Mariposa Guest Cabins

09/02/2026

Skittle handled his first day of climbing a big tree like a total BOSS!!! Every little c**n I’ve ever raised climbs a tree for the first time exactly the same way. By instinct, they start climbing the second you turn them loose. They climb to the tippy top of the tree, then have a full on panic attack. They stay up there for an hour or so, screaming bloody murder. Then they finally figure out how to come down.

Not Skittle! He went straight to the top of the tree, whirled around and came straight back to the ground! Then he went up again and down again till he was exhausted. Pretty sure at one point, he yelled down at me “look mom, no hands”!!!

09/01/2026

I mentioned that Skittle absolutely hates his walks right now. We keep walking until he’s totally exhausted. By the time we get back to the truck, his nose is so out of joint with me, that he puts himself in his crate all by himself!!!! I swear, if he knew how to slam that top door behind him, he would totally do it, just to let me know how much he is NOT amused by all that unwanted walking!!😂

08/30/2026

Skittle is growing like a w**d!!!

We go for a walk every afternoon. He absolutely HATES it. He’s not big enough to have developed that racc**n sense of curiosity. He doesn’t care about grass, trees, water or bugs.

I set him on the ground and start walking as fast as I can walk. He starts chasing me as fast as he can run. He doesn’t look left or right. He is totally focused on trying to get hold of my ankle. If he gets any purchase, he climbs my leg like a spider monkey. I p*el him off and we start again.

In this video, he’s getting tired. If I get far enough away that he loses me, he stops dead in his tracks. That trill sound he’s making is his “mama call”. As soon as I say his name, he comes running.

08/24/2026

Little Skittle hasn’t worked his wave out quite as well as his Uncle Snoot did, but I think it was a fine first effort!!! When Skittle tries to pick up one hand, he loses his balance and falls off the log😊

08/21/2026

I have gotten so many questions about what Skittle does all day long. So, a day in the life of Skittle……….

Skittle sleeps in a crate in my guest bathroom with a heat lamp. The whole room is pretty much an incubator. If you’re ever gonna lose a wild baby, it typically happens at night. They need to be sleeping in a pile with their littermates to maintain their body heat.

I wake Skittle up at 8:30 in the morning. If you’ve never awakened a racc**n from a hard sleep, you’re missing one of the cutest things I’ve ever seen. So much stretching and yawning!!! He gets his first bottle, I help him go to the bathroom (wet paper towels), I burp him, then he cuddles and loves in my lap for a bit.

Next he moves to a medium sized cage in my guest room. That has his sleeping purse, several stuffies, a baby sized croc from the dollar store. All things to help him start processing textures, colors etc. Typically, he immediately dives head first into his purse and goes back to sleep.

I wake him up at 12:30. He has to crawl out of the purse by himself and come to the open cage door and crawl into my hands. I take him back into the bathroom, sit on the floor with a p*e pad in my lap. Give him his bottle, p*e him, burp him and have a cuddle.

Then he goes back in his crate, and I have to sneak him out of the house without my 2 dogs and cat seeing him. Skittle has been in my house for 3 weeks and none of my animals know he’s here. Major subterfuge going on there!

After his second feeding, he moves over to the guest cabins. He stays there until 4:00. My largest cage is set up over there. It has branches, a hammock, a pan of water and toys. This is where he starts learning to be a racc**n.

At 4:00, I sneak him back into my house. Feed him and put him back in his cage with his purse. He goes to sleep in his purse immediately.

I wake him up for his last feeding of the day at 8:30 at night. He eats every 4 hours all day, then goes for 12 hours without a feeding at night.

Tomorrow is a big day. When I pick him up at the cabins at 4:00, I’m gonna take him to the creek and let him be loose for the first time! No idea what will happen, but I’m guessing lots of pics and videos to follow!

08/12/2026

There’s nothing cuter than a baby racc**n just waking up from a nap in his purse!!!! Little Skittle is growing like a w**d

08/10/2026

Well, this is little Skittle’s 8th day at my house. He’s doing great!! Most unexpected development is that Quinn, Minnow and Huckleberry (2 dogs, 1 cat), still have NO earthly idea they are sharing their house with a racc**n!

Skittle was found by a dear childhood friend, Kara, and her son on their ranch in Waller, TX. He had obviously been without his mama for a good while. I checked the little rescue in their county. Like most, it is full to the rafters with babies and closed to intake right now.

Kara’s family already has their boat loaded with a new baby and Kara’s mom in the hospital. There was only one person in Houston I could possibly call.

Before I could even get the words out, my niece Sophia was 100% on board to help save this little one. She bailed on a pool party and headed to Waller to collect the little one. Sophia and Skittle drove west and I drove east. We ended up finding each other in Bastrop.

A few pics——Skittle with Sophia on his big road trip, first bath, first nap in Snoot’s old purse. Not sure what I paid for that purse, but I sure have gotten my money’s worth!!!!!!

08/08/2026

Hey everybody! Say hello to the new Director of Entertainment at the Mariposa Guest Cabins! His name is Skittle!

I’ll fill you in on how he came to be living in my bathroom later. It took a bunch of people with big hearts for little orphan babies to get him here.

He got here Sunday. He was SO tiny, skinny and scabby, I didn’t even give him a name till the 3rd day he was here. Every morning I fully expected that he would not survive the night.

Skittle is going gangbusters!!! He’s a scrappy little bit of fur!!!!

For guests staying at the Mariposa in the next few weeks and months, this little one will be a party in a box!!!!

08/03/2026

I love it when they pose!! You can tell this fella knows he’s a looker!!!

08/01/2026

Tx Hill Country ranked by USA Today as No.3 top wine spot in the US!!

The Lone Star State's booming Hill Country wine scene is about to get a lot busier, as it was just declared the No. 3 best wine region in the country for "a grape getaway."