For 27-year-old dog-trainer Indigo Will, a surly bunch of raccoons and a boxer dog named Julie set him down a path that has shaped his life.

He was ten years old, living with his mother, brother, and sister in Norfolk, Virginia, when his mom got a dog for the family. It was Indigo Will’s job to pick up after the new pet, and he did, sort of.

One of his chores was to pick up behind his dog, bag the dog-doo, and dispose it in the trash bin. But he had to deal with aggressive, garbage-loving urban raccoons who kept an eye out for rotting fruit or anything else edible in the dumpster. So Will tossed the poop bags in the dumpster from a distance, and he missed a lot.