Walkies

We took Meeka for a walk to Porchester Castle today - she absolutely loved it.
A few photos below, and a video to follow.

I finally found my charger, but then lost my camera - I found it under the bed covered in Raccoon slobber with a few added tooth marks...

Beach

We took Meeka to Hayling island beach for the day today - we didn't get there until 3ish, as we didn't want it to be too hot for her.
She absolutely loved it - we got a polystyrene bodyboard and took her into the water, she was having a whale of a time, she kept jumping off it into the sea.

The Havant Council beach patrol came over to us - we were worrying that a complaint had been made, and we would have to leave, but they only wanted to take photos of her- they said that it was one way of getting around the No-Dogs bylaws...

There was about 4 people who came over to take photos - I'm going to have to start giving out my email address so people can forward them on to me - I still cannot find my phone charger, so no pictures again sorry....

Near miss...

I've just had an absolute heart in mouth moment with Meeka-
I was in the kitchen pouring a coffee, Michelle was just folding up the clothes after reloading the washing machine - I heard a funny noise -It sounded just like a very high pitched raccoon call , coming from the corner of the kitchen. The first thought that entered my head was "Oh My God Meeka is in the Bloody washing machine."
I shouted Michelle, who looked bemused and said "Nah, she can't possibly be in there" and went to look for her in the conservatory -
I wasn't convinced, so went to the machine and turned it off - sure enough I saw a little black nose poke through from the back of the machine - The cycle had only just started so she'd been sprayed with a little cold water and spun slowly round once or twice, The door has a time look, that will not let you open until two minutes after it has stopped - that was an agonising two minutes, Meeka was obviously distressed and was calling me - as soon as the door unlocked she dived out, a bit stressed out but non the worse for wear after her experience.

I hate to think what could have happened if I had not chose that moment to make a coffee - Michelle is beside herself at the moment - she had only turned her back for a second to get the washing tablets to put in the machine and Meeka jumped in...

Here are a few photos taken at Southsea Beach yesterday evening -

Lack of updates...

I know, I know - I'm rubbish at blogging.

I promise there will be updates soon - Pictures galore.

Raccoon tales...

As a follow up to my 'Don't get a pet raccoon' post the other day, I wanted to add these two links:

http://tskaexotics.co.uk/attachments/File/Carnivores/Racoon_Attack.htm

A short article by Rory Matier (who we procured Meeka from) relating to his getting attacked by a Raccoon

http://www.isleauhaut.net/maskd/twentyreasons.htm

From the website of Maskd_Bandit (very good raccoon information) - an explanation of why not to have a Raccoon

If you are thinking about getting a pet raccoon, I would strongly recommend reading these articles first.

Make an informed decision...

Quick painful post...

Just a pointer...

Nipple rings and baby raccoons don't make a good mix.

Raccoon Wallpaper

Just thought I'd share this one with you - I made myself a new desktop background with a raccoon picture on it.
I found an interesting picture of a raccoon in the right pose on google images and converted it into a stencil type brush, I'm thinking of purloining it as a logo - or at least waiting til Meeks is a bit bigger and getting a good photo I can use instead....

Sean

Meeka in the Garden

I finally uploaded the video of Meeka in the garden.
The nice music is by Royksopp.

Raccoon owners 101...

A lot of people have seen Meeka out with us, She likes to be out and about in the car and comes into the school yard when we pick up our daughter from school.
When people see her, and finally figure out what she is, we always hear the same thing...

"Awww, I want one - she's so cute."

We agree, she is absolutely irresistible - But if you are considering having a baby Raccoon, there are a few things you need to know....

1) They bite. -
Not cute little puppy nips, but big savage bites - She is only playing, but it hurts when she decides you need a new ear piercing.

2) They are demanding.
Raccoons in the wild are fed by their mothers for a very long period - up to four months. Usually pets are fully weaned when you take them on (eg a 7 week old pup), but with Meeka it is a case of bottle feeding her every 3-4 hours. She is not a pet you can leave whilst you go out to work, she needs attention and affection 24-7.

3) They are curious to the point of mischief.
Meeka is in to everything... She is only 8 weeks old at the moment and now she has found her feet we have to constantly watch her - we can't take our eyes off her for a moment.

