The word "raccoon" comes from the Powhatan term "aroughcun," meaning "animal that scratches with its hands." Known for their dexterous paws and mischievous reputation, raccoons are often seen as tricksters. But this one-month-old baby raccoon wasn’t causing any trouble the day she fell from a treetop being cut down by woodcutters.
This was way back in 2014. The furry baby fell down into the backyard of Rosie Kemp. Kemp and her daughter Laura Young took the baby in their loving embrace and hoped to see her mother coming to take her away. But when hours went by and the raccoon’s mom didn’t show up, they figured out that she was an orphan.
They initially contacted the Bahamas Humane Society, but when the organization was unable to take in the injured raccoon, Laura and her husband William decided to adopt her. "They were unable to take in an orphaned raccoon," Young told CBS News. "So, with the guidance of friends who have had experience with raccoons, we cared for her."
It took nearly a month for the baby raccoon to heal her injured leg, after which the Young’s family named her “Pumpkin.” Over time, Pumpkin formed a close bond with the two pet dogs of Young, Toffee and Oreo. Young created an Instagram page by the name of “Pumpkin The Raccoon,” and the page currently has reached a whopping 1.1 million followers. With this page, Pumpkin emerged as a superstar public figure and social media celebrity. On this page, Young usually posts endearing pictures of Pumps living a pampered life in their Bahamian cottage. The pictures were so captivating to the audience that Pumpkin was once featured on the cover of Garden & Gun magazine. These bonny photographs of the toddler raccoon included Pumpkin and Oreo taking naps together, playing in the backyard, relaxing on the couch and more likewise.
From dipping into turquoise swimming pools to climbing on the kitchen countertop to grasp a cup of coffee, from nibbling pancakes with maple syrup to cuddling in cozy blanket covers, from smelling pepperoni off a cold pizza to munching biscotti biscuits and enjoying avocado, people enjoyed seeing the entertaining and playful gestures of the black-white-grey nocturnal animal. "She is so wonderful and highly intelligent and always very entertaining," Young described to CBS News. "She is a cheeky little thing, but we love her dearly."
Fast forward to a year, in a sad note posted on July 7, 2021, Young wrote that her young pet was suffering from an illness and she had to say goodbye to her. “One day in October, when Pumpkin came in and plopped her large bottom on the sofa with me I thought perhaps one of the huge military helicopters flying over gave her a fright. After that hour she jumped down and went for a drink of water and I prepared her supper. That's when the vomiting started. She had never done that before. After an hour of observing her, I called her vet and she came over. We both agreed she had probably eaten something foul and it wasn’t agreeing with her. She gave her a shot to settle her stomach. However, something just wasn't right. She didn’t seem herself at all. She seemed tired and drained. She was refusing dinner, and every time she drank any water she would throw up.”
In the following posts, Young described that there was a giant mass in Pumpkin’s stomach. A surgery was carried out to remove this mass. However, unfortunately, the vet told her that the mass was too big and recommended that the raccoon needed to be let go. Young posted about this in part four of “Saying Goodbye” posts. In October 2019, Young declared that her beloved raccoon died at the age of five. “She really was more than just my pet. Those first few hours after we said goodbye to her were daggers to my heart, but now I am able to glance up at that empty cupboard space and smile and remember her fondly.”
Later on, Young penned a book titled "The Raccoon Who Thinks She Is A Dog,” describing her experiences with Pumpkin. As for the Instagram page “Pumpkin The Raccoon,” Young has decided to continue it in dedication to her beloved pet. Through this page, she regularly raises donations for charities and organizations like World Central Kitchen, Bahamas Humane Society and more.
This story originally appeared eight months ago.
Ladder leads out of darkness.Photo credit 
Woman's reflection in shadow.Photo credit 
Young woman frazzled.Photo credit 
Robin Williams performs for military men and women as part of a United Service Organization (USO) show on board Camp Phoenix in December 2007
Gif of Robin Williams via
Will your current friends still be with you after seven years?
Professor shares how many years a friendship must last before it'll become lifelong
Think of your best friend. How long have you known them? Growing up, children make friends and say they’ll be best friends forever. That’s where “BFF” came from, for crying out loud. But is the concept of the lifelong friend real? If so, how many years of friendship will have to bloom before a friendship goes the distance? Well, a Dutch study may have the answer to that last question.
Sociologist Gerald Mollenhorst and his team in the Netherlands did extensive research on friendships and made some interesting findings in his surveys and studies. Mollenhorst found that over half of your friendships will “shed” within seven years. However, the relationships that go past the seven-year mark tend to last. This led to the prevailing theory that most friendships lasting more than seven years would endure throughout a person’s lifetime.
In Mollenhorst’s findings, lifelong friendships seem to come down to one thing: reciprocal effort. The primary reason so many friendships form and fade within seven-year cycles has much to do with a person’s ages and life stages. A lot of people lose touch with elementary and high school friends because so many leave home to attend college. Work friends change when someone gets promoted or finds a better job in a different state. Some friends get married and have children, reducing one-on-one time together, and thus a friendship fades. It’s easy to lose friends, but naturally harder to keep them when you’re no longer in proximity.
Some people on Reddit even wonder if lifelong friendships are actually real or just a romanticized thought nowadays. However, older commenters showed that lifelong friendship is still possible:
“I met my friend on the first day of kindergarten. Maybe not the very first day, but within the first week. We were texting each other stupid memes just yesterday. This year we’ll both celebrate our 58th birthdays.”
“My oldest friend and I met when she was just 5 and I was 9. Next-door neighbors. We're now both over 60 and still talk weekly and visit at least twice a year.”
“I’m 55. I’ve just spent a weekend with friends I met 24 and 32 years ago respectively. I’m also still in touch with my penpal in the States. I was 15 when we started writing to each other.”
“My friends (3 of them) go back to my college days in my 20’s that I still talk to a minimum of once a week. I'm in my early 60s now.”
“We ebb and flow. Sometimes many years will pass as we go through different things and phases. Nobody gets buttsore if we aren’t in touch all the time. In our 50s we don’t try and argue or be petty like we did before. But I love them. I don’t need a weekly lunch to know that. I could make a call right now if I needed something. Same with them.”
Maintaining a friendship for life is never guaranteed, but there are ways, psychotherapists say, that can make a friendship last. It’s not easy, but for a friendship to last, both participants need to make room for patience and place greater weight on their similarities than on the differences that may develop over time. Along with that, it’s helpful to be tolerant of large distances and gaps of time between visits, too. It’s not easy, and it requires both people involved to be equally invested to keep the friendship alive and from becoming stagnant.
As tough as it sounds, it is still possible. You may be a fortunate person who can name several friends you’ve kept for over seven years or over seventy years. But if you’re not, every new friendship you make has the same chance and potential of being lifelong.