Comments on: Orange Raccoons, Dover Demons & Green Eyes

By: Amos T

Amos T — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 18:47:43 +0000

I live in Central Ohio. About 6-7 years ago, in a barn where I had my Horse stabled, we found a female coon and 2 kits. The female let us look at her and the babies without aggression. When I looked into her eyes I was amazed to see the most beautiful fluorescent lime green eyes! She was just the average raccoon color, but those eyes were amazing! Opossums and coons do not go with horses, so of course, she had to go. Mother animals always have backup dens, so we just disturbed her enough to get her to move out of the barn. To this day I wish I had found a way to keep her and the babies, but they belong in the wild. I have wondered ever since if this is very common, so was glad to find this site—finally. I have searched before and never came across it. Thank you for being here today!

By: steele79

steele79 — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 16:33:34 +0000

well i would have to say that a raccoon of this unusual color with or without mange in the right light would look like the dover demon and since the simplest answer is usually the right one looks like that is the dover demon

By: Micahn

Micahn — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 15:13:04 +0000

Bloomfield Indiana is my home town more or less. 98% of my family live in Green county Indiana around 15 miles or so outside Bloomfield.

I seen about this coon about a week ago I would say on a local news link.

By: kittenz

kittenz — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 15:09:45 +0000

LOL.

Speaking of raccoons in jail …

Several years ago, we had a raccoon brought in to the clinic to be boarded overnight and neutered. The cages are standard stainless steel cages with solid sides and a steel grate door, with gravity latches. On the night before his scheduled surgery, that coon opened his cage and got out. But he didn’t stop there. That little rascal was too clever by half. He unlocked all of the cages in the room, and every cage in the room held a dog. Most of the dogs got out of their cages, and they basically trashed the dog room trying to “tree” the coon. The poor coon got behind a three-tier wall of cages to hide, and when we came in to work the next day, the kennel attendants had to dismantle the entire bank of cages to rescue the coon. We were lucky that the little cuss didn’t figure out how to unlatch the window or he might have made a clean getaway.

Of course, he got neutered anyway

By: eireman

eireman — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 12:41:11 +0000

Allowing for a moment of levity…. So, if the “masked” black and gray/white/whatever raccoons are portrayed as “burglars,” are we now looking at a before-and-after scenario? Are these apprehended “burglars” now wearing their orange “jumpsuits.” I jest but, seriously, I have never seen such an animal and its rarity is plausible in explaining the Dover Demon sighting. Nice, correlation, Loren.

By: kittenz

kittenz — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 11:50:35 +0000

I used to have a client who had a true albino pet raccoon. It was snow white with pink eyes. Completely albino coons are very rare, but the types of raccoons with unusual coloration shown here are not too uncommon. They’re incompletely albino. They’re similar to the “golden tabby” tigers, where recessive modifier genes cause the normally black areas in the fur are replaced by reddish or brownish coloration, and/or also cause the extent of the black areas to be reduced. In some areas these albino-series raccoons are fairly common in the wild, and they also occur routinely on fur farms.

One of my friends, who had a pet store, used to buy “blond” raccoons from a breeder somewhere in the midwest. There is a wide range of colors available, from pale “blond” (which is usually called “albino” in the pet trade) to a chestnut color.

I’ve rescued several raccoons, in cases where one has been injured, for instance, or where young ones have been found and brought in by hunters. I’ve kept a few of those rescued raccoons as pets over the years. They are engaging little rascals, especially when they are young. I don’t recommend them for most people, because they can be aggressive as they mature. But for someone who is willing to make a liletime committment to the animal and respect it for what it is, having a pet raccoon can be a rewarding experience.