A Georgia raccoon in search of snacks was caught trespassing — and now he’s going viral. But not for his bandit-like behaviour — instead, for how cute he looked once authorities intervened.
“You never know what the day is going to hold when you show up for your shift as a firefighter. Sure, there may be the occasional cat needing to be rescued from a tree, but a raccoon? That’s a new one,” the Dalton City Fire Department posted to Facebook, attaching an adorable photo of the raccoon in question. The raccoon can be seen covering its face from the camera, as if ashamed to have been caught.
“We were called out to help this guy find his way back out of a house in Dalton Monday night,” the fire department continued. “As you can tell, he was pretty embarrassed about it, but it’s really nothing to be ashamed of. We all need a helping hand every now and then.”
The post has garnered hundreds of comments noting how cute the raccoon looks, though some questioned the authenticity of the critter’s position. The fire department put those rumours to rest, however. “We have no interest in staged photos, or attracting attention for popularity reasons,” they said. “The picture was actually taken by the homeowner from inside the house when the animal was removed. The firefighter is holding the animal in a way that will neither hurt the raccoon or allow the raccoon to turn on the firefighter.”
While the raccoon likely chose to cover its face of its own volition, animal experts believe that the raccoon was likely more frightened than “embarrassed.” Per HuffPost, “raccoons tend to cover their eyes when they’re afraid,” Tennessee Wildlife Rescue – called For Fox Sake – said.
Fortunately, it doesn’t seem the embarrassing — and/or scary — ordeal didn’t last too long. The fire department noted that after they “helped our new friend out of the jam,” they “were able to take him to safely release him back into the wild where he’ll hopefully be less adventurous in his search for snacks from now on.”
Go forth and prosper, dear raccoon.