SEE IT: Raccoon rescued after getting trapped head-first in roof

A California raccoon was caught between a house and a hard place after it got stuck head-first in a home’s roof.

A resident of Santa Cruz called animal control Monday to report a raccoon had chewed into their roof but was trapped while trying to wriggle indoors, according to the Santa Cruz Animal Shelter.

“Knowing that time was critical, they instructed the citizen how to push the raccoon through the hole so it wouldn’t suffocate,” the post said.

The raccoon, a mother, was rightfully eager to get inside the home’s attic: she had left it, and her babies, through a broken vent. However, when he returned, the vent had been repaired so she started biting away at the tiles, according to the Santa Cruz Sentinel.

The shelter said the raccoon was then reunited with her babies, which were nearby.

“Now that the mama raccoon is back safe with her babies, Wildlife Emergency Services will help the citizens to set up a repellent barrier to safely and humanely have mama and her kids move along to a more appropriate home,” the shelter said.

Experts aren’t too surprised with how the whole thing shook out.

“From working with wildlife for over 40 years, I can tell you raccoons are the best moms,” Rebecca Dmytryk, CEO of Wildlife Emergency Services of Moss Landing, told the Santa Cruz Sentinel. “They will go to all lengths to get back to their babies.”

Dmytryk says the problem is more common than you’d think — and not just with nature’s favorite bandits.

“Don’t ever close off holes in the outside of your house without taking precautions about whether there’s anybody inside — where it’s a small hole, you might be entombing mice and rats, where it’s a larger hole, you could be entombing somebody’s cat.”