95-year-old Toronto woman on morning walk withstands 'monster' raccoon attack
CBC
Not much can stop 95-year-old Merrijoy Kelner from getting outside for her morning walk — not even a savage raccoon attack.
On Jan. 31, Kelner contemplated staying in due to cold weather, but she's committed to getting in 7,000 steps a day. So she bundled up, grabbed her walking sticks and headed toward Taddle Creek Park in Toronto's Annex neighbourhood.
She was about halfway through the park when a raccoon ran up to her, attached itself to her left leg and began viciously biting her.
"I was stunned. I really didn't even know what kind of animal it was," Kelner told CBC Toronto this week while sitting on a bench in the park.
"I should have attacked it with my sticks but I was so stunned I didn't think of that and it kept on biting me."
A man came up from behind her and forcefully removed the animal from her leg, she said. By that time, a small crowd had gathered.
Nearby resident Sarah Potts saw the raccoon as she was walking to work. After noticing it didn't look well, she kept her eye on it when Kelner was passing.
"The raccoon approaches [Kelner] and I thought 'uh oh,'" she told CBC. "Then it gets up on its haunches and it bites her."
Potts said the raccoon then went completely feral, running onto the road and biting nearby cars.
"I felt so bad for him, I felt more bad for [Kelner]," Potts said.
Before Kelner was bitten, crossing guard Susan Mcilroy had already called the city to report the raccoon's strange behaviour.
Still, she was surprised when she saw a man kick it.
"I thought, 'Why would he do that?'" said Mcilroy. "Then I saw it came right back and that's when I knew [Kelner was] in trouble."
When animal services workers arrived, Mcilory said they captured the raccoon and took it away for testing.
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