Viewers Lose Their Minds When Raccoon Makes Surprising Appearance as Woman Films Tour of Chicken Coop (Exclusive)
The chicken coop was impressive but the guest who stopped by also caught viewers' attention
Amanda Kaye Mitchell/Tiktok
Chicken coop with chickens (L), Raccoon strolling out of chicken coop (R)Amanda Kaye Mitchell's husband built her a chicken coop to match their recently completed new home.
Mitchell's tour of her new chicken coop caught the attention of many on TikTok, who were fans not only of the impressive design but the coop's residents as well.
"We just finished building our home last summer," Amanda tells PEOPLE. "After moving five times in our six years of marriage, we finally got to build our forever home with over 100 acres of land!"
Chickens were an early addition since Mitchell had "always wanted to have them."
"This was our first go-round with chickens. I didn't know how many chickens I would be able to raise, so I started small with six. My husband bought me a coop from Tractor Supply the same day we got the chicks, and he put it together for me with a friend."
Mitchell was worried the chickens would need something bigger once they grew and began researching. Her husband offered to pitch in to build the "perfect coop" and said it could even match their house.
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"My husband’s dad was in construction all his life and built many houses and buildings so he taught my husband things as he grew up. His dad's best friend was one of the friends who helped the coop come about."
Setting out with a vision for something "cute but practical," Mitchell's husband had the help of two friends with bringing the design to life.
"The coop is cool because we were able to use primarily leftover building materials," she says, noting that the siding was from their home and the roof from their barn. Together with other odds and ends from their business and some help from Facebook marketplace, the coop was well underway.
The project took just two weeks to finish, around which time Mitchell's husband encountered a baby raccoon who had been separated from its mom.
"He brought her home for us to take care of," she explains. "She was tiny. I bottle-fed her until she was big enough to eat food on her own."
Their newly acquired raccoon quickly took a liking to the chicken coop, too.
"As she got bigger, I would take her outside with me, and she would follow me around. I started letting her follow me to the chicken coop just because I knew that raccoons are known to kill chickens, so I wanted her to be familiar with them because I knew she would be hanging out close to our house," she explains.
"Eventually, she started venturing up to the coop without me to eat the leftover scraps they didn’t eat. Sometimes, she goes into their coop to get out of the rain. She has never taken their eggs or been rough with them, so I trust her completely with them now."
The raccoon makes a special appearance, genuinely surprising and delighting commenters who watched Mitchell's tour of the finished coop, which her husband charmingly nicknamed "Clux Deluxe."
"I wasn't expecting so many people to love it!" she says of the video. "I was excited about their amazing job with the coop, so I'm happy everyone enjoyed it as much as I do."
The Mitchells were also amused to see the raccoon get so much love for her brief appearance.
"It was so funny because I didn’t mention her coming out of the coop since I’m so used to her being around. I have shared about having her and raising her on my page a lot, but because of all of the new people on my page, they didn’t know that she was a friendly raccoon!" she shares.
"It’s not every day you see a raccoon getting along with chickens, but I’m happy that we get to witness that it can happen!
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