…and it didn’t attack me. It was just taking a nap in a tree.
I’ve never been so happy to see a raccoon before. This little baby, or kit in raccoon terms, was absolutely adorable and not at all abnormal. Raccoons are known to nap in trees during the day, and it’s also common for a mother to forage for extra food during the day.
I remember seeing a raccoon skulking along the fence once while gardening; it scared the hell out of me. With my head practically inside a croton weeding underneath it, it was startling to turn around and see a raccoon right behind me about 20 feet away. I immediately went running into the house with the frantic thought of RABIES racing through my head.
But thinking back on it after reading this line from the University of Texas Environmental Health & Safety’s website, “If a nocturnal animal is out during the day and is sick you will know it,” I know that raccoon was fine. The site goes on to say, “The symptoms when an animal is sick or injured can vary, but regardless it’s fairly obvious that something is wrong.” The raccoon that scared me wasn’t foaming at the mouth; it wasn’t trying to approach me; it wasn’t acting crazy in any way. It was actually acting quite normal trying to sneak behind me undetected. I was the one acting rabid running for the door.
I’m not suggesting you try to feed them as if they are ducks by a pond, but day-foraging raccoons have an unnecessarily bad name. There’s no reason to automatically assume they are all rabid…and look how cute!
