Free Republic

I have always loved stories of people who rescued or cared for wounded animals and ended up making them a permanent part of their family; this story is no exception. Stacy J Rost (@StacyRost), a Seattle sports radio host, has captured millions of hearts after posting about her parents’ experiences caring for and spiritually adopting a little raccoon named ‘Little Rick’ on X. “My parents had to put their dog down two years ago, and it’s been really hard on them,” wrote Stacy in her most viral post about Little Rick. “Unfortunately, my stepdad, Rick, has found the worst way...

The masked bandits gobbled up all of the woman's tacos except the tortillasA Florida woman was startled to find that her late night DoorDash order had been stolen by a group of masked thieves, but they weren't human bandits, but instead a pack of raccoons. Around 2:30 a.m. on Tuesday, Caterina Sevares told Fox 35 she had just jumped out of the shower and went to open the front door of her West Palm Beach apartment expecting to find her DoorDash order from Talkin' Tacos, but what she got instead was a shocking meeting with a pack of raccoons who...

A viral Twitter video captured the hilarious reaction of two raccoons who were caught entering someone's yard. In the video, the raccoons appear to be startled by a noise and freeze in place. One of the masked bandits is seen standing still on its hind legs, while the other stops moving and stares in the direction of the noise made by the homeowner filming them.

A southern Alberta couple who realized their infant had eaten raccoon feces found themselves racing against time to find a rare medication — and doctors and pharmacists across Western Canada mobilized to help them find it. Ashley Haughton learned raccoon scat can be extremely dangerous when she found it in her yard in Lethbridge, Alta., and researched how to dispose of it safely. Raccoons can carry a deadly form of roundworm called Baylisascaris procyonis, and the eggs live in their feces. An extremely rare parasitic infection can occur if humans ingest the eggs, which hatch into larvae, travel through the...

For the past few weeks, usually in the middle of the night, I have been hearing some kind of animal running around, scratching, etc. in my attic. I asked the maintenance guys to go up into the attic to have a look for damage, points of entry, etc. They went up there and reported no holes. They had put a small Havahart trap up there baited with peanut butter, but nothing was caught in there. I told them to remove that, as I didn't want anything getting trapped and then starving. I threw a bunch of bags of mothballs up...

In the past couple of weeks, Youngstown police have responded to over a dozen of these raccoon calls — all of them with reports of the same strange, zombie-like behavior. The majority of the calls happened in the daytime, too, even though raccoons are nocturnal. “I looked over there and got distracted because I saw a raccoon coming our way,” said Robert Coggeshall, whose playtime with his dogs was interrupted by a fiesty and sick raccoon last week. He put the dogs back in the house, but said the raccoon followed them to the door. “He would stand up on his...

There's a new twist to the perennial argument about which is smarter, cats or dogs. It has to do with their brains, specifically the number of neurons in their cerebral cortex: the "little gray cells" associated with thinking, planning and complex behavior -- all considered hallmarks of intelligence. The first study to actually count the number of cortical neurons in the brains of a number of carnivores, including cats and dogs, has found that dogs possess significantly more of them than cats. "In this study, we were interested in comparing different species of carnivorans to see how the numbers of...

St. Jude cited racial concerns in asking Decatur County to change the name of its annual hunt. For the past 40 years, Decatur County has hosted a hunting event to raise money for the patients at St. Jude Children’s Hospital. So far, it has raised $4.5 million. Decatur County Mayor Mike Creasy said the hospital is now threatening to turn down the donations unless the county changes the name of the event. For decades, the event has been known as the Decatur County World’s Largest Coon Hunt. The Coon Hunt Board told Channel 4 that St. Jude has threatened to...

I labeled this as an editorial although it is actually a response to a letter in the Bonner County Idaho paper. I posted it because I think Mr. "Dawgshepard" sums things up fairly well.

In San Francisco's Richmond District, a couple was attacked they say by a pack of raccoons and if it weren't for a neighbor who came to their rescue, they believe they might have been seriously injured. Many neighbors in the area say they don't like going out after 11 p.m., not because they worry about getting mugged, but because they worry about a confrontation with raccoons. Patty Upsavs says she and her husband went out Monday night to let their dog get one last walk and that's when a raccoon pounced. "So I started swinging the dog around trying to...

West Harlem residents say a posse of raccoons has taken over their neighborhoods and in some cases even broken into their homes. “These things think they live here and they actually walk in if you leave an opening,” said resident Lauren Flanigan. Pictures from residents showed a raccoon making itself comfortable on the patio of a West Harlem home, and even coming up to the door. And that raccoon was not alone, residents said. “They came in the kitchen, and they’re not that friendly, and they also pushed the window screens in,” Flanigan told CBS2’s Tracee Carrasco. “They climb over...

HOUSTON--At the Stop and Save in Richwood, you’ll find lottery tickets, beer and fishing bait, plus a gaze of raccoons--that’s what they’re called in groups. They've taken up residence in the woods behind the store. "They eat everything," said Stephanie Rutkowske, a local animal lover. "Doritos, Cheetos, chocolate. Or a big bag of cat food. They’ll eat that just as good too."

<p>A 9-month-old baby remains in critical condition at an Atlanta hospital after she was attacked by two raccoons.</p> <p>Newton County Sheriff's deputies are investigating how the raccoons got inside the home and to the child, who was sleeping in a crib in the same room as her mother.</p>

John Matthews loves to hunt turkeys and travel to foreign places like Mexico. During one of those adventures, something crawled inside his body. “It’s so small, you couldn’t even see it, feel it,” Matthews said. When two dark spots appeared in his vision and his eyesight became a little hazy, he headed to the doctor. “It was kind of like looking through a muddy lens,” he said. Doctors struggled to diagnose what was wrong with John’s left eye. Then, Dr. James Folk at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics found the problem. “Just by luck, the first picture we...

In reaction to President Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize, Ms. Bruce posted about her first thoughts on hearing that the President had been awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace... She followed that up with another entry, in which she posted a photo of her pet raccooon, Rocky, paw in a box of Cracker Jack, digging for his very own Nobel Peace Prize.

Raccoon causes carbon monoxide fatality in East Sandwich By Ira Kantor | Tuesday, December 23, 2008 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Local Coverage A 62-year-old East Sandwich man was found dead of carbon monoxide poisoning in his home Sunday morning after a raccoon crawled into his chimney flue and blocked it, police and fire officials said. “He was of such a size that it was a complete blockage of the products of combustion from the gas appliance,” said Sandwich Deputy Fire Chief Tom Corriveau. “So there was nowhere for them to go but back into the residence.” The victim was identified as...

Check out this scary video of a burglar stealing a family’s carpet. If anyone finds a carpet on ebay matching the rug in the video, please report it to the local authorities.

LOS ANGELES -- One balmy summer night, Larna Hartnack awoke to the cries of her dog Charlie and, to her horror, found the Dalmatian in a battle for her life -- pinned by a gang of raccoons that tore into her flesh and nearly gnawed off her tail. Charlie survived. But recurring raccoon attacks on dogs and other creatures have unnerved people along the Venice Canals, a funky, well-to-do beach neighborhood packed with ardent dog lovers, many of whom are now afraid to walk their pets at night or leave them alone in the back yard. Communities around the country...

See for example this thread first. A headline ripped from the cartoons:Attack of the Killer Raccoons! They're so unafraid even cats get waylaid! ...time to kick PETA's *ss, those dumb loons!

OLYMPIA, Washington (AP) — A fierce group of raccoons has killed 10 cats, attacked a small dog and bitten at least one pet owner who had to get rabies shots, residents of Olympia say. More... ... "They are in command up there," he said.