It’s too soon for any wild tales from the new RV park, but not from the new job…

I arrive at the new job this morning, where I’m doing marketing, editing, and office administration for an oilfield services company at which I’ve worked only a couple weeks, and see this notice posted on the door:

It might as well say, “Rabies inside your new office.”

It says: ATTENTION: Do not let Rozko (“Roscoe”) out of office. He must be quarantined for 10 DAYS! If he shows signs or dies, I have rabies. Open door carefully in case he is loose! (signed by the boss)

It might as well say, “Rabies inside your new office, but don’t worry about it – you can keep working.”

I thought to myself, “The guys are joking with me, this can’t be serious.” Then I noticed the office dog, a sweet black lab (“Sadie”) is also outside of the office with me. She’s rarely outside alone.

Who or what is Rozko (“Roscoe”)?

I could tell you Roscoe is the HUGE green katydid, about five inches in length (including legs), with a body about the size of my thumb that was just brought in to the office a few days ago. Or I could tell you Roscoe is one of the MANY spiders brought in to the office because my coworkers are fascinated by them. (Some of which become pets of one of my coworkers, a true arachnophile.)

But Roscoe is an adorable young raccoon, maybe four or five months old. A friend of my boss trapped it under her house after having been kept awake at night for several weeks. This was the fourth one she’s caught. The boss heard about it, and decided he wanted to try keeping it as a pet.

The raccoon being delivered.

And that’s how Roscoe came to live in the office two days ago. (As a former wildlife rescuer I do not condone this. I feel bad for the sweet little furball and hope it is released into the wild before it bonds with humans.)

From that morning on, several attempts were made to socialize Roscoe. These generally ended with the raccoon snapping at someone, most often the boss. He has since let a couple people pet him (and he seems to like it), and he is eating.

According to my coworkers, last night they were petting Roscoe when the boss reached in to the cage and grabbed him by the scruff of his neck. He did it kind of fast and Roscoe got spooked and bit him. Hence, the note on the office door.

And that is how I came to be in an office with a huge green katydid, a steady stream of spiders, a freaked out dog, and a quarantined raccoon.

A quarantined raccoon that is currently loose in the office because it already learned how to work the cage.

So far I’ve cleaned animal poop three times, and only once might it have belonged to the raccoon. Other than that, the job is going well: It’s rarely dull and my coworkers are fun, obviously.