Forest Friends Wildlife Rescue

10/05/2026

Raccoons!
A bit about our babies this year: We received a call about 5 orphaned baby raccoons from a woman that had desperately been trying to find help for three days. Her house was on the route I regularly travel, and I couldn't drive by and do nothing. With the finders’ help I was able to contain three of the five. Two of them found a nice hollow, downed tree and ran all the way to the back of the hollow! We tried luring them out with good smelling food, but no luck. I returned that night about 11 pm with another licensed rehabilitator, carriers, nets and towels. Still no luck! The next day we sent another rehabber out to try and get them and finally we had success!
Squirrels are my jam and I have been rehabilitating squirrels legally in the state of MI for 30 years. I have quarantined baby raccoons in the past for other raccoon rehabbers and figured that someone would eventually have space open for these babies, so I was not too worried about keeping them for a couple weeks. That did not turn out to be the case.
Raising 5 baby raccoons this spring was a first for me. Raccoons are extremely intelligent and dexterous, and not being familiar with raccoon behavior I was a bit nervous. Having no supplies to care for and house these babies long term meant buying new caging or looking on FB Market place for used items that could be modified if necessary. I am thankful for the great working relationship I have with several other rehabbers that are familiar with raccoons. HUGE thank-you goes out to Kari for trying to catch/contain the last two babies in the dark, in the rain, in the poison ivy! To Alexa for finally getting the last two babies the following day and for training me on how to handle the babies (they are nuts!), feed the ones that were not picking up the ni**le right away and for prepping the cages with everything they needed to keep busy and feel safe! To Sandra and Teresa for guiding me (and providing physical assistance when needed!) through this experience. These babies needed to be taught to forage once weaned, given ample chances to hone their climbing skills (both up trees and coming down, headfirst instead of just backing down). They needed water to explore and play in and room to wrestle/play fight! These are all opportunities that mom would have provided for them, and it is up to us as rehabbers to try and mimic, best as we can, what mom would do in the wild. They were a lot of fun, but I am not going to lie, I was stressed out more than I am used to being during baby season! They were finally ready for release in mid-August. I breathed a huge sigh of relief that I had done well raising them and given them another chance. However, letting them go opened a whole other can of worries as they ventured out on their own. I have a new respect for rehabbers that handle raccoons!

09/10/2026

09/10/2026

Spring baby pictures! It’s Groundhog Day!
Groundhogs, also commonly known as woodchucks or sometimes whistle pigs, are in the squirrel family and technically are rodents. They have one litter per year of between 3 and 6 babies, which are called kits, cubs, pups or sometimes chucklings! Babies are born helpless, hairless, blind and weigh approximately 30 grams. They grow quickly and are ready to start foraging on their own by about 5 to 6 weeks old.
Quick facts about adult groundhogs:
*Lifespan – 3 to 6 years in the wild.
*They are diurnal – meaning they are active during the day.
*They are herbivores – meaning they eat plants, fruit and vegetables, and seeds.
*Excellent diggers – they play an important role in the ecosystem, by aerating soil and creating burrows that are also used by other wildlife.
*Fun Fact – they are also good climbers!
Unfortunately, their excellent digging and climbing skills can get them into trouble. To help prevent problems and protect things like your garden, any fencing installed should be sturdy and be buried at least 12 inches deep to keep them from burrowing under. Keep vegetation trimmed around homes/buildings. Seal openings such as those around decks with hardware cloth or metal flashing. Install sturdy fencing around fruit trees to help keep them from climbing up to retrieve fruit.
Keep in mind that groundhogs - like other wildlife with dwindling, fragmented habitat – are only trying to survive. If you need help managing a groundhog situation, please be kind. Try humane eviction first, call a licensed wildlife rehabilitator for advice and remember it is illegal to trap and relocate “nuisance” wildlife. It is also inhumane as most relocated wild animals perish within the first few months due to territorial confrontations, exposure to the elements due to lack of safe/warm, resting/denning areas or starvation.

09/02/2026

We would like to recognize two businesses that made one of our rehabbers' lives so much easier this year.

**BIG thank you to MJ with Assembly On Call for volunteering to put together a large catio for our baby raccoons. This was a big job and we cannot thank MJ enough for his time, expertise and energy!

