Patricia Wyer has seen many animals come and go at her wildlife rescue center near Cheyenne.
Her most heartwarming tale of 2025 is that of a mama raccoon who lost her babies, trashed a pickup in her angst, but then got a second chance.
The story started in June when a Cheyenne resident reported finding four kits (baby raccoons) hiding in his boat.
Chris Saunders, owner and operator of the Cheyenne-based 307 Pest critter-catching company, came over to live-trap the kits. He took them to Wyer’s Broken Bandit Wildlife Center east of Cheyenne.
The assumption was the kits’ mother was probably dead.
Pickup Trashed
Then Saunders got another call from the homeowner.
“A few days later, he contacted us again, extremely upset because something had pulled his vehicle apart,” Saunders told Cowboy State Daily.
The windshield wipers, windshield trim and “pretty much all the plastic and rubber that you could find around the cab of the pickup” had been destroyed, he said.
He then captured a “large female raccoon” on the property.
It wasn’t until later that he and Wyer pieced it together that the destructive raccoon was the kits’ mother, who Wyer named Karma.
She’d probably done a number on the pickup when she realized her kits were gone.
“We figured she was probably trying to get inside the cab of the pickup to try looking for her babies,” he said.
Is That The Mama?
Wyer has taken in all sorts of animals, including abandoned draft horses, exotic South American critters called coatimundis, a blind fox and even a skunk called Stinkerbell.
Raccoons are some of her most common take-ins, and she usually tries to rehabilitate them and return them to the wild.
The four kits were hardly the first young raccoons she’s rescued. In almost every case, they end up at her rescue because their mothers have died.
When Saunders snagged Karma, he got to thinking it might have been a rare stroke of luck capturing an entire raccoon family.
“We put the pieces together and figured out that her babies might be the ones out there at Broken Bandit,” he said.
Reunion At Broken Bandit
The moment of truth came when a cage containing the female was placed next to a cage with the kits inside.
“At first they were aggressive,” Wyer said.
But recognition came quickly.
“There was some cooing, and little chirps coming from those cages, because the babies realized who it was,” she said.
The reunited raccoon family took shelter at Broken Bandit until the kits were old enough to forage.
Then all five raccoons were taken to a remote location and released back into the wild, Wyer said.
She considers it her most touching rescue story of the year, because it’s so rare to see an entire raccoon family get a second chance.
The story of Karma and her babies is special “because it’s not the typical one,” Wyer said. "You never get that sort of fairy tale ending with a mom and babies.
“It seems like we never, ever get to see the mom (raccoon) again, so this was a pretty special one."
Critter Catchers
When it comes to animal control, raccoons fall into a gray area.
Municipal animal control departments won’t touch them because they’re wild animals, not pets like dogs and cats.
Wyoming Game and Fish Department won’t deal with them either. They’re not among the wild species the agency manages.
Wildlife agents also generally respond only to calls involving large animals that show up in town, such as moose or mountain lions.
When it comes to raccoons, skunks, squirrels and other such animals, people rely on the services of critter catchers like 307 Pest.
Saunders takes a humane approach; he live-traps animals with the goal of returning them to the wild.
As Saunders sees it, he’s only being fair to the wildlife.
“The animals were here before we were, and we’ve encroached on their property,” he said. "We’ve unintentionally ended up providing them with food and shelter..
“They do cause damage to homes and such, but they’re just trying to survive."
Karma’s devotion to her kits didn’t surprise him.
“Raccoons have a very strong motherly, maternal instinct,” he said. "They will accept their babies back, whereas skunks will usually abandon their babies if they get separated or the babies are moved or disturbed."
Even so, he takes lost baby skunks to Wyer whenever he can.
“She does her magic with them, raises them and releases them,” he said.
Raccoons Aren’t Just ‘Trash Pandas’
The situation with Karma and her kits might have been avoided if the homeowner was better informed and had been more patient, Wyer said.
Female raccoons frequently move their young from place to place, and hide them when they go to forage.
If people find baby raccoons on their property, they should encourage their mothers to come get them and move them elsewhere with disturbances like “flashlights and noise,” she said.
Though they might have a bad reputation as “trash pandas,” Wyer said raccoons are handy to have around.
“They eat pests like insects, wasps, rodents and snakes. They keep those populations under control,” she said.
“They will also clean up roadkill carcasses,” she added.
Raccoons can aerate soil by pulling up small patches and help spread seeds in their droppings.
“They’re basically nature’s clean-up crew,” Wyer said.
Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.
