Community Pulls Together To Save Raccoon Hit By Truck

CHICAGO, IL — They say it takes a village to raise a child. Here's a story of how it took a village to prolong the life of an animal. A village within a city, in this case.

Last Friday morning began as any other for Mike Wurster, a 30-year employee of the Beverly Bike and Ski shop at 91st and Western.

But as he was nearing the end of his hour-long morning commute from Crete, he spotted a raccoon in the middle of the northbound lanes of Western Avenue near 102nd Street.

"My wife Sharon has long been an animal rescuer and I never was," said Wurster, who has in recent years helped in his wife's animal rescue efforts and who himself has cared for a family of geese at the Meijer in Evergreen Park and adopted a cat who was found alone near the bike shop.

Although he wasn't with his wife on Friday morning, he knew he had to help the animal out.

"I knew if my wife learned of me driving past that raccoon without helping it, I wouldn't be able to come home," said Wurster, who pulled over on the other side of the busy street and went out into traffic to try and guide the lost animal to safety.

Most of the cars that did drive by slowed down and avoided hitting the raccoon, but Wurster was stunned when a man driving a white pickup truck "slowed down and lined up his wheels" in an attempt to deliberately hit the animal. The driver of another car also tried to line up a direct hit but couldn't, Wurster said.

The raccoon was struck by the side of the truck's tires and clearly injured.

That's when Wurster stood by the raccoon and held off traffic until the two could make it to the east side of Western.

"I looked behind me when I got to the Car-X parking lot and the raccoon was walking toward me and would grin its teeth," Wurster said. "I could tell it was in severe pain."

Even though Wurster and the raccoon made it across Western, the journey to a comfortable home was still several moving pieces away.

But in a community like Beverly, all that really amounts to is a bunch of people finding a way to help.

After Wurster found a cardboard box near the Car-X dumpster and lured the raccoon into it, he called his wife to ask what he should do next. She wasn't available to come all the way from Crete, so his next call was to Gregg Wilson, owner of the Hardboiled Coffee Company that until just three years ago had a shop open just a few doors down from the bike shop.

Wilson has been active in animal rescues, Wurster said, but he was unavailable at the time due to work. Wilson did, however, offer to connect him with a man named Declan who could help.

Well, Declan was at home with his child. He came anyway, with the kid of course.

At this point, neighborhood resident Tom O'Neil found out about the situation through his wife, Sue and showed up with a more sturdy box for the animal.

Declan came with a trap as well, and at long last the raccoon was out of a cardboard box.

"Tom, Declan and I all worked on getting the raccoon in the trap," Wurster said.

Once that was accomplished, Wurster brought the raccoon to work at the bike shop, thanking owner Paul Weise for allowing him to focus on the rescue and be more than an hour late that day.

"We put her (the raccoon) in an area in the back away from the dogs that we have here sometimes," Wurster said.

Later that day, more people became involved when it came to finding a permanent home for the raccoon who by now Wurster had named "Beverly."

"That's where I found her," Wurster said. "Once I found out she was female, I knew I had to name her that."

To find Beverly a home, Sharon Wurster contacted a woman named Melissa, who passed the word along to a woman named Corrine. Corrine said she would take Beverly to her own animal sanctuary.

"But she was at a meeting in Hinsdale at the time, so we had to keep Beverly at the shop until she could get there to pick her up at 9 p.m.," Wurster said.

Beverly made it through the night, but not much longer. Sadly, our favorite neighborhood raccoon died the next morning. Likely as a result of the injuries she suffered from the truck hit, Wurster said.

"I think she would have made it," he said.

But in many ways, she already did. The number of people who played a role in prolonging her life for just a short time is heartwarming.

"I couldn't have done it without the people in this neighborhood," Wurster said. "Without them, I'd still be standing in the Car-X parking lot with a raccoon in a box."

Experts who looked at Beverly (the raccoon) at the animal sanctuary said that she was a nursing mother, so Beverly (the neighborhood) residents should be mindful of a possible group of baby raccoons that could be in the neighborhood without their mother.

But even after Beverly's death, the community continued to provide comfort to the animal lovers at Beverly Bike and Ski, a local business that dates back nearly a century.

Noted animal rights backer and social entrepreneur Steve English came by the shop on Sunday with gifts.

"Steve brought cookies that his raccoons like to eat and gave me a stuffed seagull as a sign of compassion," Wurster said.

"They say Beverly is the village in the city and it truly is... Around here, people can really come together."

Photo: Beverly, after she was trapped by neighborhood residents in the Car-X parking lot at 102nd and Western / Provided