A Kentucky nurse pulled a booze-soaked raccoon back from the brink after finding it floating in a dumpster of fermented peaches outside a moonshine distillery.
Misty Combs and her colleagues at the Letcher County Health Department in Whitesburg spotted the animal with two others near the Kentucky Mist Distillery on Aug. 14, according to The Washington Post. Workers freed one raccoon with a shovel, but the second was unconscious and reeking of alcohol until Combs yanked it out by the tail. (RELATED: California’s Wild Creatures Are All On Drugs, Animal Control Tells Whitney Cummings: REPORT)
“Not on my watch,” Combs recalled thinking. “I’m going to try to do whatever I can do to save it.”
NEW: Kentucky nurse Misty Combs performs CPR on a drunk raccoon.
“Our health department is right beside Kentucky Mist Moonshine, a distillery…” Combs said, explaining how a raccoon was trying to get her two babies, who were stuck in a dumpster.
“I just started doing CPR on… pic.twitter.com/x4YcZAz8N5
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) September 8, 2025
The 43-year-old nurse laid the raccoon on its back in the parking lot and began chest compressions with her bare hands, yelling, “Come on, baby! Come on.”
After about two minutes, the animal started spitting up water and thrashing, the Post reported. Combs rolled it onto its side and patted its back until its breathing steadied. Staff wrapped the raccoon in a towel and dubbed it Otis Campbell, after the drunkard from “The Andy Griffith Show.”
Kentucky Mist Distillery owner Colin Fultz said he asked the city for a lidded dumpster to prevent more animals from getting trapped, according to the Post. The distillery makes peach-infused moonshine with fruit from southern Appalachia. After a veterinarian examined the raccoon, wildlife officials released it near its home under a bridge. Combs watched as Otis bolted into the grass.
“I couldn’t leave that baby in the dumpster knowing it was drowning,” she said.