Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/03/14/raccoon-enjoys-snack.html
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hedonism bot? exactly what I was thinking. I so want to see the racoon wearing a little… what are they called? the leafy crown on emperors.
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Laurel wreaths.
Not to be rested upon.
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I could watch this all day.
“Bring me a bowl of cherries!”
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Absolute decadence.
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A number of years ago I was feeding a severely injured raccoon; broken hind leg, broken front leg; and trying to live trap him as well. I caught every other raccoon in the neighbourhood, but he couldn’t get into the trap because of the dragging hind leg.
Anyway, apparently urban raccoons travel in bonded male pairs, likely litter mates, so I was feeding the brother (that I called “Brother”) as well. Brother would eat, and then lean back against the top step of my porch and scratch his belly. He would have loosened his pants if he’d been wearing any.
So he was the redneck cousin of this elegant lady.
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Somebody’s going to be pooping a literal mess of cherry pits!
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A raccoon tycoon needs a servant to refill his cherries.
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I picture this blonde raccoon with a languid, slightly inebriated voice demanding — and promptly receiving — more cherries.
“Cherries Jubilee, my good man. Heavy on the jubilee.”
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Too freakin’ cute.
Also…
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I’m glad it’s no longer considered harmless fun to dress chimpanzees up in human styled costumes and make them cavort around doing human type motions.
I enjoyed this raccoons mannerisms, and I enjoyed that his bib has a bowtie, and I feel weird about enjoying it, like somebody caught me smiling at a racist joke.
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This raccoon seems to be having a good time.
Every raccoon I’ve ever seen and dealt with is one I would label as a mooch. They steal tons from my garden, lay around on my porch when possible and knock over my trash.
This blonde guy is cute, but his relatives are pure pests.
No empathy from me.
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The vague sense of unease I have, is not exactly concern for the well-being of this particular varmint’.
(Unlike the chimpanzee videos, where it’s not obvious the kind of abuse used to shape their actions)
This video feels more akin to those adorable snapshots taken of small children holding bear cubs, just before mama bear shows up. The pictures themselves- slices of time isolated from any consequence- are beautiful bits of performance art… as long as you don’t imagine mama bear just off-stage, ready to do what bears traditionally do to humans who mess with their offspring.
No, a raccoon is not a bear. (Thats not the point) It is a wild animal, in this case being treated as if it were a domesticated pet.
And sure, there may be all kinds of off-stage disclaimers why this particular wild animal is being handled in a way that’s not abusive at all. Again, that’s not the point.
My point is that this clip is in a long tradition of Disney style documentaries that-taken in bulk- serve to assure the American public that it it looks adorable, then it’ s probably OK to cuddle.
Happy Mutants have begun to reject some of that not-so-harmless messaging. The flea-circus-with-flies video carried a telling disclaimer, implying that humane standards of filmmaking in 1910 may not resemble today’s.
Obviously, there’s no one-size-fits all standard for every wild animal out there. Catapults that fling squirrels make me laugh without concern, maybe because its such an obvious bad idea. This kind of clip, it’s not so obvious.
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Today I learned that raccoons have bad eyesight, which I learned from the internet after noticing that this raccoon kept feeling around in the bowl for the cherries, but never looked at them. I learned that the raccoon’s most important and specialized sense is their sense of touch. They even have whiskers on their front toes that help them sense things!
Also: a group of raccoons is called a nursery or a gaze.
Bonus:
What do you call a group of cherries?
Answer: In this case, eaten
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I’ve never seen a “blonde” raccoon before. Is it an albino?
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