A mother raccoon who was reportedly trying to rescue her kits from the other side of a hole in a Santa Cruz home's roof got herself comically stuck, ass up, and a local animal shelter publicized the photo.

The raccoon was probably making quite a racket after getting herself into this predicament, and as Santa Cruz County Animal Shelter explained on Facebook, the homeowner contacted the nonprofit Wildlife Emergency Services for help.

"Knowing that time was critical, they instructed the citizen how to push the raccoon through the hole so it wouldn't suffocate," the shelter says.

So I guess the homeowner did the rescuing?

Rebecca Dmytryk, the director of Wildlife Emergency Services, explains to the Chronicle that she was too far away to respond quickly so she instructed the homeowner to somehow widen the hole to allow the raccoon to drop through. And she suspected that the raccoon had chewed the hole bigger in the first place because her kits had already gone in there — but the situation isn't clear.

The mother raccoon was also lactating, and a white liquid (milk) can be seen spilling out of her on the roof.

The animal shelter only said, "Now that the mama raccoon is back safe with her babies."

The homeowner had apparently recently removed a vent on the roof, and the hole hadn't been sealed.

Dmytryk tells the Chronicle that all homeowners should exercise caution when repairing such holes, so as not to trap any creatures inside. "Nocturnal animals, whether it’s a mouse or rat, a raccoon, a cat — there could be something in there," she said.