Get ready to say, "Aaaawwwwe...."

So after riding from my house, putting in a few laps at Swanson (I forgot how much fun mtb was...), and riding home, I was about to turn off Keystone onto Grover. I see a family, father daughter and son, off their bikes and looking at a small tree. Well, dangling from the tree was this young raccoon. I think the dad put him up there just to mess with him, but then he took the raccoon by the tail and put him on the ground. This raccoon apparently had no problem with humans, because he soon wanted to claim the dad as his own. He'd follow the kids running around and just wanted to play.


Soon the family wanted to get going, so I lured the little coon away from them so they could take off. Well then I became the parent. Here he is checking out my mtb tire.


I first thought that he was just lost from his parents, but he was just too used to humans for this to be true. He pretty much just wanted to stick around me. I later read on the net that some people find infant coons, try to raise them, then find out they don't work well as pets. There's a website that give 20 good reasons not to raise a raccoon. Main ones were diseases (rabies actually a rare one), messiness, reverting to more wild nature as maturing goes along, legal issues, and providing correct diet.



He was a cute bugger, but just in case his parents were around, I broke up a Nutrigrain bar and gave it to him in the bushes so hopefully either his real parents find him, or he figures out a way to live on his own. Honestly, how can you not miss a face like this, beady brown eyes, tongue sticking out: