Okay, here’s one to share with your school age children. Forget about the proverbial excuse: “The dog ate my homework.” (I think teachers have caught on to that one-wink, wink.) Rather, let’s take our lead from a Florida teen who used a raccoon as an excuse for a late assignment.
According to local newspapers, Stephanie King told her music teacher that a raccoon was to blame for her missing homework. “I explained that the raccoon fell from the ceiling in my bathroom and it ran into my bedroom,” the 13-year-old seventh grader told the St. Petersburg Times. “Animal control came out to get it and they couldn’t catch it and they said we couldn’t go in my room.”
Sounds like a creative way to get out of a homework assignment—the only catch—it’s 100% true. King’s grandmother spoke with school officials and vouched for Stephanie: “I told them she can’t get her homework, her books, because everything is locked in the bedroom,” Natalie King said.
According to animal experts who responded to the raccoon call, until the female omnivore and its babies crashed to the Kings’ bathroom floor the family didn’t know the roof was leaking, much less that a family of raccoons was living in their ceiling. After the mommy masked furball fell to the floor it escaped into King’s bedroom (home to the infamous missing homework assignment). Animal service officers sealed off the room and set a trap for the raccoon. Less than 24 hours later—success. According to news reports, the critter made its way into the trap and was picked up by county animal control workers.
As for the missing homework assignment, King was able to complete it and turn it in. I would think that after hearing about the raccoon encounter King’s teacher would excuse the late work and think twice about raising an eyebrow. After all, there are those rare times when a story that seems too strange to be true actually is the real deal.