Raccoon Now and Zen
- Kayleigh
- Jul 11, 2015
- 2 min read
Updated: Apr 24, 2022
The city of Toronto has a love/hate relationship with raccoons. They are routinely and often simultaneously revered and vilified. And why not, since we have the dubious honour of being the 'raccoon capitol'. They are sometimes so adorable and dexterous that we simply cannot resist anthropomorphising them. They always seem so friendly, too. Living in the High Park area, I see them often... in the yard, crossing the street, on my deck,...
They even seem to think my cats are their friends. They often turn up - at 5 am-ish - looking to play. Especially with Ivan who is big and grey and about 11 kilos (24 lbs). I think they think he's one of them.
Then, there's the ones who gain individual fame...
Like the one a few months ago who made the International news for climbing over 200 meters ona ladder, to get to a Torontonian and his lunch ,.
None, however, have been so well lauded as the one who died yesterday at Yonge and Church. We will never know his name but he will live in infamy. Who knows how he began his day. All we know is that by 9 am, he was no longer with us. A passer-by notified the city and was told he would be removed... at noon, he was still there, and Torontonians showed their humourous concern.
By 5 pm, more were inspired to laud this intrepid hero; he even had his own hashtag #DeadRaccoonTO. By 8 pm the condolence card (marker for signing provided) was filling up and the flowers were piling up. Someone kindly donated a smoke in his honour.
After dark, he was honoured with a candlelight vigil...
...and people left their green bins open...
Yes, we as a city have celebrated many an animal, and while he didn't reach the heights of infamy attained by the White Squirrel or the High Park Zoo Rogue Peacock, he made his 15 minutes last more like 15 hours... thanks to Animal Services, and a few thousand Torontonians with a cell phone, social media, and a sense of humour.
What's more Zen, than that? I LOVE my city.
Stay Zen, Lovelies
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UPDATE:
According to the BBC article below his name was Conrad.