My grandmother passed away in 2005 and her fur coats fell to me, where they’ve hung in my cupboard. We’ve been having a clear out lately and I wanted to do something with them. I figured I’d wind up selling them, but I had no idea what they were worth or which of them was fake. (One of the three isn’t real.)

Today I found out that wildlife rehabilitators use them to comfort unwell and orphaned animals.

From this page:

Fur can provide warmth and comfort to orphaned and injured wild animals. Wildlife rehabilitators will usually cut the fur into an appropriate size for the animal, whether it be a bobcat, fox, raccoon, squirrel, or rabbit, and place it inside the animal’s enclosure. The furry blanket becomes a surrogate mother to orphaned animals, reducing stress and giving comfort.

One rehabilitator related a story about a restless orphaned river otter who chirped constantly. Once she was given a fur blanket, she settled right down. Turning the sleeve of a fur coat inside out, a rehabilitator can also create a warm nest for a burrowing animal such as an opossum. Some animals adopt a piece of fur as a playmate, jumping on it and wrestling with it.

That wrong-side-out sleeve thing sounds so comfortable.

The page above is primarily American, though there is one contact for Canada. I have been unable to find a site for the U.K. If you know of rehabbers in other countries who re-purpose fur coats, please post in the comments.