Two kittens rescued by blind raccoon repay the favor by becoming his bodyguards
Back in 2009, an Illinois-based woman started caring for a blind raccoon that would frequent her backyard. Eryn’s yard is bordered by a thickly wooded area, and she noticed that the raccoon displayed some pretty odd behavior.
Not only would the raccoon come out during the day, but it would also constantly bump into things and be spooked by perfectly normal, natural sounds. Then, Eryn realized that the raccoon’s eyes would glow bright green during the day.
“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,” Eryn explains.
When she realized that her daily visitor was a blind raccoon, Eryn began leaving him little meals on her porch.
“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,” she continues.
Eryn also goes on to firmly state that the blind raccoon doesn’t have rabies or distemper. She points out that raccoons are frequently out during the day in early summer after giving birth to a litter of kits, and that if the raccoon did have rabies or distemper, it would have perished long ago.
The blind raccoon continued to feed on Eryn’s porch every day for 5 years. Then, one day he showed up with two unlikely companions.
In October of 2014, the blind raccoon came to Eryn’s porch for his morning meal with two small black kittens in tow.
Eryn had noticed the two kittens roaming the outskirts of her yard near the woods every morning. It wasn’t long before the two observant kittens decided to make friends with the raccoon that fed so well.
“ 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,” Eryn said.
While using the blind raccoon to find fresh food every morning doesn’t exactly scream friendship, what happened later sure does!
Within a few weeks of forming their new association, Eryn stepped out on her porch to see the most touching display of interspecies friendship.
The two tiny black kittens started guarding the blind raccoon!
They followed him up to the porch so he could eat, and when it was time for him to go back to the woods, one of them actually guides the raccoon back down the stairs.
Thankfully, Eryn happened to have her camera in her hand and recorded the blind raccoon and his two bodyguard kittens.
It’s so sweet to watch the kitten slowly walk down the porch steps right next to the raccoon. It even stops on the step to let the raccoon go first to make sure he gets down safely.
Once the chubby, sightless fella waddles his way down off the porch, the other kitten runs up next to him so he is flanked on both sides.
In the video, the blind raccoon meanders toward the edge of the woods and decides to go exploring a little. When he sees a den in the brush, the two cats wait patiently near him as he pokes around, making sure that there’s nothing around that would pose a threat. It’s so adorable, the two kittens are literally watching the blind raccoon’s back.
Eryn later posted the video to her YouTube channel where it quickly went viral. It now has close to 6 million views because it is one of the cutest displays of friendship on the planet.
Sadly, the blind raccoon passed away just a year after meeting his two buddies in 2015.
It was a hard loss for Eryn as much as the cats. Her raccoon friend’s parting came just after the passing of her mom and her beloved 15-year-old cat. Thankfully, she and the two kittens would find comfort in each other.
“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,” Eryn explains.
To see the adorable two kittens teaming up as bodyguards for their blind raccoon friend, watch the video below.
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