For Torontonians like myself, every day is both raccoon appreciation day, and raccoon irritation day. For an animal that does so much damage and frustrates us so much, we kinda love the little trash pandas.
I was once in a language class in Mexico with a fellow Canadian. The teacher was Mexican and kind of fascinated by mapaches, because they apparently didn’t have them where she was from.
We told her tons of stories about the havoc raccoons caused back home. My fellow student had reluctantly had to shoot at one that had broken into his home (a cabin in the woods) and torn through all his food.
Their destructiveness was news to her. She said, “Wow! If they cause so much damage, I’m surprised someone doesn’t just kill them all off.”
“Oh, no,” said the one-time shooter, aghast. “They’re so cute!”
