PET RACCOONS TOUCHY BUT `LIKE BIG CATS'

PATTON -- Raccoons aren't the pet for everyone, Nancy Johnson says.

She knows. She has two of them.

The raccoons -- Mr. Bojangles and Bandit -- occupy the basement of her log home on Highway 51 between Patton and Marble Hill.

Raccoons are shy around people they don't know and don't get chummy with children. "They don't like screaming and yelling," she says. "That's a no-no."

But for Johnson, who bottle-fed hers as babies, "they're like big cats. I can hold them and pet them."

But she acknowledges their ferocity. "I've heard they're the second meanest animal for their size next to a badger," she said.

One of hers, she said, "is a little temperamental."

The raccoons' reputation for curiosity also is earned, she says. "They're into everything and they're natural clowns. They play with each other so well and they don't fight."

Mr. Bojangles is a neutered male, and Bandit is a female. Both are from the same litter.

The raccoons have a pen and a swimming pool in the basement. She feeds them high protein cat food, but that isn't their favorite meal. "They love Kentucky Fried Chicken and their favorite is Reese's Pieces," she said.

Fried catfish is another favorite -- "all high-cholesterol food," Johnson said.

Johnson's raccoons, now 3 years old, were bought from a licensed breeder near Ste. Genevieve. It's illegal to turn a wild raccoon into a pet, though Johnson admits she owned a wild one at one time. It was an orphan a friend had found lying in the middle of the road.

"I got very attached to her and she died," Johnson said. "They could have taken her away from me any time they wanted to."

She raised the raccoon alongside a beagle puppy. "You never saw two better pals in your life," she said.

Johnson, who works for a natural gas pipeline company, also has four beagles and a rabbit.