4) They have specific needs.
Try taking a raccoon to your local vet - after all the ooohs and aaahs from the receptionist, the Vet will just look blankly when you ask if she'll need any innoculations, luckily we have now been put in touch with a zoological veterinarian - although this will mean a lot of travelling if we ever have any problems.

5) They grow up.
Baby raccoons do not stay babies for ever. Meeka will eventually grow larger than an average housecat, Combine this with the curiousity, the biting and the 1 inch claws this will lead to some interesting times ahead...


Having a raccoon is for the brave or the stupid - I think we fall somewhere in between the two categories.

Bringing up a raccoon is like bringing up a child - you need to provide a nurturing environment with positive attention - luckily we are in a position to do this, But having an exotic pet is a big commitment, both for us, and for Meeka - if you can't give up half your time to caring for them, then you will end up with a wild animal in your house... It was only last year that raccoons were taken of the DWA list, and you could have them as pets without a licence.

I'll post some more on the subject in the coming months.

Sean

Hi again, Sorry about the lack of updates - we've had no internet access for the last few days...

We have been redecorating the lounge, and moved our modem; for some reason it stopped connecting - I spent two days plugging and unplugging and nothing was working...
...Until I realised that where we had moved it to was right next to our wireless AV sender for the digital TV - which I finally remembered operates on the 2.4ghz spectrum (same as our wi-fi). I unplugged it and within seconds we were back online (silly me...)

Anyway, I'll have a few more updates in the next day or so - I've just took a short vid of Meeka pottering around in the garden, I'll make some tweaks on post it on youtube tomorrow.

In the meantime, here is a picture of Meeka kissing her surrogate mum (Michelle) and one of me cuddling my baby...

I've lost my phone charger, so no new photos until I find it....

Meeka is doing fantastic now, shes really growing up - she's still on the bottle, but is starting to experiment with solids, baby rice mostly, but she did steal a McDonalds fry earlier on and start sucking it.
She is starting to have a lot more awareness of the world around her, she walks around the house following Michelle around and sits watching TV.

She currently sleeps in a moses basket inside a large dog cage in our bedroom, she sleeps though the night - although Raccoons are usually nocturnal, she has more of a crepuscular nature (active in the twilight).

Hopefully I'll get some more pictures up soon - it's amazing how much she has grown over the last two weeks.

Sean

Sorry about the lack of updates, me and Michelle have been laid out with gastroenteritis (probably Norvovirus) for the last few days.

Here's a quick photo I've just taken of Meeka having a munch on my daughters fingers, She's teething now and loves to suck fingers, noses, earlobes and anything else she can get hold of.

Hopefully I will get on and get some decent updates done soon (and get a new camera to improve on the quality of my phone pictures).

Sean.

Thankfully the cough has died down now, she's doing fantastic.

Hopefully I'll get a new video on You Tube in the next few days - I'd like to get a vid of her having a bath, she absolutely loves it.

Meeka has developed a small cough, we think she may have inhaled some milk whilst feeding (she rushes it down in the mornings).

We took her to the vets, just to be on the safe side, and they gave us 3 syringes of antibiotic to ensure that no infection sets in... Hopefully she'll be fine, she's ok in herself, but we are a little worried about this cough.

I'll keep this page updated in the next few days.


As you can see by the photo, she's still really tiny, but growing by the day.

Sunday

Meeka is coming along in leaps and bounds, her eyes and ears are now fully open, and she is a lot more steady on her feet.

She is constantly hungry, taking 15/20ml of Whelpi puppy replacement milks every 2 to 3 hours (although she is getting better at sleeping at night now).

Its getting to be a nightmare picking her up close to feeding time, as when you cuddle her she decides to try to eat your face - she'll suck your bottom lip right in, and start paddling cheeks like a young cat... I can see we are going to have some fun in front of us.

Sean

(more photos to come soon)

Introductions...

Welcome to Meeka's space on the net.

Meeka is our Pet Raccoon, she arrived on the 6th of May when she was was only two weeks old.

Her mothers milk had dried up, so we agreed to take her on to hand rear her, and she is now a member of our family.

I have set up this blog to post photos and videos of our baby as she grows up.

Hopefully there will be another post soon, and some more videos... I just need to convince my missus to invest in a digital video camera, rather than using my mobile...