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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Lifestyle
Gill Waters, as told to Ann Lee

The pet I’ll never forget: Mishka, the surly but beloved raccoon

Mishka the raccoon sitting on a cushion
‘If you crossed Mishka, she would let you know.’ Photograph: Gill Waters

Mishka was about eight weeks old when we got her. It was 2004, we were living in Dibden, New Forest, and I was looking to buy some guinea pigs. I saw an ad for a raccoon on the secondhand site Preloved. My husband, Graham, and I lived in Florida in the 90s and had a raccoon that would come into the yard. It had a bad leg, and we nurtured it, so I was very interested in raccoons.

I met someone who bred them after researching on Google, and we ended up with three, one after the other – we bought two, Nigel and Casey, and later, Mishka was given to us.

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