Twitter Is Coming Together For This Adorable Raccoon Stuck Climbing A Building
If there's anything that the nation can agree on during these trying times, it's adorable fuzzy animals are fuzzy and adorable. On June 12, the animal of choice that Twitter went nuts over was a raccoon in Minnesota. What's so special about this particular raccoon? It's been scaling a fairly massive skyscraper, and Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) has been tracking its climb to see if this creature will make it back down safely. And these tweets about the MPR raccoon show that the world is still able to come together — if only for cute animals.
This is definitely one of the more bizarre news items that I've come across today. But as I've learned more about this raccoon and its journey, I have admittedly become incredibly invested in its mission to make it down from this building. An MPR reporter tweeted on June 12 that the creature has been scaling the UBS Tower building in downtown St. Paul, Minnesota for two days without any food or water. According to BuzzFeed, St. Paul Animal Control could not confirm the reporter's claim.
Even though the details as to how this raccoon got up on the building in the first place and how long it's been up there are unclear, its journey has Twitter exploding with excitement. Will the raccoon make it down (or up) safely? The world is waiting in anticipation, and this plethora of tweets about the MPR raccoon shows the ruckus that this creature has caused.
People are getting emotional, and I can't blame them. Will this little trash panda make it???
This raccoon and its whereabouts have drawn so much attention that a local news station decided to head to the scene of the commotion and livestream its journey. According to VICE, the CBS affiliate station WCCO-TV even set up a livestream to watch the little dude (it ended at 6:30 p.m. ET on June 12, so don't get your hopes up). Even though there are no current live updates available, I'm really hoping this little guy can pull through. Apparently so does the rest of the world, so maybe everyone's collective positive vibes can help this poor creature make it.
It's kind of bonkers just how much attention this little fella has caused in just a couple of hours. Aside from becoming one of the top ten trending hashtags in the United States as of the evening of June 12, a director with a special connection to raccoons said that he'll provide $1,000 to someone's charity of choice if they go to the UBS building and bring the raccoon to safety. James Gunn, the writer and director of the Guardians Of The Galaxy movies, said in a tweet,
I'll donate a thousand bucks to the non political charity of choice to anyone who saves this raccoon. I can't handle this. Poor dude.
BuzzFeed reports that St. Paul Animal Control is doing what they believe is the best course of action to get the raccoon to safety. Laurie Brickley, a spokesperson for the St. Paul Animal Control Department, told the website that it's probably too much of a risk to send someone to try to rescue the little guy, as if cornered it might get scared and fall. If the raccoon can make it to the top of the building it'll find a trap full of tempting food, set to lure it in so animal control can bring it back down to safety. Brickley told BuzzFeed that she hopes the raccoon will continue to move once it gets dark and there are less people around — since raccoons are nocturnal animals, according to PETA, it's something to give fans of the little trash panda hope.
With the media attention that the raccoon has caused already, it's clear that everyone just needs an underdog to root for in 2018 — and if it's cute and fuzzy, so much the better. Keep climbing, little dude. We're rooting for you!
