A woman has seen her video go viral after capturing the adorable moment her son asked if he could adopt a wild raccoon as his pet.
The clip, which garnered more than 2.1 million likes and 15,000 comments, left viewers endeared by the boy’s excitement as he holds the animal in his arms.
It captures the heart-warming interaction between him and his mother as he struggles to hold on to the animal, which is half the size of his body.
Behind the camera, the video owner @babylynnxx, is audibly shocked as she realizes her son has brought the wild animal inside the family home.
Before the child shows his mum the wild animal, he is heard giving her a forewarning: “Mommy, I caught something but please do not be mad at me.”
But the mother, who is sitting with the dog, cat, and another child, can’t help but gasp in shock when she sees that the surprise walks around the corner.
With a grin on his face, the boy eagerly asks his mother if she will let him keep the animal as a pet, leaving her completely speechless.
“It kept following me,” he interjects as his mother continues to gasp in shock. Meanwhile, the animal is clambering over the boy’s shoulders.
“Why?” she asks rhetorically. “Take that thing outside!”
Reluctant to let go of the animal, the boy responds: “We can keep it, it doesn’t even bite.”
But despite her relentless orders, the boy continues to plead with his mother to let him keep the animal.
Though there are several arguments against adopting wild animals as pets, the main that it is unethical because the animals are not domesticated.
Reports of raccoons being adopted by families are frequent, as one case in Arkansas demonstrated earlier this year.
A family in the state made headlines after it took in a baby raccoon that became visibly stranded when a tornado tore through neighborhoods.
The raccoon, later named Rosie Mae, was one of three discovered during the clean-up that followed the aggressive storm.
“We estimated that she is about three or four weeks old,” the raccoon’s new owner explained. “We decided we were gonna name her Rosie, she loves people.”
The woman said she fed the animal “goat’s milk” before it became clear that it was rejecting the drink.
But after catching wind that a cat in the area had recently given birth, the rescuer tested whether the raccoon would take to the cat, which it did.
“Next thing you know, I get a phone call that not only am I recusing the raccoon, I’m now gonna have a momma cat and two babies,” explained the woman. “They have set up shop at my house. Now Rosie is six weeks old. She thinks the kittens are her brother and sister.”
