Mental Health from Masked Faces – Part 2
Three little fir-balls with masked faces huddled on the edge of my deck. It was their first time to visit this place. I could hear them thinking, “Why did Mama tell us to come up here?” But then, everything in a baby raccoon’s world is a new experience. The best thing to do is send fear itself over the edge and start exploring. “Mom’s right over there stuffing her face with cat food from the lady’s hand. Let’s relax and check things out.”
I sat and watched them with intense interest. Raccoons have a heightened sense of smell. They have no problem moving around at night, because their noses pick up the familiar scents and tell them where they are. The babies began to sniff the deck. Their nose is busy relaying important information to the brain. The sense of smell creates strong, lasting memories. Even an elephant’s nose can detect a source of water 12 miles away (says Google), and an elephant never forgets anything.
Mama Raccoon had been coming to this deck, along with other raccoons all year, so her scent must have been strong. Plus, she was eating only three feet away. The babies seemed to feel more at home as they explored.
Mother raccoons are devoted to her children. They can be observed teaching important survival skills to their young. Some animals, like elephant seals, abandon their babies.
After a month of nursing, their mothers leave them lying on the beach. It’s up to the babies to figure out how to make it to the water, learn to swim, avoid killer whales and dive to depths of a mile in search for food.
Raccoon mothers spend months with their babies. They keep the kits safe in a protected nest for three or four months while nursing them. As the mother weans them, she takes them out to look for food. She keeps them safe and teaches them to survive. She will do everything to ensure her babies have the best life. Their devotion to their children is an example of excellent motherhood.
The raccoon’s sense of touch is pronounced and their feet have five fingers like a human hand. The tips of their paws have little whiskers that help the animal process information from their surroundings. Along with the sense of smell, they explore everything with their hands to pick up all the information they need. Much like a blind person, the raccoon sees with its hands.
The memory of Mama Raccoon’s sharp teeth clamping down on my thumb a few minutes ago was fading fast. I was basking in the incredible feeling of softness I experienced when that little fir-ball sniffed my hand and placed its front foot on my finger. The surprising pleasure of that tiny hand holding mine brought instant healing for any indignance I felt toward its Mama for biting me.
As the puff-balls explored the deck, two of them followed their noses to the part of the deck where the railing joins the house. Sometimes the raccoons entered the deck from that direction, so the babies followed the scent and disappeared onto the front porch.
At that moment, Mama Raccoon left my hand and went over to the third baby who was still exploring the deck. She stepped around to the far side of her baby. I saw her quickly wrap her front leg around her baby and pulled it to her side; then quickly followed the two puffballs that had disappeared onto the front porch. The third baby stuck to her side like a sidecar on a motorcycle.
At that moment, I realized what Mama had done earlier when she brought the baby to my hand three times. She had brought each of the babies to my hand one at a time. She had sniffed them to see which one would be next, put her arm around it, pressed it to her side and came back to me. Each baby followed her command and learned where there was food. One of them even said, “Thank you!”
Later, I relayed the story to a nature instructor from SCICON. He said the Mama bit me because animals use their mouths to communicate. Her bite was actually gentle, because she didn’t break the skin. She was telling me to “Wait here while I bring my babies to you.”
Until then … TAKE CHARGE! … Sylvia