If you are an animal lover—today's video might pull at yer heart-strings a bit.
: )
The clip shows a wild racoon—that is blind or with very impaired vision—that had been visiting the videographer's home to be fed as many as three times a day for at least five years.
Then two stray black kittens also started hanging out in the yard to be fed as well—and the three developed a unique bond.
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| Screen Capture From The Video |
The video shows the raccoon leaving the porch and the two kittens staying close to it's side as it goes across the yard and into the words.
(You can read the video's full description below along with an "update" on the kittens.)
It's very sweet and cool to see the little trio of kittens and an old blind raccoon making their way through the world.
Hope you enjoy this as much as I do.
Full Video Description:
"This is a Blind Raccoon. He is at least 5 years old and has been coming to our house for about 5 years.
There is something wrong with his tapetum lucidum. His eyes shine bright green during the day. He is at least partially blind. He walks into things. He is afraid of the wind, high grass, birds, and snow. He is out and about during the day.
He comes to our house for food early in the morning usually around 6-9AM. He often returns for seconds and sometimes comes back for thirds. His bottom lip is missing so we feed him soft pasta noodles soaked in cream of chicken soup. We often cut up small pieces of hot dogs, ham, pork, etc. He refuses to eat canned cat/dog food.
***(And NO, its NOT Rabies or distemper... he would have died and NOT lived for as long as he did. And Raccoons can be out during the daytime. Sometimes they are out in daytime, especially during baby season. So just because you see a Raccoon out during daytime does NOT mean it has rabies)
*** Recently (late October 2014) 2 black kittens have been hanging around our yard. And they became close with the Blind Raccoon. They would magically appear when he would come for food. So they figured out that Blind Raccoon = FOOD. So they would appear when the Blind Raccoon (and sometimes other raccoons) would show up.
And then THiS happened today.... (November 13, 2014)
Did you see PART ONE of this video? It isn't as cute but it's still amazing!
Here is the link. https://youtu.be/6wbNOwRNGxU
****** UPDATE ******
(July, 7, 2017) - Sorry for not updating! The Raccoon was around for at least 5 years before the kittens magically appeared in the woods. We don't think that he was totally blind, but his vision was VERY impaired in some way. We "think" that he may have been able to see shapes and things moving. And memory of where things were located. If something was out of place he would sometimes run into it. He would get scared easily. We never were able to figure out why his eyes were like that, even after doing a lot of research and asking our vet. But he was a miracle. And i am so glad that i had a camera with me and was able to capture this amazing one in a lifetime moment.
Sadly Blind Raccoon passed away sometime in June of 2015. (6 months after my mom and 15 yr old cat did). We don't know how he passed away but we hope that it was somewhere peaceful in the woods behind our house. We took care of him for more than 5 years. The average lifespan for a raccoon in the wild is only about 1-3 years. So a blind/handicapped Raccoon surviving at least 5 years is a pretty long time. He was a miracle.
I tamed the wild kittens (that was painful) and WAS going to send them to PAWS Chicago but after putting in all of that effort, loss of flesh and blood we kept them! and they now live inside with our HUGE other cat Squirt. They officially became ours on December 14, 2014 when we got them fixed and chipped. PAWS did it for free because it would guarantee that they would have a forever home. They estimated that they were about 6 months old.
Turned out that I needed the black kittens as much as they needed me. Taming them helped me slightly cope with the loss of my mom and my 15 year old cat within 9 days of each other. Before mom came down with the flu that ended up sending her to the ER via ambulance on Christmas Eve of 2014, she said that she wanted to keep the kittens. Sadly she did NOT get a chance to spend time with them. She held one of them once, but they were still not "tame" yet. Dad did NOT want to feed or deal with the cats. He didn't want any more animals. Mom made him capture them them because she "didn't want them to get cold" and even when he did not want to keep them she wanted to keep them. I wish she was able to have spent actual "hands on" time with them. It makes me sad, but she would have LOVED to watch them.
They are very different than any cats that we have ever had. They use A LOT of tail communication. It's so weird. And they play fight constantly. They are still a little skittish and when I am not home they often hide. You can find photos of the black kittens, my other kitty, nature stuff, and some old photos and videos of blind raccoon on my Instagram page:
Here are 2 videos of the Black Kittens now (7/9/2017)
Video One: https://youtu.be/asfgLTMBBrI
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Video Two: https://youtu.be/q4Q7czrQTqg
...And there are a bunch of other cute Non-Blind Raccoon videos on my youtube channel (if you weed though all of the concert videos) And I will try to TAG any YouTube and Instagram UPDATES with the Black Kitties and #Raccoons with the hashtags: #blindcoon #blindraccoon #friendsofblindcoon #friendsofblindraccoon #blindraccoonandfriends #blindcoonandfriends "
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