The Raccoon Story

On a cold Monday afternoon in February, 2007, I was alerted by a neighbor to the fact that a raccoon was approaching my property, where three of my dogs, in my fenced-in backyard, were barking at it. The yard is enclosed by a 6-foot chain link fence. By the time I went to see what was going on, the raccoon had climbed to the top of the fence and continued to attract the attention of my 5-year-old un-neutered male White German Shepherd Dog (GSD), Merlin, and two yearling white GSD females, one of which was his puppy. Merlin was definitely in a protective mode. Before I could approach closer to corral the dogs and bring them inside, Merlin had jumped against the fence and dislodged the raccoon, which then fell to the ground inside the fence and immediately began approaching the dogs. Merlin confronted the invading raccoon and, after a pitched battle, during which Merlin was bitten, he eventually killed it. Later testing by the Pennsylvania Game Commission verified that the raccoon had been rabid, which accounted for the raccoon's strange behavior. Usually, the Commission agent later told me, raccoons stick to treed areas, are smart enough not to start fights they can easily lose, and are rarely seen in the daytime. This could easily have been a story ending like "Old Yeller," but all the dogs were up to date on their rabies shots, so they are not likely to have been affected by the rabies virus. Still, because no system is perfect, we were told to keep an eye on Merlin to make sure he doesn't exhibit any rabies symptoms over an official quarantine period of 90 days. I decided to memorialize Merlin's heroism by calling by blog "Raccoon Junction."