Opossum Surprise

© Critter Capture Services

Animal Rescue Story with a Happy Ending

Animal Rescue story with a happy ending in Longwood... A young couple with their first child kept hearing something scratching inside one of their walls near the front door. Not knowing what to do they called me to come over to investigate. First I tried to crawl through the attic to the location where the noise was coming from but it wasn't accessible. We all suspected that a bird or animal had fallen down between the walls and was stuck. I suggested opening the wall and since the husbands hobby was remodeling the house I let him do the damage. However, he had the proper tools to cut a nice round hole just large enough for me to reach inside. And the pictures tell the rest of the story. The baby raccoon's were just old enough to start crawling around and to their misfortune they fell down between the walls. The baby raccoon's were taken to The Haven in Altamonte which is an animal rehab center operated by Mary Jane Isner.

Christine’s Raccoon Story:

“We had a mother raccoon chew THREE giant holes in our roof. She ate through the shingles & the wood on our roof, causing three holes that are at least 2 feet in diameter. The wood is totally chewed up & gone - we did not even realize it, till one night when we heard scratching & scurrying around right over our heads on the ceiling sheetrock. We went outside & saw the mother raccoon exiting out of our shingles. She left & we still heard the noise, realizing that babies were in the eaves & attic.

The point is, the roof was damaged so badly, that we need an entire new roof now, but will also have to have all the sheets of wood replaced too. We are on a very tight fixed income -- no money at all to get a new roof. It has rained a LOT & water was pouring in & coming through the ceiling, my husband tried to climb on the roof & patch the holes, but they are so big, he had to use some rolls of sheet metal to try to fix it. We do not have the means to tear the shingles out & replace the wood, & then try to put new shingles back in place. Stuffing he entry point with newspaper would be a joke - as a mentioned, the entry point is at least 2 feet across.

We knew mom was there, we could see her. -- They do so much damage to homes & roofs that it is pitiful. So far, three of our neighbors have had to get new roofs due to raccoon damage. Our neighbor across the street had them eat through their shingles in three or found places & it costs them $10,000 to get a new roof - just from raccoon damage. Our immediate next-door neighbor who is also on a very tight fixed income, just had to get her roof replaced also, because a raccoon chewed straight down...”

Search for a Pigmy Rattlesnake

I love all of the surprises and unusual things that happen in my business. Recently I got a call from someone that was trying to explain to me that there was a possum trying to eat fish that was painted on the wall. When I arrived I couldn't believe what I was seeing and took a couple of quick pictures before catching the possum.

Safety advice for Trick or Treating. Some of you may not know that I have caught 10 Pygmy's Rattlesnakes in the last 2 months and most of them were in Magnolia Plantation, which is is Lake Mary, Florida. Pygmy Rattlesnakes are active at night so make sure you kids are wearing shoes not flip flops. Try to keep your kids on the sidewalks so you have a chance to see a snake and carry flashlights. I know that kids like to run from house to house via a short cut through the yards. They could step on a Cottonmouth Water Moccasin in the grass before they ever saw it.

Yes I am trying to put a little fear into everyone because we choose to live in MP and have more than other share of venomous snakes. A Pygmy Rattlesnake or Cottonmouth both give live birth to about 5-15 babies. My point is that I don't think they that all of the Pygmy's that I have caught in MP have come from the same mother. Jennifer Cornell's dog was bitten for the 3rd time last week by a Pygmy Rattlesnake. And I caught a Pygmy Rattlesnake inside Gina's pool area next door to Jennifer house a few days before the dog was bitten. These are incidents that very few people ever know about in MP unless I post them. We have had 4 people in MP bitten by venomous snakes over the years in MP and Halloween night greatly increases the chance of someone getting bit because of the amount of people that will be walking around MP. Your child will not die from a Pygmy bit but they will spend 3-5 days in the hospital and 2 of them will be in ICU. The protocol at the hospital is to give each snake bite person 3-4 vials of antivenin which cost in the area of 15,000 per vial. Please watch your little ones so everyone has a great Halloween. I will be out of town so don't waste time trying to find me if you see a snake. The picture below is a Pygmy Rattlesnake.