** Another BIG thank you to Jared and Naileen with Advanced Carpet Cleaning - affordable and reliable - carpets were left spotless, no one would ever know "wild things" had been there for months making a mess!

08/31/2026

Hello Forest Friends! All of our spring babies have finally been released! We are gathering photos from our rehabbers and promise to get busy posting very soon, so stay tuned! Thanks for sticking around while we were occupied caring for babies!

07/16/2026

It's been a busy baby season. Receiving notes of encouragement like this one really lifts a wildlife rehabber's spirits! Thank you Darlene!

05/22/2026

Feature Friday
Meet the patients 🩷
This resilient mama opossum arrived after a dog attack left her with serious head injuries and scattered her babies across a yard. Thanks to quick action from the finder, 8 surviving babies were rescued and brought in with her after a long drive for care. After wound treatment, antibiotics, hydration, and days devoted to healing while still caring for her little ones, she made an incredible recovery. Once she proved she could safely eat on her own despite an old jaw injury, this determined mama made it very clear she was ready to return to the wild — and was soft released with her babies into a safe habitat to continue raising them where they belong. 🖤

05/16/2026

I need the local community to understand something about wildlife rehabilitation, because what happened tonight was completely unacceptable and honestly one of the most horrifying things I have experienced in rescue.

Yesterday alone, I worked TWO jobs, cared for 35 foxes in sanctuary, and continued caring for all of the rehabilitation animals currently in my care during the busiest baby season of the year. Like most wildlife rehabilitators, I am exhausted, overwhelmed, and still trying to help every single animal I possibly can.

Around 8 PM, a woman contacted me about two baby raccoons whose mother had been hit by a car. She had ALREADY contained the babies and had them safely in her possession.

I told her that if she could not find anyone else overnight, I would take them in the morning.

The babies were already safe.
Already off the road.
Already contained.

Later that night, one of the resources I had sent her contacted me and said, “She’s going to put them back on the road.”

So after work, with my sick daughter in the car because we had already been out getting medicine for her at CVS, I STILL drove out there.

I searched the road looking for the mother.

What I found was the mother completely obliterated by traffic.

And then I found the babies about 10 feet away from her in the middle of the roadway.

Those babies were tiny. Maybe four weeks old. Less than a pound. They did not stand a chance.

And honestly, I cannot stop thinking about how confusing and terrifying that must have been for them.

They had been picked up.
Contained.
Safe.

And then suddenly placed back next to their dead mother in the dark beside a busy road.

Those babies probably initially tried to curl back up to her body because that was the only safety they understood. And when they realized she wasn’t getting up, they likely tried to cross the road searching for safety again.

That is where they died.

Their bodies were still warm when I found them.

There is absolutely no possible way anyone could believe baby raccoons that young could survive being put back into the middle of the road next to an obliterated animal. They never stood a chance.

And THIS is the reality wildlife rehabilitators are facing more and more this year: overwhelming demand combined with impatience from finders who expect immediate intake, immediate transport, and immediate solutions at all hours of the night.

Most rehabbers I know are already over capacity and not even accepting baby raccoons right now. Despite that, I STILL offered to help if she could not find placement overnight. I STILL drove there after work. I STILL tried.

What is NOT acceptable is deciding the animals are inconvenient and putting them back into the roadway to die.

Wildlife rehabilitators are not government agencies.
We are not paid emergency responders.
We are human beings trying to save lives while balancing jobs, families, our own animals, hundreds of messages, and nonstop baby season emergencies.

If you find orphaned wildlife:
• Keep them safely contained
• Keep them warm, dark, and quiet
• Do NOT feed them
• Reach out to a licensed wildlife rehabilitator
• Understand that help may not always be immediate overnight, but that does NOT mean the animal has been abandoned

Those babies would very likely still be alive this morning if they had simply remained safely contained overnight.

Picture for attention. I'll spare you the picture if the dead babies.

05/14/2026

Wildlife Wednesday! 🐿️ and cuteness overload

05/03/2026

Can you guess the right answer? 💡

Many species have specific terms for groupings of more than 3! 🦝🦝🦝🦝

What do you think a group of squirrels are called? 🤔