me.
One time I put him in the bathroom when I was going to a movie and when I got back home he had taken a whole roll of toilet paper and tore it up intp very small strips. LOL The bathroom was knee deep in toilet paper. Gus and I got to be pretty good buddies , He slept with me , ate with me and I would even take him riding in the pickup sometimes. I would play a joke on him every once in a while. I would give him a cube of sugar out in the yard. I had made a trough that I ran water through becuse he liked to get in it. Anyway Raccoons always wash thier food before they eat it and he would try to wash the sugar cube and of coarse it would melt. LOL Well everytime I did it Gus would really raise cane. There was no doubt that he was cussing me in raccoon. I had a place where I could seign for small pearch and I would bring them home and put them in the trough and Gus would catch them and eat thier heads and tales but leave the rest. LOL I would tell him " Hey Gus your leaving the best part" , but he would just snicker and grab another one.
Unfortunately Gus got mean after the third year and I knew it was time to release him back into the wild. I took him out to the stream where I had seigned the perch and reluctantly let him go. A few weeks later I came back to the creek hoping to see a glimpse of him but couldn't find hide nor hair of him. I finally when over to the bank and sat down on the side of the creek.
I was staring out into the creek. ( Oh well, yeah. I was a little teary eyed) Suddenly I felt something brush against my arm. Before I could turn around though what ever it was was gone. Then I looked down where I was resting my hand and a big ol' smile came over my face. There was a perch, its head was gone and its tail was gone. I guess it was just Gus's way of telling me he was alright. I never saw Gus again.
would
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WHAT A VERY NICE STORY!
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