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Raccoon and Fawn Who Both Lost Their Moms Form a Sweet Friendship

By Sara Barnes on September 22, 2022

In 2021, licensed wildlife rehabilitator Carrie Long received a call about a baby raccoon that needed help. Cold, wet, and hungry, Long was alerted just in time. The raccoon was three weeks old, had been abandoned by his mother, and was barely surviving a rainstorm. Long took him in and nursed him back to health, and she named him Jasper. The raccoon reached adulthood and was free to leave, but Jasper continued to stay by her side.

Long specializes in rescuing orphaned deer as part of her nonprofit Texas Fawn and Friends. With Jasper now a permanent part of the family, he accompanies her outside and meets many of the fawns currently in the organization’s care. Of all the deer he's met, however, there is one with whom he's formed a strong bond: Hope.

“Hope was a fawn that I received in that had [also] lost her mother,” Long explains to My Modern Met. “As time went on, Hope was released as she became old enough.” She was happy to stay close by in the yard, and Jasper could play with her when he went outside. “He loves playing with the dogs but he has so much fun with her, I guess because she’s larger than the dogs and he’s able to hold on to her!”

Long captures sweet videos of their relationship that show Hope laying in the grass as Jasper gives her hugs and little nuzzles. It’s clear he’s smitten with her. “He really gets excited when he sees her in the yard,” Long shares.

Jasper and Hope are just two of the animals who have been helped by Long and her work at Texas Fawn and Friends. She’s expecting to have over 100 fawns to care for this year—orphans that would likely not survive without her. You can learn much more about Texas Fawn and Friends on the nonprofit’s website.