WOODBURY, Conn. (WJAR) – A Connecticut man has formed an unbelievable bond with a raccoon and its family.<\/p>\n
The 82-year-old said the raccoon has been visiting him daily for over a year.<\/p>\n
At Dick Clark\u2019s Connecticut home, it is apparent everywhere that he enjoys the presence of animals.<\/p>\n
A while back, Clark\u2019s kids got him a security camera.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat it does is monitor this area, whether it\u2019s pets or people, whatever the action might be,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
What the cameras captured over the last year is something you have to see to believe.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo it\u2019s become a hobby or sort of a pastime. I\u2019ve always loved animals,\u201d Clark said.<\/p>\n
Last spring, Clark was smoking a cigar outside.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis raccoon just came walking up to me, just strutted up. Stood there, looked at me, didn\u2019t run, didn\u2019t do anything else, I was mesmerized by her ability to get that close to me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The next day, the critter came back and every day that followed.<\/p>\n
Clark quickly became something like a raccoon whisperer.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know if she felt comfortable with me, but then she came back with five babies after a month of bonding, let\u2019s say, with myself,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
From there, a bond was built.<\/p>\n
The raccoon came every day until it was time to hibernate, and then, sure enough, this spring, one of the babies remembered their favorite human.<\/p>\n
Nearly every night between 7 and 11, Clark patiently waits for the raccoon to arrive.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s like when you had a teenage kid and they didn\u2019t come home by 11 and you\u2019re lying there and lying there like, \u2018What happened? Did they go to a party?\u2019 That\u2019s how ridiculous it gets. I worry about the raccoon,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
When his phone lets off an alert, he makes his way outside, where the pair spend quality time together.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s my therapy, I think,\u201d Clark said.<\/p>\n
Though Clark understands that feeding wildlife is not advised, he does share with his raccoon friend.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wear a glove on my right hand. I put the grapes and marshmallows in it, and she gently takes the things out. I don\u2019t need to use the glove, but I\u2019d rather be safe than sorry,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Clark always washes his hands and is on the lookout for signs or symptoms of sickness.<\/p>\n
So far, his furry friend is always friendly.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter two or three weeks, then she got up in my lap, but I didn\u2019t want her to get any closer than that because again, she\u2019s still an animal,\u201d Clark said.<\/p>\n
While he has no problem deciphering the two, the once-in-a-lifetime relationship with the raccoon is something he values and enjoys. <\/p>\n
Clark said that being in his own natural habitat with his raccoon friend by his side is a great place to be.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe most important thing is it just keeps me occupied. I enjoy doing it. It\u2019s as simple as that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Clark said he is always on the lookout for a change in the raccoon\u2019s behavior.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2025 WJAR via CNN Newsource. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WOODBURY, Conn. (WJAR) – A Connecticut man has formed an unbelievable bond with a raccoon and its family.…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":116564,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[72938,72936,159,67,132,68,837,72937],"class_list":{"0":"post-116563","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-connecticut-raccoon","9":"tag-dick-clark-raccoon","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-united-states","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-us","14":"tag-wildlife","15":"tag-woodbury-raccoon"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114966968624102369","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116563"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116563\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}