Young raccoon sets sights on Baptist church choir

POPLAR BLUFF, Mo. -- Seated in the choir in the main sanctuary, he was at the right place to try out at First Baptist Church. Plus he let out the entire range of vocals he was capable of making -- but it wasn't to be. This guy was, after all, a raccoon.

Heather Hendricks was taking her kindergarten class to the main sanctuary to practice for their graduation at 9:15 a.m. Wednesday and led the class through the side door to the choir.

"I opened the door. He was in the middle of the floor," Hendricks said. "The kids went 'ooh!' I put my arms out and backed the kids up behind me.

"Then he went behind the curtain. He was barking like a dog. That scared the kids. They didn't expect it to sound like that. Then he started hissing."

Church maintenance man Larry Keating, who arrived with the kindergarten class, called animal control.

When animal control officer Bill Locke arrived, the raccoon had penned his head against a wall behind the curtain to the baptistry. Locke first attempted to get a wire noose around the raccoon's head. When that wasn't successful, he used cat tongs to lift the raccoon into a cage.

Locke then showed the caged raccoon to the kids. "He's probably 4 months old," Locke said.

Zachary Moore, 5, thought the raccoon looked sad.

"He was scared to death. He was under the chair before Mrs. Heather opened the door," said Jacob Peterson, 5.

Locke said he would release the raccoon in the Mark Twain National Forest.

Hendricks said the kindergarten class graduates at 6 p.m. Tuesday in the church sanctuary.

Keating said he didn't know how the raccoon got in the church, but added there was a band practicing at the church last night and it might have come in then. He said they find raccoons in the dumpster frequently and that a raccoon got in a Sunday school classroom four or five years ago and tore up a curtain.

"There was no damage today," he said. "Just an upset raccoon."