In the months before a raccoon attempted to push its way through her kitchen ceiling, Irizarry says she’d seen others lurking around on the fire escape outside of her living room.

Raccoon dogs are native to East Asia but have been spotted in the UK (Picture: Mandy Marsh / SWNS / Getty)People have been warned not to approach a very rare ‘raccoon dog’ that is on the loose in Wales.

Mullins, 70, who lives in Leicestershire, had founded a Facebook group, Beastwatch UK, in 2001 as a place to document exotic animal sightings in the British countryside, so it was natural for news of this sort to trickle his way.

President Herbert Hoover had several dogs during his tenure at the White House, from 1929 to 1933, but few appeared to attract as much attention as Billy, a wild opossum the family adopted after he strayed onto the property, according to the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum.

As the pet of Caryn Williamson, 44, who lives in Hudson, Indiana, Rebel gets to spend his days travelling around in a boat, eating his daily egg for breakfast, and hanging out with his best friend, a golden retriever called Remington.