Prince Rama Singer Braves Mid-Instagram Raccoon Attack
- @PrinceRama2012
- Life is a beautiful adventure.
With the sun setting on Central Park, the pond at 59th Street glistening in the near distance and Donna Summer beaming through her headphones, Taraka Larson strolled along, basking in the enchantment of everyday existence. Then a possibly rabid raccoon started gnawing on her leg while its masked, bushy-tailed pal sniffed her shoe because such is life!
Larson, frontwoman for left-field trance-dance sister duo Prince Rama—who was raised on a Hare Krishna commune, which somehow seems like it’s worth noting here—tells Gothamist about Tuesday’s events in whimsical detail: “I noticed these two little dance partners blocking my path [the raccoons]. And they didn’t really seem to notice me at first. They were in their own world and moving really strangely and having no center of gravity.” This seemed like the right time to snap an Instagram shot of her gravity-defying new friends, so that’s what she did.
At this point things got a little hairy: “Then one of them got on top of my shoes and got under the tongue of my shoe and then wrapped its claws around my leg and start to gnaw on my leg. Instinct took over and I just kicked it off and ran away. It felt weird. It threw me off-guard. It felt lost, deranged.”
She fled to the Plaza Hotel, as one does in stressful life events, where the concierge directed her to a nearby urgent care center before she was admitted to Roosevelt Hospital. “At the hospital they asked me all these weird questions, like ‘Are you sure it was a raccoon that bit you?'” Larson recalls to Gothamist. “I think I know a raccoon when I see one. ‘Are you sure it wasn’t a squirrel?’ Yeah, I’m sure it wasn’t a squirrel. ‘Could it have been a small dog?'”
Thankfully, Larson seems to have handled the situation like a pro, as illustrated by that life-affirming hospital shot up above. Yesterday, a post on the band’s Facebook page proclaimed the good word: “OFFICIALLY RELEASED FROM THE HOSPITAL after being attacked last night by two potentially rabid raccoons in central park. Total WTF night. So grateful to be alive!!”
Head to Gothamist for the full account, listen to this song by Prince Rama, and be happy you’re alive too.
Follow Lauren Beck on Twitter @heylaurenbeck.