Saturday morning had just begun, and teacher Alex Peterson was ready to enjoy her weekend. After a long week at school, she looked forward to a couple of days filled with rest and her favorite hobbies.
What she didn’t expect was that her weekend would turn out to be slightly longer than planned. The first sign of trouble came in an email from her school’s assistant principal.
According to the message, a wild animal had fallen through a ceiling tile and was now loose inside the building. Living in Colorado, Alex was used to wildlife sightings and figured the situation would be resolved quickly.
But she was wrong.
A Very Unusual Visitor
Later that day, Alex received another update explaining that a raccoon had been spotted wandering through the school.
The message stated that it needed to be caught before Monday so classes could resume. Since it was only Saturday, she assumed everything would be taken care of in time.
“We needed to stay out of the building until it was caught,” Alex told The Dodo. “I definitely laughed when I got the email but really didn’t think much of it because we are located in Colorado right by the foothills, wildlife is an everyday thing.”
She continued with her weekend plans, expecting to return to her classroom after the short disruption. But on Sunday, a new email arrived that changed everything.
“On Sunday, we got a second email saying that raccoons are harder to catch than initially suspected, so the building was closed for the entire weekend,” Alex said.
By that evening, the situation still hadn’t been resolved. A third message arrived to confirm what no one expected: Monday classes were canceled because the raccoon was still inside the school.
Although raccoons may appear harmless, they can be unpredictable and carry the risk of spreading diseases such as rabies. For everyone’s safety, the building had to remain closed until the animal could be safely removed.
For Alex, the situation was both surprising and amusing. She had experienced snow days before, but never something like this.
“I was cracking up,” Alex said. “I texted everyone I thought would be amused by this news and told them that school was canceled tomorrow for a ‘Raccoon Day!’ I also instantly texted one of my coworkers to see if she wanted to go hiking because we had an unexpected day off, and then another coworker to see if she wanted to go have coffee.”
While the custodial staff worked on resolving the issue, Alex and her colleagues made the most of their surprise day off.
The Raccoon’s Capture
On Monday morning, the students were just as delighted as the teachers to hear about the unusual “raccoon holiday.”
But for one furry visitor, the day didn’t go quite as well. Around 9 a.m., Alex received yet another update with a photo attached.
“Monday morning we received the text around 9 a.m. that she had been caught, attached was a cute picture of her in the trap,” Alex said. “The classroom she was finally caught in had curriculum materials nibbled on.”
With the raccoon safely captured and released back into the wild, the unexpected incident finally came to an end.
The school reopened the next day, and the students had plenty to talk about. For once, a wild raccoon had managed to give an entire school district a much-needed laugh—and a bonus day off.
Sometimes, the most surprising visitors end up bringing a little joy to everyone’s routine.