A woman found him in a nest destroyed by a land-clearing front-end loader, his littermates dead, and his mother nowhere to be found. So the woman bundled the little guy up and took him home to bottle-feed.

Before long, she realized that 12 ounces of raccoon was too much.

Although Rocket was eating and growing, his relentless inquisitiveness and frenetic energy was more than she could handle. But when she asked area wildlife rescues to take him, they told her he was bonded to people, so they’d put him down.

Since Rocket couldn't be released to the wild due to his connections with people, Shy Wolf Sanctuary stepped in to provide him with a home! Rocket has been at the sanctuary since he was a young raccoon, and we use him and our other two raccoons as an educational tool for how to handle wild animals if they seem abandoned or injured. The best chance for the animal to remain in the wild, is to not touch it with your skin. You MUST have gloves or some sort of PPE to handle wildlife, and immediately take them to your local rehabber, with details on the location you found the animal(s) in so they can be rereleased. Rocket is one fisty raccoon, who loves playing in his water tub and lounging in his hammock!