Hairless raccoon causes stir in Claremore

[Friday The 13th]

A virtually hairless raccoon caught near the Dry Gulch USA camp has caused quite a stir for a Claremore animal rescue.
"This is the first time I’ve ever had a mange raccoon. The very first time I saw her she did look odd,” said Annette King Tucker, president at the Wild Heart Ranch in Claremore.

"She looks like a little demon. She’s freakish. But you look at the feet, and you look at the snout and eyes, and if you just focus on the skeletal structure, then it’s definitely, no question, a raccoon.”

Mange is common in dogs, but this is the first time workers have seen a raccoon with it, Tucker said. Mange is treatable and the raccoon isn’t in pain. Workers expect hair regrowth to start in 30 days and look normal in about four months.

The wildlife rescue and rehabilitation center north of Claremore was founded 14 years ago by Tucker and her partner, Sandy Brooks.

Jeremy Scheffel, a kitchen manager at Dry Gulch USA northeast of Pryor, first saw the raccoon this winter on the back porch of one of the buildings at the camp.

"I walked out down the back porch of one of the buildings, and I flipped on the light and I saw it fly off real quick,” said Scheffel, 20. "I kind of got a glance at it and I was like, ‘What was that?’”

Others at Dry Gulch, a Western-themed Christian camp, saw the creature. Sightings became more and more common and, when they caught it on Saturday, they struggled to identify it.

"It’s so weird, it looks like a big rat. It’s just freaky looking. Most people just say ‘no, that’s not a raccoon, it’s just a hairless possum or an armadillo without its shell,’ but you can tell from its hands and tail that it’s a raccoon,” Scheffel said.

Others weren’t so easily convinced. Some have angrily called the rescue and argued against Tucker’s identification.

"I have a lot of people calling me, arguing that it’s a chupacabra,” Tucker said. "We’ve been doing this for 14 years and have 15,000 wild animals here, and I’ve never had anything that’s been considered a mythical animal.”

Still, Tucker welcomes anyone who wants to come and see it themselves.

"If somebody were to come in here, a biologist with good credentials, and tell me that I was the only one to have a captive mythical creature in their care, I’m all about that. Because ... I need all the help I can get,” Tucker joked. "If anybody wants to view our chupacabra, we charge $100 for a private tour.”