DENNIS THE RACCOON STILL THRIVING
Family moved to country to get away from urban uproar over choice of pet
All Wendy Hook wanted to do was take her pet for a walk.
Instead, she ended up at the centre of a “media circus” and was accused of endangering the public. She chose to leave the city of Saskatoon to protect her beloved pet, whom she feared could be seized by city officials.
That was in the fall of 2014. Hook and her family had recently moved to Saskatoon with Dennis, an orphaned raccoon they had rescued the previous year and raised as a pet.
Hook went to city hall to obtain an exotic pet licence for Dennis, but was told raccoons can’t be kept as pets within city limits.
After she spoke with the Saskatoon StarPhoenix, her story was shared around the world. People from Canada, the United States, Europe and Asia contacted Hook and offered to help her lobby city council to keep Dennis.
Most of the messages offered words of support, but not all the attention was positive, she recalled.
“It was a crazy ride, having the media fawn all over Dennis,” Hook said, three years later. “The kooks out there make the spotlight a jaw-clenching place.”
Hook never appeared before city council, at the time stating she wanted to avoid a “big political hubbub.”
Instead, the family and Dennis moved outside the city limits. Hook is reluctant to say where she lives now because of the experience she had when Dennis’s story went public.
“I was made to feel careless and neglectful, that I had endangered public safety by giving a raccoon a home. I had to stand back and listen to so-called professionals touting exaggerated facts on things like rabies and roundworm, trying their best, in my opinion, to garner public fear,” she said.
“Why is a question I could never figure out. We were not trying to do anything more than taking our pet for a walk like any other.
“We were not trying to promote raccoons as pets, which I vehemently discourage.
“We were not trying to make waves. We just were attempting to be decent, law-abiding citizens.”
Hook is happy to report that Dennis is thriving in her — yes, her — new home.
Not long after fleeing the city, Hook took the raccoon to be neutered and discovered her family had initially been mistaken about Dennis’s gender.
“Life is full of surprises,” Hook said.
Dennis, who weighs about 14 kilograms, still sleeps in Hook’s bed and has full run of her house.
Hook even got Dennis a kitten for company; the two of them “are so incredibly cute together,” she said.
“She is still one of the best things to happen to me, still my affectionate fur buddy.”
It was a crazy ride, having the media fawn all over Dennis. The kooks out there make the spotlight a jaw-clenching place.