Catch...inoculate...release

Several weeks ago we received a letter from the United States Department of Agriculture/Wildlife Services inviting us to take part in their program to trap, inoculate, and release raccoons. We called their phone number and volunteered to take part in the program. Last week a college student showed up at our door with a cage trap. She asked where we wanted her to put the trap and explained that she would come back every day to check it. If a raccoon took the bait (a scented marshmallow) and entered the trap, her job was to determine if it had already been inoculated and if it hadn't, she would give it a rabies vaccination. The third day we had a little bit of excitement. A starling had managed to get itself caught in the trap, and it was very unhappy. Bob opened the trap and the starling flew to the top of our neighbor's tree. Then this morning we discovered this raccoon in the trap. Thankfully, it wasn't very long before the student showed up. The critter wasn't very cooperative. It hissed and clawed and made her job really hard, but she managed to get it turned around in the cage so that she could see that it had a tag in its ear, indicating that this particular raccoon had already been inoculated. She opened the trap and out he zipped and quickly climbed the trunk of the nearest tree. The excitement was over!