Higbee the raccoon is recuperating nicely from his injuries and his harrowing rescue in Falmouth. He’s being cared for at Wilderness Miracles, a wildlife rehab in Bowdoin. Contributed / Wilderness Miracles
Dan Foss receives plenty of calls about trapped or injured animals. As founder of Maine Wildlife Transport, he is always ready to rescue owls, squirrels and, this month, a raccoon.
When he received a call a few weeks back about an injured raccoon in Falmouth, he jumped into action.
Falmouth Fire-EMS retrieves the injured raccoon from a tree near Fundy Road. Contributed / Falmouth Fire-EMS
“He had been hit by a car, and he was doing circles in the road,” Foss told The Forecaster.
When Foss got to the scene on Fundy Road, the raccoon had climbed 50 feet up a nearby tree.
Foss let nature take its course for 24 hours, and went back to check on the raccoon the next day, Valentine’s Day. It was still up in the tree and he decided to enlist the help of Falmouth Fire-EMS to rescue it.
“It was a really busy day for the crew, but they said they’d love to help,” Fire Chief Howard Rice said.
Using the fire truck tower and bucket, crew members scooped the raccoon into a net and lowered him to the ground, where Foss was waiting.
“It couldn’t have gone any better,” Foss said. “When they touched him, it was like he woke up.”
The 8-pound raccoon was scared and confused, with abrasions to his face and a blank stare indicating it had a concussion.
Foss raced the animal up to Bowdoin, where Wilderness Miracles wildlife rehab operator Kathi McCue was waiting. Now, the raccoon, who Falmouth firefighters named Higbee, is thriving.
“He’s doing amazingly well,” Foss said. “He’s eating, his wounds are being treated, and he’s pain free. He’s getting back to his normal self.”
Once Higbee has completely healed, he will be placed in an outdoor enclosure at Wilderness Miracles so he can get his faculties back as a wild animal and not an animal that has been cared for by humans. Then he’ll be released back into the wild, near where he was found, but farther away from roads.
Although rare, Falmouth Fire-EMS does receive calls about injured or trapped animals, Chief Rice said.
“We’ve rescued dogs out of pipes, and an owl that was wedged in a car grille one time,” he said. “It’s unique, but if we can go and help out safely, we do.”
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