82-Year-Old Connecticut Man Explains Why He Befriended A Family Of Raccoons Who Visit His Home Every Night: “It’s My Therapy”

Well, if this isn’t the most wholesome thing.

Gaining the trust of a wild animal is always a special experience. Granted, all it really takes is feeding them regularly, which is actually pretty detrimental for their health and long-term survival. Is makes them less fearful or people and predators, and also affects their ability to find food on their own. Basically… you shouldn’t do it.

But an 82-year-old Connecticut man, Dick Clark, has captured the nation’s attention with the heartwarming bond he shares with a family of raccoons. Dick Clark said that he’s always had a love for animals, but once his children got him security cameras, he found himself watching them to see what animals were lurking near his residence.

“So it’s become a hobby or sort of a pastime. I’ve always loved animals.”

Last spring, Clark was outside smoking a cigar, marking the start of a beautiful friendship. Clark first saw a raccoon outside of his home, and he was intrigued by how close and unafraid the raccoon was as it appeared to him on his porch. Probably because people are feeding it…

“This raccoon just came walking up to me, just strutted up, stood there, looked at me, didn’t run. I was mesmerized by her ability to get that close to me.”

He told Action News 5.

Soon after their initial meeting, the raccoon returned to his home after the hibernation season, and this time with five babies. Ever since then, each night the mother raccoon and her babies come to visit Dick Clark at his home. When the raccoon comes to see him, Clark sits on his porch with a gloved hand, feeding them marshmallows and grapes.

“I wear a glove on my right hand. I put the grapes and marshmallows in it, and she gently takes the things out. I don’t need to use the glove, but I’d rather be safe than sorry.”

Although the raccoons are very comfortable with Clark, he does not let them crawl all over him; instead, he only lets them sit in his lap. While he does not think that something would go awry, given they are wild animals, he does not want to assume they will be well-behaved all the time.

“After two or three weeks, then she got up in my lap, but I didn’t want her to get any closer than that because again, she’s still an animal.”

Clark shared that this friendship he’s formed with these trash pandas gives him purpose, and it’s something that he looks forward to each night.

“It’s like when you had a teenage kid, and they didn’t come home by 11, and you’re lying there and lying there like, ‘What happened? Did they go to a party?’ That’s how ridiculous it gets. I worry about the raccoon…

It’s my therapy, I think… The most important thing is it just keeps me occupied. I enjoy doing it. It’s as simple as that.”

In the words of Charles Wesley Godwin, “it’s the little things.”

Dick Clark might not be having raccoons covering him like the viral raccoon whisperer James Blackwood, but it sounds like Clint Black’s setup is not only safer but also allows for more one-on-one bonding.

The post 82-Year-Old Connecticut Man Explains Why He Befriended A Family Of Raccoons Who Visit His Home Every Night: “It’s My Therapy” first appeared on Whiskey Riff.