Okay, so boom. I (23M) live with my roommate, let’s call her Katie, who is the kind of person that would adopt a jellyfish if it looked sad enough.
Now Katie’s great—she pays rent on time, makes a mean banana bread, and owns more houseplants than any human should. Cool. But two months ago, something… changed.
Enter the raccoon. Yes. A raccoon. As in: the trash bandit, the dumpster panda, the animal that looks like a burglar and acts like one too. Katie found it in the alley behind our building—little guy was limping, possibly injured, definitely angry—and decided, “Yeah, I can fix him.”
So she starts feeding it. Every night. On our back porch. And suddenly this raccoon is showing up like it pays HOA fees. Worse? She named it. “Beans.”
Now, I didn’t say anything at first. Who hasn’t tried to adopt a feral animal in a moment of emotional crisis, right? But then Beans starts bringing friends. And these are not cute Disney sidekicks—these are the kind of raccoons that look like they’ve seen some stuff and would mug you for a granola bar.
I finally told Katie, “Hey, maybe don’t keep feeding the nocturnal gremlins with rabies potential?” And she got mad. Said I was “interrupting her healing process,” and that Beans is helping her through her breakup.
Look, I get it. Breakups suck. But this raccoon has claws, Katie. And now I’m the bad guy for suggesting we maybe not turn our porch into the set of a low-budget nature documentary.
So Reddit, AITA for telling my roommate to stop emotionally supporting a raccoon?
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Okay, so boom. I (23M) live with my roommate, let’s call her Katie, who is the kind of person that would adopt a jellyfish if it looked sad enough.
Now Katie’s great—she pays rent on time, makes a mean banana bread, and owns more houseplants than any human should. Cool. But two months ago, something… changed.
Enter the raccoon. Yes. A raccoon. As in: the trash bandit, the dumpster panda, the animal that looks like a burglar and acts like one too. Katie found it in the alley behind our building—little guy was limping, possibly injured, definitely angry—and decided, “Yeah, I can fix him.”
So she starts feeding it. Every night. On our back porch. And suddenly this raccoon is showing up like it pays HOA fees. Worse? She named it. “Beans.”
Now, I didn’t say anything at first. Who hasn’t tried to adopt a feral animal in a moment of emotional crisis, right? But then Beans starts bringing friends. And these are not cute Disney sidekicks—these are the kind of raccoons that look like they’ve seen some stuff and would mug you for a granola bar.
I finally told Katie, “Hey, maybe don’t keep feeding the nocturnal gremlins with rabies potential?” And she got mad. Said I was “interrupting her healing process,” and that Beans is helping her through her breakup.
Look, I get it. Breakups suck. But this raccoon has claws, Katie. And now I’m the bad guy for suggesting we maybe not turn our porch into the set of a low-budget nature documentary.
So Reddit, AITA for telling my roommate to stop emotionally supporting a raccoon?
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OP has offered the following explanation for why they think they might be the asshole:
> Oh, my bad! I see where I went wrong. The action I took was telling my roommate, Katie, that she should stop feeding and emotionally supporting the raccoon (Beans) that’s been hanging around our porch. I did it because I was worried about the safety of our home and, honestly, the mental state of the raccoon, it’s not exactly therapeutic for it to be hanging out in our backyard every night. The thing is, I can see how my comment might’ve been too harsh, especially since she’s using this whole situation as a way to cope with a breakup. I might have overstepped by trying to dictate what she can or can’t do with her emotional process. So yeah, maybe I shouldn’t have been so blunt.
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Contest mode is 1.5 hours long on this post.
NTA but Beans would be my new bestie too. I actually raised baby raccoons growing up so absolutely love them. I see them as pet friends not trash pandas. So when I saw babies coming down from a tree in our yard I cut up apples to feed them and filmed it and sent it to my husband at work. I got an ALL CAPS reply filled with expletives back. Moral of the story is we are not all built to be a Disney princess
Bwhahahaha ahhhh I love your analogies.
Tbh Katie is probably not going to learn about the realities of wild animals until she’s given a knockdown drag-out ass kicking by a pack of feral hamburglars. Just remind her to get her rabies shots and have ambulance cover….
Is Beans Little King Trashmouths new gay husband? Edit to add what happened to Gary?
A buck raccoon is nothing to be trifled with. My old co-worker had a pet buck in a cage. The German shepherd next door was bonkers to get at it. They came home one day and the dog had busted trough the fence and the cage. They found the dog drowned in the pool.
When raccoons try to get on our back porch, Mama just chase them off with a broom.
NTA. But it sounds like it is the human who has a support raccoon rather than what your title suggests which is a raccoon with a support human. He just has a food ATM..
Feeding wildlife rarely ends well for the wildlife. What happens when you move out? Will the animals used to being feed starve? Will they get “relocated” because they are seen as aggressive? Will your neighbours complain?
And more raccoons come calling, more likely people will complain and they get controlled.
Please call animal control or your fish and game warden! A concentration of wild animals can cause diseases to spread and can cause them to attack if they come across a person who doesn’t have anything to give them.
Plus, rabies is no joke.
NTA. This was the best funniest thing I’ve read all day. I remember wanting a pet raccoon as a kid, then they broke into my cooler during a camping trip and stole my bagels. Not cool! Beans and friends need to be evicted.
NTA
In one of the people that would feed them. Never let me come to the US.
There is a lot of short term and long term damage feeding wild animals do.
Yes it may be cute for them to come running to you but rabies isn’t.
Katie might end up getting herself very hurt. 🤦🏽♀️
Show her the videos of that old guy who’s been feeding the raccoons for several years. There are like 50 of them trying to get in the house if he’s late with the hotdogs.
Don’t ask about my opossum though