A group of boaters in Maryland enjoying the Fourth of July helped a young raccoon that was pleading for help very loudly.

A smart crew member thought tossing down a life jacket would help the animal hold on while it was being rescued. They began to pull the raccoon back to land while it was still hanging on to the life jacket, and then they put him on a zodiac to take him back to land.

“During the early morning hours of July 4, 2016, one of our crew aboard our boat heard a yelping sound and at first it seemed like birds overhead,” Peter, one of the boaters, writes about the event on YouTube.

Many hours after we first heard the call, a little raccoon was crossing the water on the side of the boat. We threw it a life jacket to help it get on because we didn’t want to pull it out of the water, and then we brought it to land.

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