coon dog

Yup, never saw a raccoon, other than in pictures. If you want to see a really cool wildlife cam, check out PixController. It's a live webcam set in the Pennsylvania woodlands, intended to catch a wide variety of wildlife as they do the wild thing - um, forage near an automated feeder! You'll see deer, foxes, various birds and, yes, raccoons. The raccoons are the most ubiquitous guests and you can see them anytime from dusk to dawn.

These raccoons are obviously well-fed, basically from chowing down all night. I don't think I've seen any in the past that were healthier. Their rotundity made me wonder what a "normal" raccoon looks like, so I google-imaged them. The first page of images has a wide variety of raccoon pics, none seemed to define a standard characteristic. Most certainly not the pic below, found near the top of the search (the original image was pixilated and censored to protect the innocent and the raccoon - well, he's wearing a mask):

Cute as they may seem with their little hands (which, to the dog's chagrin, makes gripping things that much easier) and mask, I heard they were nasty tempered beasts, especially when left with no alternatives (tough life in the wild). But I didn't think this nasty!

So what becomes of such a union? A real "coon dog?" A "cancoon"? A "racnid"? Did your dog get its "rabeagle" shot (immunization that deters perverse raccoon behavior)? I dunno, you tell me. Maybe I got it wrong - they could be wrasslin', but the raccoon needs to brush up on his Greco-Roman form.

Looks like we're headed for diaster of biblical proportions but Dr. Venkman got it a bit wrong: when dogs and raccoons start living together is when we really have to worry.