What is it with raccoons and trying to learn German?

I resumed my university German class this term as they finally offered it in person again. I liked the previous instructor as a person for the most part, but as an instructor...let's just say that I learned more about his unusual personal life than I did about speaking German.

My new instructor has taught us a lot...at warp speeds. I'm adjusting and am taking notes as quickly as I can. I really like that she incorporates different activities and I won't lie: I love the activity where we answer German questions by writing on whiteboards and holding them up to see who's the fastest. It feels like a game show or something (man, I need to get a life ;)

Ms. Current instructor was asking about the previous instructor's class. I told her that he was obsessed with talking about fighting a raccoon in a tree while his friend shot at them both. I was just starting to say that I like Ms. Current's class better because we're more on-topic with German when she said that she could talk about raccoons too because her mom uses a stick with a Santa Claus head on the end of it to poke raccoons in her yard. 

WHAT THE HECK, PEOPLE?! 

Ms. Current's family doesn't even live in the south of the US, either; when I hear about these events, they usually seem to have a southern flair for some reason (well, except for that time when my friend in Michigan was swinging an opossum around her head, but that friend is a wild one).