Minnesota raccoon rescue

Toronto sends thoughts and prayers to raccoon in Minnesota

A small, furry daredevil has captured the hearts of people all over the world this morning after scaling a prominent high-rise building in St. Paul, Minnesota.

The newly-minted social media superstar — a common raccoon — began his literal rise to fame on Tuesday, after two Minnesota Public Radio journalists spotted him nestled in a wall nook just a few storeys above the ground.

"This poor raccoon apparently got itself stranded on a ledge of the Town Square office building in downtown St. Paul, likely on an errant mission to raid pigeon nests on the skyway over 7th Street," wrote news reporter Tim Nelson on Twitter. "It's been there for two days now, without food or water."

A maintenance crew attempted to rescue the animal on Tuesday afternoon as news of his peril started spreading. Unfortunately, their presence only managed to scare the raccoon upwards. Wayyyy upwards.

By Tuesday night, the raccoon had managed to climb halfway up a 25-storey office building in downtown St. Paul, Spider-Man style.

We know this because every step of his journey was live-tweeted by local animal lovers, journalists, and people inside the building (which has no balconies or windows that open.)

The hashtag #MPRraccoon (MPR being Minnesota Public Radio) has been trending worldwide since late Tuesday, with millions watching the critter's death-defying journey online.

To say that these viewers were worried would be an understatement.

For every step (and nap) the raccoon has taken, hundreds of people have shared messages of hope and advice for his safe rescue on Twitter. 

Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn even went so far as to offer a $1,000 charity donation to "anyone who saves this raccoon. I can't handle this. Poor dude."

The people of Toronto, in particular, have taken great interest in this story, being that we are all raccoon experts by birthright.

If any city is best equipped to deal with this sort of problem, it's Raccoon City. You know Resident Evil was filmed here, right?

Animal lovers in The 6ix sent words of comfort to their Minnesotan counterparts (who, for the record, had gathered in droves at the base of the skyscraper to cheer on MPR Raccoon).

Many made mention of a similar incident that took place a few years back at the Toronto Star building.

The baby raccoon who had attempted to scale that building in 2016, nicknamed "scoop," was rescued after getting stuck and returned to the wild unharmed (though a lot more famous than he was before.)

Others are bringing up the story of #DeadRaccoonTO, which feels more like a "look at how much we love raccoons" brag than an "everything will be okay!" message, but whatever.

Fortunately for everyone involved, Minnesota's famous skyscraper raccoon successfully completed his quest on Wednesday morning.

Rescuers were finally able to lure it into a trap atop the 25-storey-high tower with cat food (lol), according to MPR, around 4 a.m.

Congratulations, Minnesota!

Toronto is proud to have helped you get through this terrifying ordeal by sending our thoughts, prayers, and many photos of dead raccoons.

Lead photo by

Paige Donnelly law


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