‘Raccoon whisperer’ is mobbed by scores of his furry friends after feeding them hotdogs every night for last two decades
- Retired Canadian Mountie James Blackwood has been looking after large groups of wild raccoons for more than two decades at his rural home in Nova Scotia
- Viral video shows him being swarmed by them as he feeds them all raw hotdogs
- Mr Blackwood looks after them to fulfil wife’s last wish before she died of cancer
This is the unbelievable moment a self-proclaimed raccoon whisperer is swarmed by about 25 of his furry friends as he feeds them hotdogs in Canada.
James Blackwood has been posting videos of himself looking after the raccoons near his Canadian home since 2011 but his most recent video went viral as social media users were amazed at their antics.
In the video, Mr Blackwood, who is a retired Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer, can be seen sitting on a bench outside his home with a container full of hotdogs.
The group of raccoons – which is called a nursery – are always ready and waiting for supper every night outside his home in Nova Scotia, a Canadian province off the east coast.
In seconds, Mr Blackwood is surrounded by about 25 raccoons all hungry for some food and waiting to get their paws on the hotdogs being handed out by James.
Retired Canadian Mountie James Blackwood has been looking after these raccoons in Nova Scotia for over two decades after his wife made it her last wish before she died from cancer
The animals arrive every night and wait to be fed by the self-proclaimed Raccoon Whisperer
Amazingly, each raccoon seems to wait their turn to be handed a hotdog by Mr Blackwood who hands them out to his furry friends one by one until they are all busy eating.
But it doesn’t take long before they each come back for seconds and Mr Blackwood happily obliges handing out what he describes as 8lbs of hotdogs – or about 3kg.
Mr Blackwood, who has his own Youtube channel with more than 200,000 subscribers, informs his viewers that the raccoons are ‘super hungry’ because of the cold weather.
He added that the raccoons had to stock up to ensure they survived the long Canadian winter.
At the time of their feeding, the temperature was -6C which is about 21F.
On his channel, the raccoon whisperer says it started when his late wife brought home an injured raccoon after it was hit by a car in 1999.
In a video in 2014, he said: ‘This was my wife’s project and she died in 2003 of cancer and begged me on her death bed to take care of her raccoons and cats and her mother.’
Mr Blackwood feeds his hungry friends everything from hotdogs to peanut butter sandwiches and Ritz crackers and said on this occasion they were ‘super hungry’ due to cold temperatures
Mr Blackwood shows off his new raccoon hat to viewers which arrived in the post this month
Mr Blackwood says he has honoured his wife’s wishes ever since, posting more than 1,000 videos on his channel with many of them garnering more than 1million views each.
In the videos, he can be seen feeding the raccoons everything from hot dogs to peanut butter sandwiches and Ritz crackers.
Dinner time usually comes round at 11pm at night where they are always ready and waiting outside his back door.
The retired Mountie says the raccoons are rabies-free because of the climate but that they are treated for disease, ticks, fleas and worms.
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