Raccoon! ( A story, but Scary, so not for Children)

I have a story today.

But I must warn you.

It is not for the light-hearted.

It is a bit shocking, and a bit sad.

But it did end in a happy ending.

So, if you have a bit of a weak stomach

you might want to not read all the way through.

I apologize ahead of time to those of you that are used to my
lighthearted or funny posts..
this will not be one of them...but I felt I had to tell my tale today....

I will warn you again when to stop

if you feel you cannot read all the way through it.

But I felt it important to tell it.

*******************

One day, we took our usual ride into the woods.

We stopped at a spot at a river to see if there was any wildlife.

To my surprise, right beside the river,

I spotted a raccoon!:

I was very surprised that as I came closer, he did not run away!:

But as I came closer (using my telephoto lens still),

to me, he appeared either dead, scared

or sick:

Something just wasn't right.....

He looked straight at me. 

To me, it was a look of pure fear:

And very, very sad:

O.K.

Here is the part

NOT for children....

Not for the light hearted,

but

if you want to read on,

be warned...

but remember, it does have a happy ending.....

We found out soon enough

why he didn't run away.

Why he looked so pitifully sad....

He had gotten his foot caught in a trap

meant for a beaver or muskrat...

his foot was pinned!:

When I got done crying,

I noticed my husband had already gotten into action.

He ran to our truck, got a pair of gloves and a shovel

to try and pry his broken foot

out of the trap.

By now, the raccoon got even more scared.

I tried to reassure him and placed the shovel in front of his face,

between his face and the trap....

(so he wouldn't bite my husband

who was only trying to help him).

Luckily, it worked!

After just a few tries, my husband forced the trap open,

just wide enough to release

the raccoon's foot out of the trap.

At first,

the raccoon just sat in the water...stunned!:

And he gave my husband the strangest look.

(I wish I would've gotten it on camera)...

It was almost a "thank you" look...

and

then he slowly swam away:

He made it all the way across the river,

against current:

He made it up on shore

and we saw him disappear into the reeds....

We went home.

But he stayed in our minds for many days.

I harbored a sadness that I couldn't shake.

We so hoped he made it and lived.

Several days later, we talked to someone with wildlife experience...

He said he was pretty sure if he swam and got up on the opposite bank,

that we saved his life and that he probably lived.

If we had not come upon him that day and released him, he would've gotten hypothermia

in that frigid water and gotten exhausted and probably would've drowned.

I was so glad we came upon him, as hard as it was to witness....

I'd like to think we DID save his life that day.....

My hope is to go out there next spring and find him waddling up with the wife and a boatload

of little kiddie raccoons.....we will immediately recognize him, as his face

will be forever remembered in my heart.