Description
Lessons from “Little Girl” is author Bernie Schillo’s love letter to “Rascal,” a baby raccoon he and his wife Sharon adopted and raised together on their RV park in Garrison, Montana.
Heartfelt, deeply sincere, and teeming with as much life and beauty as the 165 acres of natural wonders upon which this true story is set, Lessons from “Little Girl” chronicles Rascal’s fascinating, sometimes hilarious antics and misadventures as she and Bernie come to know, respect, and truly care for one another.
The book is a colorful, emotionally moving portrait of the pair’s time together, and an eye-opening window into the complexity of these oft-misunderstood masked creatures, more commonly stereotyped as nuisances and pests due to their propensity for knocking over garbage cans than recognized for their captivating charisma, extraordinary intelligence, resourcefulness, and distinct personalities.
Orphaned when her mother is struck by a car, Rascal is discovered on the RV park by Bernie’s daughter and quickly becomes a beloved member of the Schillo household. The female raccoon kit bonds with the family’s cats and dogs, develops an unquenchable affinity for Oreos and Cheetos, and derives pure joy tossing floatable toys into Bernie’s hot baths, frolicking about the tub’s rim during their intimate nightly ritual—even handing Bernie his mesh scrubber as soon as he finished rinsing the shampoo from his hair!
Much of Rascal’s upbringing is trial and error for Bernie, who does his best to learn all he can about raising raccoons from others who’ve done so—primarily another author and a handful of friends (one of whom shares his raccoon’s ability to open a combination lock). He marvels at Rascal’s astonishing intellect, which is demonstrated over and over again throughout the book in a series of eye-opening scenes: substituting potato chips for spare change and placing them in a vending machine coin slot; bartering with knickknacks of increasing value for one of Sharon’s prized plants; retrieving a shiny rock from a riverbed a quarter mile away and presenting it as a gift to Bernie, among them.
The two become inseparable, and Bernie relishes every moment with his “Little Girl”—the nickname he and Sharon give her—all the while, knowing deep-down that the day will inevitably arrive when he must set her free and return her to the wild.
A pastor, Bernie interlaces “Lessons” from the Bible throughout the book, correlating selected passages with specific chapters and tales. Photographs he’s taken throughout their amazing journey together further bring these moments to life, capturing “Little Girl” during many of the scenes so vividly portrayed in print.
Bernie writes from his heart, and in the process, reveals as much about himself as his whiskered, enigmatic friend. Readers watch Rascal grow up, sure, but also catch a glimpse into the human spirit and its inherent, seemingly inexhaustibly boundless capacity to love.
Endearing, always entertaining, and at times surprisingly enlightening, Lessons from “Little Girl” melds one man’s memories raising a young raccoon with the timeless themes defining the very strands of human existence—death, life, nature, beauty, love, among these—creating a story that’s part diary, part memoir, part children’s book, all soul.
Readers will never view raccoons the same way again, that’s a promise.