Wilmington woman moves to Florida to save her pet raccoon

FORT MYERS, FL – Dot Lee is 65, has multiple sclerosis and is legally blind. Trooper, her pet raccoon, suffered injuries on a North Carolina golf course last year and is unable to walk a straight line, use his front paws to grasp things, and is blind and deaf.

But they have each other – reports the News-Press in Ft. Myers, FL.

“He loves mama,” Lee said. “I love him. He’ll go through fire to get to me.”

Dot and Trooper share a south Fort Myers condo with Lilly, Lee’s small fluffy white dog.

“We’re a happy family,” Lee said.

Lee, a retired special education teacher, moved to Fort Myers from Wilmington, N.C., on April 1, seeking a safe haven for Trooper. Lee said she feared North Carolina officials would euthanize him. She can keep him legally in Florida.

“I saved his life,” Lee said. “I saved him from having North Carolina cut off his head.”

Trooper lumbers and lurches about Lee’s living room with a lopsided gait. Lee said she’s not sure if he was struck with a golf club or ball. Either way, friends living by the golf course summoned her to check out the raccoon.

Lee, who said she’s a licensed wildlife rehabilitation volunteer, nursed him. Initially, the raccoon lay on his side, trembling. He couldn’t turn his head. Couldn’t eat. He was bleeding from his right eye. Foaming blood at the mouth. She cleaned him and injected formula into his throat.

“I had cried very hard,” Lee said.
She named him Trooper.

“He never gives up,” Lee said.

Lee, a 1958 Naples High graduate, moved into the same building as her sister, Beth, who resides with her cat, Nikki. Dot walked Trooper to Beth’s condo Thursday.

“He’s the only man in our lives,” Beth said.

But should he be in their lives?

Steve Greenstein, executive director of CROW wildlife clinic, said raccoons should not be kept as pets.

“Our ultimate goal is the release of wild animals back to the wild,” Greenstein said.
“To do otherwise, we consider a disservice to the wildlife.’’

Dr. P.J. Deitschel, a CROW veterinarian and clinic director, hasn’t seen Trooper but said raccoons can “grow very large and become very aggressive.”

“We don’t encourage or advise anyone to keep a wild animal as a pet,” Deitschel said.

For Lee, though, Trooper is more than a wild animal. He’s family. She’s convinced Trooper is better off in her condo than in the wild.

“He would be somebody else’s meal,” Lee said.

THANKS, NEWS-PRESS
http://www.news-press.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2010100617071