Arkansas Couple Takes In Raccoon Rescued From Their Home's Walls
Leroy the raccoon is not your average pet.
— -- An Arkansas couple is raising a baby raccoon they said they found stuck inside a wall of their Fayetteville, Arkansas, home in March.
Brittany Cusanek, 29, and her fiancé, Jeremey Brown, 37, discovered the raccoon after a few weeks of hearing what they assumed was a raccoon and its babies in their home's attic.
“One day we heard a screech that woke both of us up," Cusanek, an art student, told ABC News. “We went through our day and then I was doing homework and I heard a sound in the wall near me that sounded like a baby.”
She tore a hole into the wall and rescued the baby raccoon, whom they have named Leroy Brown.
“I put him in a box and then didn’t really know what to do,” Cusanek said.
The couple researched online and learned they could bottle-feed cat formula to Leroy. They woke up every four hours to feed the raccoon, who now eats a healthy diet of mostly fruits and nuts.
“He’s a vegan,” Brown said, with a laugh.
The couple also consulted with a local veterinarian who they said warned them against feeding Leroy a high-fat diet because most domesticated raccoons die of obesity. Other than that, they are taking each day with Leroy as it comes.
“I’ve talked to some people who say raccoons get really aggressive as they get older but I’ve heard from someone else who says he’s had his pet raccoon for 10 years and is fine,” said Cusaneck, who documents Leroy's domesticated life on Instagram.
The approximately 5-pound raccooon stays mostly indoors, according to Cusanek. Leroy gets along fine with the couple’s older dog, Juno, and even acts like a puppy himself.
“Right now he’s very aggressive but playful like a puppy or kitten but his bite is much worse,” Cusanek said. “When we’re in home he kind of stays in the house but he’ll follow me out in the yard and may go exploring a little bit but doesn’t run off.”
Also similar to a puppy, Leroy is not taking easy to potty training, according to Cusanek.
“We’re attempting a litter box but that’s not working,” she said.
