An animal rescued from the cold looks like a hairless cat, but is actually a different species

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Fur is so important to many animals because it provides much-needed protection against the cold. It also gives them their distinct look. There are animals that you may not recognize at all if they are completely bald.

Recently, rescuers captured a creature that looks like a hairless cat, but is actually something much rarer. Read on to learn more about this unique creature and her unlikely survival…

Last month, Hope for Wildlife, a nonprofit conservation organization in Nova Scotia, recorded the most unusual animal. According to the Canadian Press, a couple in West Arichat discovered the animal in their backyard, shivering from the cold.

At first glance, the creature looks like a Sphynx cat, but it’s not: it’s actually a completely hairless raccoon!

It’s hard to recognize a raccoon without its distinctive mask-like coat pattern, but this is a northern raccoon, completely bald due to severe alopecia.

The rescue says they have had cases of raccoon balding before, but never anything like this: “It’s just tufts of fur around the snout, ankles and feet. This is a serious case,” Hope Swinimer, director of Hope for Wildlife, told The Canadian Press.

Although the raccoon is female, she has been named Rufus after the naked mole rat character from the cartoon Kim Possible.

The rescue wrote on Facebook that they have not yet fully determined the cause of her hair loss, saying the cause could be an autoimmune disease that damaged her hair follicles. They also ruled out causes such as parasites, scabies and fungal infections, and said her skin appeared healthy.

Raccoons depend on their fur to keep themselves warm and protect their skin from the elements. The rescuers couldn’t believe Rufus had managed to survive so long.

“We are quite surprised that this little lady survived the winter without fur and without suffering from frostbite or worse!” they wrote on Facebook.

They added that she had a “spirited” personality and that “her successful survival was entirely her own fault.” Still, it appears she was rescued just in time, as she was reportedly “already outside upon arrival.”

“We were in a panic for a few hours… but she got hungry and came out. She is getting quite feisty and we have seen a big improvement since she first got here,” Swinimer told The Canadian Press.

Given the circumstances, Rufus could become a permanent resident of the shelter and will have a specialized habitat, an outdoor area with an area to crawl into to stay warm, as well as amenities such as hammocks and nesting boxes.

We’ve never seen a hairless raccoon! It’s incredible that Rufus was able to survive for so long in the wild, and we’re glad she was found and is now in good care.

Share this interesting story if you love animals!