A Canadian man spends every night feeding hot dogs to the raccoons in his Nova Scotia neighborhood to honor the wishes of his late wife. James Blackwood, who refers to himself as “The Raccoon Whisperer,” has been looking after the creatures for the last 25 years and he has no plans of stopping soon.
- It’s not always easy for raccoons to find food. In a YouTube video James posted that has nearly eight million views, James can be seen handing out food to what looks like dozens of raccoons, who are all too happy to gobble up his offerings. “It was snowing with freezing temperatures and the raccoons were super hungry and knew they had to stock up for the long winter,” reads the description of the video. Video captures James going outside on his back porch and hand-feeding a crowd of wild raccoons from his hot dog bucket,” he says in the clip.
- The raccoons get so much yummy stuff. In addition to hot dogs, James regularly brings the animals buckets of chocolate cookies and even dog food. They’re happy to eat whatever he wants to throw their way. I’m not exactly sure if that’s the ideal diet for raccoons, but they seem to enjoy it!
- Caring for the raccoons was originally his wife’s project. As James explains in the video, his wife passed away from cancer in 2003 and when she passed away, she begged him to “take care of her raccoons and cats and her mother.” He’s honored that wish ever since. “I honored her wishes and took care of the cats and her mother for the next ten years. I have two rescue cats that live here Connor and Charlotte but they stay indoors. Special Note: thank you for the kind offers of money and Gifts but I cannot accept I would rather you donate to your local SPCA or Animal Welfare locations in your area,” he explained.
- Needless to say, he’s doing good work out there. Not only do the raccoons love it, but I’m sure his wife is looking down and smiling as well.
