It seems that one easy way to distinguish between a real live Canadian (one of the wild ones) and a relative newcomer to the country is to look at how they react to raccoons: the newcomers tend to think that the raccoons are terribly cute and splendid, whilst the more established folk are more included to have a reaction that could be characterised as ‘yuk!’.

The main reason for the ‘yuk’ goes by the catchy name of Baylisascaris procyonis, or the raccoon roundworm; this can infect humans (it tends to be kids) who come into contact with raccoon faeces, whereupon they migrate to the brain and cause fairly serious damage.

Short version: don’t eat raccoon poo!

I still feel that raccoons are still rather splendid creatures though – I clearly haven’t been here long enough…!