ASB puza

[Koontz John E]

On Mon, 11 Aug 2003, David Costa wrote:
> Depends on what kind of French you're talking about. In ALL the old French
> documents I've looked at, the French name for the raccoon is 'chat sauvage'.
> Clearly it was the standard name for the animal. I think this term is now
> considered a 'Canadianism'.

The raton laveur form was supposedly metropolitan, though it has a learned
sound to it.  I'd be prepared to believe that popular terms might be
different.  There are apparently feral raccoons in Europe, though I don't
have the range map handy at the moment.  It's actually handy for the
raccoon to be a cat as well as a rat, in the context, of course!