“One time, I was walking around on the phone and I saw a raccoon for the first time – I was like, ‘oh my God!’ Being from the Los Angeles area, I’ve never seen a raccoon, so I did what any rational person would do and took a picture of it. The raccoon didn’t like that and it started to chase me. It was only for a few seconds, but I was still terrified.”
Arie Nalbach, Freshman
“My friend and I were walking down the back road to Promontory at night. It was pitch black and we had no flashlight. Then, we heard a raccoon scream! We both jumped into each other’s arms and then we started screaming too. I told my friend that he should be protecting me from the raccoons, so he started clapping really loudly to try to get them to go away, but they didn’t budge.”
Alexa Perrez, Junior
“When I was little, my parents raised a bunch of baby chickens and they kept them in a small pen in the backyard. They knew there were raccoons in our area, but the raccoon problem became more serious after we woke up one morning and found that all of our chickens had been eaten by a raccoon! Now I see raccoons on campus whenever I walk around late at night, so I make sure to give them space because I don’t want them to give me rabies.”
Joe Bellantoni, Junior