Last weekend, Erin Gudeman pulled into her driveway in Farmington Hills, Michigan, after a day at Detroit’s Outdoor Adventure Center with her mom and kids. Everyone noticed an unusual object in the middle of the front yard.
“At first glance, it looked like a strange, breathing rock,” Gudeman told The Dodo. “Even my mother … thought it might be a muddy scrap of carpet someone had discarded. But something about it didn’t seem right.”
Erin Gudeman
Once inside, Gudeman and her family watched from the window as the rock slowly lifted its head.
A disheveled raccoon limped through Gudeman’s yard and nestled herself behind an inflatable Christmas dinosaur near the front porch.
Erin Gudeman
“That was the moment we knew this wasn’t just an odd sight in the yard,” Gudeman said. “This was an animal in trouble.”
Gudeman asked a friend for advice, then posted in a Michigan wildlife Facebook group. “Worried about him with the snow coming,” she wrote. Local news predicted more than a foot of snow later that night.
Luckily, word reached Theresa Carroll at Halfway Home Wildlife Rehab, who had space for the raccoon. Within 20 minutes, a volunteer picked up the animal from Gudeman’s yard and rushed her over to Carroll.
Halfway Home Wildlife Rehab
Right away, Carroll saw that the raccoon suffered from a case of sarcoptic mange, a mite infestation that caused the animal’s fur to fall out and her skin to become rough and itchy.
“What she has is very typical,” Carroll told The Dodo. “I felt bad for her because she’s got something going on with her left eye and her left paw, as well. And being smaller, you know, odds are stacked against them even more so.”
Halfway Home Wildlife Rehab
Carroll believes the tiny animal would not have survived the night if Gudeman hadn’t found her. The mange had destroyed the raccoon’s coat, and her thin body and bare skin would’ve been totally exposed to the elements.
“It’s like being naked and someone giving you a concrete blanket to stay warm,” Carroll said.
The first course of action for the raccoon was lots of water, because mange causes intense dehydration. Then, Carroll began the raccoon on a rich carbohydrate diet to help her retain fluids.
Halfway Home Wildlife Rehab
After several days at Halfway Home Wildlife Rehab, the raccoon is already improving. “She’s eating and drinking really, really well,” Carroll said.
Though it looks like she has an injured paw, Carroll is monitoring it rather than putting it in a cast or bandage, which raccoons tend to rip off quickly.
Despite all she’s been through, this particular raccoon is surprisingly feisty.
Halfway Home Wildlife Rehab
“I work with a lot of raccoons, and for only being about seven or eight pounds, she’s a spicy little thing,” Carroll said.
The raccoon is also good at avoiding her medication, even when Carroll hides it in bananas. “She’s like, ‘Yeah, no, I don’t want that. You can’t trick me,’” Carroll laughed.
Halfway Home Wildlife Rehab
Mange takes several weeks to heal, then the raccoon’s fur has to grow back, so she’ll be in Carroll’s care for about three months.
Gudeman is grateful for the community that rallied together for this raccoon.
She said that “watching so many people come together so quickly for a vulnerable animal was nothing short of inspiring.”
If you’d like to support Halfway Home Wildlife Rehab, you can purchase items directly from their wish list. 
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