Raccoon scales office tower in Minnesota, Internet cheers it on

This raccoon has seriously stressed out the Internet

UPDATE: The raccoon was safely trapped and released early Wednesday. Wildlife Management Services officials in St. Paul, Minn. said the animal is in good condition and eating. 

They are expecting to release the raccoon into the wild sometime on Wednesday, but a site has not yet been determined.


If you haven't been following #MPRraccoon on Twitter, start watching immediately.

A raccoon started climbing a St. Paul, Minn. office tower Tuesday morning and by Tuesday at 8:45 p.m. it was stranded on the 25th floor and being watched by thousands of Americans online.

It all started out innocently enough. 

But then, just like any great Internet phenomena, it spiraled out of control. 

The saga began with the office workers inside the tower. The building just so happens to house MPR News, who promptly put it on social media. 

Then people started to get nervous. When was the last time it ate? Was it dehydrated? Did it need a nap?

At this point, the raccoon was too high up to turn back. 

Around 4 p.m., it decided to take a break. 

And that's when the livestream started. 


This brings us to about 8 p.m. on a Tuesday, when people have started to lose their minds. 

Why are we watching this, you ask?

Maybe it's because the raccoon gives us something to cheer for, or maybe it's helping us all ignore the latest news coming out of the White House. It could just be the ray of hope we needed to help the week go by faster. 

We all need to see triumphs of the spirit every now and again.

Either way, we can't look away now.

We'll be updating this post because we're invested now and have to know what happens.